Gunman kills 9 in US school

A 17-year-old who killed nine people and himself on a Minnesota Indian reservation identified himself as an ‘‘angel of death’...

A 17-year-old who killed nine people and himself on a Minnesota Indian reservation identified himself as an ‘‘angel of death’’ and a ‘‘Native Nazi’’ on Internet postings, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Officials sealed off the remote town of Red Lake, 100 km south of the Canadian border, while they investigated Monday’s bloodbath, the worst US school shooting since the 1999 Columbine massacre.

The shooter was Red Lake High School sophomore Jeff Weise, according to witnesses and school officials.Weise identified himself in Internet postings as Todesengel, German for ‘angel of death’ and ‘Native Nazi,’ the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. He also claimed to have been questioned in 2004 about an alleged plot to shoot up the school on the anniversary of Hitler’s birthday, but said he had nothing to do with that, the report said.

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Weise’s rampage began when he shot dead his grandfather, identified as veteran tribal police officer Daryl ‘Dash’ Lussier, and his girlfriend at their home.

The gunman then drove his grandfather’s car to the school, where he killed a male security guard, a teacher and five students before taking his own life. The dead at the school were all in one room.