by R. J. Parker
Lépine continued into the second floor corridor and wounded three students before entering another room where he twice attempted to shoot a female student. His weapon failed to fire so he entered the emergency staircase where he was seen reloading his gun. He returned to the room he had just left, but the students had locked the door. Lépine fired three shots into the door, but the door would not open. Moving along the corridor, he shot at others, wounding one, before moving towards the financial services office where he shot and killed a woman through the window of the door she had just locked.
He next went down to the first floor cafeteria, where about a hundred people were gathered. The crowd scattered after he shot a woman standing near the kitchen and wounded another student. Entering an unlocked storage area at the end of the cafeteria, Lépine shot and killed two more women hiding there. He told a male and a female student to come out from under a table; they complied and were not shot.
By this time, police had arrived and had assembled outside. Several went to cover the exits, lest the gunman slip away, but it took nearly twenty minutes before they decided to enter. They were not certain where he was and did not wish to endanger anyone. Calls went to a dispatcher for more ambulances, and those wounded students who could walk on their own went to meet them at the roadblocks.
Lépine then walked up an escalator to the third floor where he shot and wounded one female and two male students in the corridor. He entered another classroom and told the three students giving a presentation to "get out," shooting and wounding Maryse Leclair, who was standing on the low platform at the front of the classroom. He fired on students in the front row and then killed two women who were trying to escape the room; other students dove under their desks. Lépine fired towards some of the female students, wounding three of them and killing another.
He changed the magazine in his weapon and moved to the front of the class, shooting in all directions. At this point, the wounded Leclair asked for help. Maryse Leclair was down, but still alive. She pleaded for assistance, which attracted the gunman back to her. Those who survived this bloodbath recounted for newspapers what he did next. The strange young man sat down next to the wounded woman, quietly pulled a knife from the sheath strapped to his body, and used it to stab her in the heart. She screamed in surprise and pain. This violent act shocked those who were watching. The man had no mercy, but there was nothing anyone could do. He pulled the knife out and then plunged it in twice more until the girl laid silent, blood gushing from her wounds.
The gunman said, “Ah, shit.” He turned the rifle’s barrel toward his own face, pressed the muzzle against his forehead, and pulled the trigger. The rifle exploded, blowing off part of his skull and he fell to the floor. No one moved. The place smelled of hot metal, gunpowder, and fresh blood. Nevertheless, clearly it was over.
About sixty bullets remained in the boxes he carried with him. He had killed fourteen women in total (twelve engineering students, one nursing student, and one employee of the university) and injured fourteen other people, including four men.
As police came in, Montreal Police Director of Public Relations Pierre Leclair entered the building and went from one floor to another to assess the situation. Through a window in the third-floor corridor, he saw a young woman lying on a platform, on her back. He stopped. He could not believe what he was seeing. It was his daughter. Rushing to her, he realized that she was among those who had been killed; more horribly, she had been stabbed as well as shot.
It would take a while to piece together why Lepine had caused so much slaughter, but he had stated enough about his intent for students to tell reporters that his rampage had been anti-feminist. He had wanted to shoot only women.
A three-page letter was found in the pocket of his jacket. The letter was never officially made public, but was leaked in November of 1990 to Francine Pelletier, and published in the newspaper, La Presse. In his suicide letter, Lépine cited political motives, blaming feminists for ruining his life. He considered himself rational and expressed admiration for Denis Lortie, who had mounted an attack on the Quebec National Assembly in 1984 for political reasons, killing three Quebec government employees. The letter also contained a list of nineteen Quebec women whom Lépine apparently wished to kill because of their feminism. Another letter, written to a friend, promised the explanation to the massacre lay by following clues left in Lépine's apartment. The hunt led only to a suitcase of computer games and hardware.
The following is a translation of the suicide letter written by Lépine on the day of the shooting:
“Forgive the mistakes, I had 15 minutes to write this. Would you note that if I commit suicide today 89-12-06 it is not for economic reasons (for I have waited until I exhausted all my financial means, even refusing jobs) but for political reasons. Because I have decided to send the feminists, who have always ruined my life, to their Maker. For seven years life has brought me no joy and being totally blasé, I have decided to put an end to those viragos. I tried in my youth to enter the Forces as an officer cadet, which would have allowed me possibly to get into the arsenal and precede Lortie in a raid. They refused me because antisocial (sic). I therefore had to wait until this day to execute my plans. In between, I continued my studies in a haphazard way for they never really interested me, knowing in advance my fate. Which did not prevent me from obtaining very good marks despite my theory of not handing in work and the lack of studying before exams. Even if the Mad Killer epithet will be attributed to me by the media, I consider myself a rational erudite that only the arrival of the Grim Reaper has forced to take extreme acts. For why persevere to exist if it is only to please the government. Being rather backward-looking by nature (except for science), the feminists have always enraged me. They want to keep the advantages of women (e.g. cheaper insurance, extended maternity leave preceded by a preventative leave, etc.) while seizing for themselves those of men. Thus it is an obvious truth that if the Olympic Games removed the Men-Women distinction, there would be Women only in the graceful events. So the feminists are not fighting to remove that barrier. They are so opportunistic they [do not][71] neglect to profit from the knowledge accumulated by men through the ages. They always try to misrepresent them every time they can. Thus, the other day, I heard they were honoring the Canadian men and women who fought at the frontline during the world wars. How can you explain that since women were not authorized to go to the frontline??? Will we hear of Caesar's female legions and female galley slaves who of course took up 50% of the ranks of history, though they never existed. A real Casus Belli. Sorry for this too brief letter.” Marc Lépine
- 9 - Jeff Weise
RED LAKE HIGH SCHOOL MASSACRE
Jeffrey James Weise was born on August 8th, 1988 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the only child to Daryl Allen Lussier, Jr. and Joanne Elizabeth Weise. His mother was alleged to be a violent alcoholic who would physically and emotionally abuse her first-born son. Shortly thereafter, in 1992, Joanne Weise began dating a Lakota man named Timothy Troy DesJarlait. The two married on June 27th, 1998, and divorced in February, 2000.
On July 21st, 1997, Daryl Lussier, Jr. committed suicide via shotgun wound to the head, after a two-day standoff with the Red Lake Police Department in Red Lake.
On March 5th, 1999, Joanne Weise suffered severe brain damage when a tractor-trailer crashed into her car on a highway in Minneapolis. She and her cousin Elizabeth May Jourdain, were drinking alcohol and driving. Jourdain's was killed and Joanne had to be committed to a nursing home in Bloomington, Minnesota. Consequently, Jeff was placed in the care of his paternal grandmother, Shelda Lussier in Red Lake. He expressed frustration with living in Red Lake, and believed that his life was beyond his control.
Weise’s depression prompted a suicide attempt in May of 2004. Describing his experience in a post made on the website Above Top Secret, he said:
“I had went through a lot of things in my life that had driven me to a darker path than most choose to take. I split the flesh on
my wrist with a box opener, painting the floor of my bedroom with blood I shouldn't have spilt. After sitting there for what seemed like hours (which apparently was only minutes), I had the revelation that this was not the path. It was my division (sic) to seek medical treatment, as on the other hand I could have chosen to sit there until enough blood drained from my downward lacerations on my wrists to die.”
Jeffrey was hospitalized in Thief River Falls due to suicidal thoughts. He was hospitalized for 72 hours.
At noon, Weise retrieved a .22 caliber pistol from his bedroom and fatally shot his paternal grandfather, Daryl Lussier, Sr., who was a Sergeant with the Red Lake Police Department, two times in the head and ten times in the chest as he was sleeping. It is not known how Weise obtained the pistol, but, according to his friends, he may have had it in his possession for as long as one year. Weise then stole Lussier's two police-issue weapons, a .40 caliber Glock 23 pistol, and a Remington 12 gauge pump-action shotgun. He then fatally shot Michelle Leigh Sigana, Lussier's girlfriend, two times in the head, as she was carrying laundry up the stairs.
Weise then drove his grandfather's squad car to Red Lake Senior High School in Red Lake, arriving at around 2:45 p.m. As he entered the school through the main entrance, he encountered two unarmed security guards who were operating a metal detector. Weise shot and killed security guard Derrick Brun while the other security guard managed to escape without injury. Weise then proceeded through the main corridor of the school and began shooting into an English classroom, killing three students and one teacher, and wounding three students.
Jeffrey May, a sixteen-year-old sophomore, attempted to wrestle Weise inside the classroom, and managed to stab him in the stomach with a pencil. This allowed students to evacuate the classroom to safety. Weise retaliated, however, by shooting May two times in the neck and one time in the jaw, leaving him injured, but alive. May managed to survive the ordeal. Another student, Chase Lussier, was rumored to have jumped in the line of a shotgun blast to save another student.
Witnesses say Weise smiled as he was shooting at people. One witness said that he asked a student if he believed in God, a link commonly believed to be reminiscent of the events that took place during the Columbine High School massacre.
At around 2:52 p.m., Weise returned to the main entrance where he killed two students and wounded two others.
FBI special agent Paul McCabe stated Weise engaged in a shoot-out with the police that lasted for about four minutes. Eventually Weise retreated to a vacant classroom after sustaining one gunshot wound to the abdomen and one to the right arm. None of the officers were injured. Weise, lay against a wall in the classroom, put the shotgun barrel in his mouth, and fired, instantly killing himself.
- 10 - Riyadus Saliheen
BESLAN SCHOOL HOSTAGE CRISIS
Initially, the identity of the attackers was not immediately clear. It was widely assumed that they were separatists from nearby Chechnya. The Russian government had stated that the attackers were an international group consisting of some Arabs and even one local resident. There were thirty-two attackers, five of whom were women, who made the following demands:
* Withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
* The Presence of the following people in the school:
- Aleksander Dzasokhov, President of North Ossetia
- Murat Ziazikov, President of Ingushetia,
- Alu Alkhanov, President of Chechnya
- Aslambek Aslakhanov, or Mukharbek Aushev
- Vladimir Rushailo, Executive Secretary for the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The Crisis – Day 1
Every year in every school in the Russian Federation, on the first day of September, citizens celebrate a holiday known as the "Day of Knowledge" at school. The children are commonly accompanied by their parents and other family members dressed in their finest clothes. After listening to introductions and speeches from the staff and students, the ‘First Graders’ give a flower to the ‘Last Graders.’ The Last Graders then take the First Graders to their first class. In 2004, on September 1st at School Number One in Beslan, this tradition was deliberately used by terrorists as an opportunity to seize the school and take hostages. The result was hundreds of children and entire families wounded or killed. At about 9:40 a.m., a group of thirty-two men and women stormed Beslan's Middle School Number One, whose pupils ranged from seven to eighteen years old. Most of the attackers wore black ski masks and a few were seen carrying explosive belts. After an exchange of gunfire with police in which five officers and one perpetrator were killed, the attackers seized the school building, taking more than 1,300 hostages.
This number was confirmed by teachers later. Many hostages were schoolchildren under the age of eighteen. There were also many parents and staff inside. About fifty people managed to flee to safety in the initial attack and alert authorities. Repeated shooting was later heard coming from the school buildings, thought by some to be for the intimidation of security forces. It was later revealed that the attackers had killed twenty adult- male hostages and had thrown their bodies out of the building. The attackers were also outraged by the authorities undercounting the number of hostages.
The attackers moved the hostages to the school gymnasium on the first day, mined the gym and the rest of the building with improvised explosive devices, and surrounded it with tripwires. In a further bid to deter rescue attempts, they threatened to kill fifty hostages for every one of their own members killed by the police, and twenty hostages for every gunman injured.
They also threatened to blow up the school should government forces attack. The Russian government initially said that it would not use force to rescue the hostages, and negotiations towards a peaceful resolution did take place on the first and second days, led by Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician for whom the hostage-takers had reportedly asked for by name. Roshal had helped negotiate the release of children in the 2002 Moscow Theatre Siege. At Russia's request, a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council was convened on the evening of September 1st. The council members demanded "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages of the terrorist attack." U.S. President George W. Bush reportedly offered "support in any form" to Russia in dealing with the crisis.
Day 2
On September 2nd, 2004, negotiations between Roshal and the hostage-takers proved unsuccessful, and they refused to accept food, water, and medicines for the hostages, or even for the bodies of the dead to be removed from the school. Many hostages, especially children, took off their shirts and other articles of clothing because of the sweltering heat, which led to rumors of sexual assault, though the hostages later explained it was merely to keep cool.
In the afternoon, following their negotiations with former Ingush President Ruslan Aushev, the gunmen agreed to release twenty-six nursing women and their infants. One infant was handed to Aushev as its mother refused to leave the school while her other children remained inside. At around 3:30 p.m., two explosions occurred at the school, approximately ten minutes apart from one another. These were later revealed to be the explosions of rocket-propelled grenades, fired by the hostage-takers in an apparent attempt to keep the security forces well away from the school.
Day 3
On the afternoon of September 3rd, 2004, the hostage-takers agreed to allow medical workers to remove bodies from the school grounds. The removal team, reportedly consisting of FSB (Federal Security Service, formerly known as the KGB) officers, began to approach the school at 1:04 p.m., but the hostage-takers opened fire, and two large explosions were heard.
Two of the medical workers died; the rest fled under a hail of gunfire. Part of the gymnasium also collapsed, allowing a group of about thirty hostages to escape, but they were fired on by the gunmen, and then caught in crossfire as the Russian army and armed civilians tried to fire at the terrorists. Many of the escapees were killed. Ruslan Aushev, the negotiator during the siege, told the Novaya Gazeta that the initial explosion was set o
ff by a hostage-taker accidentally tripping over a wire. As a result, armed civilians, some of them apparently fathers of the hostages, started shooting. Reportedly, no security forces or hostage-takers were shooting at this point, but the gunfire led the hostage-takers to believe that the school was being stormed. In response, they set off their bombs. It was at this point that Russian Special Forces activated their action plan to storm the school to rescue any possible survivors. A disorganized battle broke out as the Special Forces sought to enter the school and cover the escape of the hostages. Some panicking Russian army recruits fled the scene while the Special Forces commandos blew holes in walls to allow hostages to escape. A massive level of force was used. The special forces, regular army, and Interior Ministry troops were all involved, as were helicopter gunships and at least one tank. Many local civilians also joined in the battle, having brought along their own weapons.
Afterwards, the Russian government defended the use of tanks and other heavy weaponry, arguing that it was used after surviving hostages escaped from the school; however, this contradicts eyewitness accounts and common sense, as many hostages were seriously wounded and could not possibly escape by themselves.
The attack was followed by large explosions of other detonating bombs and several Shmel fuel-air explosive rockets used by the government forces, which destroyed the gym and set much of the building on fire. By 3:00 p.m., two hours after the assault began, Russian troops claimed control of most of the school. Fighting, however, continued as evening fell, and three gunmen held up in the basement with a number of hostages. They, and the hostages they were holding, were eventually killed. During the battle, a group of hostage-takers, approximately thirteen of them, broke through the military cordon and took refuge nearby. Two of those thirteen were reportedly women who allegedly attempted to blend into the crowd and escape disguised as medical personnel. The military cordon had been compromised as they’d permitted the passage of hostage’s relatives, dressed in civilian clothing and, in some cases, bearing firearms.