RED LAKE, Minnesota - The search for motive consumed grieving families and FBI agents alike Wednesday, after the worst US school shooting in six years left 10 dead, including the teenaged gunman.
The shell-shocked community of the secluded Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota mourned in private, keeping outsiders and especially the media away by enforcing privacy laws on their sovereign territory.
Those who did speak out sought to pinpoint what may have triggered 16-year-old Jeff Weise's deadly rampage that began with two killings at his grandfather's house and ended at Red Lake High School where he shot dead five fellow students, a teacher and a security guard.
The massacre, which left seven others injured, ended with Weise apparently turning the gun on himself.
Theories as to motive ranged from the teen's reported neo-Nazi leanings, to personal depression, bullying at school, a troubled family background that included a history of suicide, and the problems of growing up in an isolated and hierarchical Native American community.
In an interview with a local television network, Weise's aunt, Kim Desjarlait, said her first reaction on hearing her nephew was the shooter had been one of disbelief.
"It wasn't the boy I knew and I had to confirm it," Desjarlait said. "I was shocked once I knew exactly who was the killer."
Weise spent the first 10 years of his life in Minneapolis. His move to the Red Lake reservation 330 miles (530 kilometers) to the north coincided with a period of family tragedy.
Within a span of eight years, Weise's father committed suicide, his mother suffered brain damage in a car accident that killed his cousin, and his maternal grandmother died.
"For a kid, that's a lot to take," said Desjarlait, who still lives in Minneapolis.
She also described the Red Lake Band of Chippewa as a tribal society where young people are expected to be seen and not heard.
"I think what transpired with Jeff was that he just didn't have a voice and his voice really wouldn't have mattered even if he had the chance to say 'You know, I dont want to be here'," Desjarlait said.
Weise's schoolmates painted a portrait of a black trenchcoat-clad loner, who was often teased or shunned by other students.
Student Ashley Morrison described a quiet, withdrawn boy with a dark side who would draw "pictures of skeletons and demons, just blood" in art class.
"We always suspected him of doing something," Morrison said. "But nothing like that."
Despite accounts from some students that Weise had some sort of hit list, federal investigators said the shooting inside the school had appeared to be random.
At the same time, "the nature of the incident would indicate there was some planning," said FBI agent Michael Tabman.
Weise left no letters or messages explaining his actions and the FBI said it could not confirm that comments posted on a neo-Nazi website by someone claiming to be Jeff Weise from Red Lake were indeed from the shooter.
In one 2004 posting attributed to Weise, he professed admiration for Adolf Hitler and denounced racial mixing on the Red Lake reservation.
"It's hard though, being a Native American National Socialist," the posting said. "People are so misinformed, ignorant and closed-minded, it makes your life a living hell."
Desjarlait said she knew nothing of her nephew's neo-Nazi leanings, but suggested that his links with such groups may have emerged from his depression after moving to Red Lake.
"These (neo-Nazis) are the only people that he could probably take his anger out with that were willing to accept him," she said. "It's sad that he couldn't talk with somebody within his own clan and try to resolve his problems, or even talk to any of his relatives."
Weise's killing spree began Monday afternoon when he shot dead his grandfather Daryl Lussier, 58, a sergeant in the local police, and Lussier's companion Michelle Sigana, 32.
The teenager took his grandfather's police bulletproof vest, gun belt and police car and drove to the Red Lake High School school, armed with a .22 calibre weapon, a police service revolver and a 12-gauge shotgun.
After shooting dead a security guard, Weise entered the school and killed five students and a teacher in one classroom. He then shot himself in the head.
"Hopefully the investigation can help us learn what it was that motivated this young man and prevent a recurrence," said US Attorney Tom Heffelfinger.

03/23/2005 16:25 GMT