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Gunman kills self, 9 others in Minnesota school shooting By JOSHUA FREED THE ASSOCIATED PRESS REOBY, Minn. — The suspect in the worst U.S. school massacre since Columbine smiled and waved as he gunned down five students, a teacher and a guard, asking one of his victims whether he believed in God, witnesses said. The teen’s grandparents were also found dead, and the boy killed himself at the end of the rampage. Reggie Graves, a student at Red Lake High School, said he was watching a movie about Shakespeare in class Monday when he heard the gunman blast his way past the metal detector at the school’s entrance, killing a guard. Then, in a nearby classroom, he heard the gunman say something to his friend Ryan: “He asked Ryan if he believed in God,” Graves said. “And then he shot him.” The death toll at the Red Lake Indian Reservation in far northern Minnesota made it the nation’s worst school shooting since the rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in April 1999 that left 12 students and a teacher, plus the two teen gunmen, dead. The victims included the gunman’s grandfather; a woman with.him, apparently his wife or girlfriend; a school security guard; a teacher; and five other students. At least 14 others were wounded, officials said. “There’s not a soul that will go untouched by the tragic loss that we’ve experienced here,” Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, told WCCO-TV of Minneapolis on Tuesday. Police said the gunman killed himself after exchanging fire with officers. “We ask Minnesotans to help comfort the families and friends of the victims who are suffering unimaginable pain by extending prayers and expressions of support,” Gov. Tim Pawlenty said. I--1 Officials did not identify the shooter, but several students said he was Jeff Weise. Accounts of Weise’s age varied from 15 to 17, and it was not immediately clear if he was a current or former student. During the rampage, teachers herded students from one room to another, trying to move away from the sound of the shooting, said Graves, 14. He said some students crouched under desks. Some pleaded with the gunman to stop. “You could hear a girl saying, ‘No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?’” Sondra Hegstrom told The Pioneer of Bemidji. Student Ashley Morrison said she heard shots, then saw the gunman’s face peering though a door window of a classroom where she was hiding with several other students. After banging at the door, the shooter walked away and she heard more shots, she said. “I can’t even count how many gunshots you heard, there was over 20. ... There were people srreamino. and rhev made 11s trer behind the desk,” she said. FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said the gunman exchanged gunfire with Red Lake police in a hallway, then retreated to a classroom, where he was believed to have shot himself. All of the dead students were found in one room, including the teen believed to be the shooter. Red Lake Fire Director Roman Stately said the gunman had two handguns and a shotgun. Relatives told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Weise was a loner who usually wore black and was teased by other kids. Relatives told the newspaper his father committed suicide four years ago, and that his mother was living in a Minneapolis nursing home because she suffered brain injuries in a car accident. Some of the injured were being cared for in Bemidji, about 20 miles south of Red Lake. Authorities closed roads to the reservation in far northern Minnesota while they investigated the shootings. Police officers were posted at the hospital Monday night to discourage reporters from entering. When a reporter approached three men walking across a hospital parking lot, one broke down in tears, and the others said they had no comment. MOLLY MIRON/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Red Lake High School students, from left, Sondra Hegstrom, Marla Hegstrom and Ahsley Morrison weep together following a deadly shooting Monday at their school in Red Lake, Minn. A high school student went on a shooting rampage Monday, killing his grandparents at their home and then five students, a teacher and a security guard at his school on an Indian reservation. THlUfeAMECOCK Online five days a week. Good gracious. www.dailygamecock.com LEA NONE OF 211 NGUAGES ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ As a Soldier at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, you’ll learn one of 21 languages. 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