BEMIDJI - Michelle Kingbird, 13, said
she's not angry with Jeff Weise, even though the 16-year-old shot
her stepbrother and killed three of her friends.
And even though he told her a year ago that he would shoot up the
school, she didn't believe him.
Kingbird and Weise were friends, she explained.
"He always made me laugh," said Kingbird, who was at North
Country Regional Hospital on Wednesday to visit her stepbrother,
Ryan Auginash, 14.
But during Weise's deadly rampage through Red Lake High School on
Monday, Kingbird said she even feared her friend would shoot
her.
"Because he shot my brother, and he was friends with my brother,"
she said.
Weise killed nine people before killing himself. The victims
included Kingbird's friends, Dwayne Lewis, 15; Alicia White (who
also went by Alicia Spike), 14; and Chanelle Rosebear, 15.
Kingbird, who attends Red Lake Middle School, said she was in the
high school on Monday when Weise started shooting. "I stood there
with my mouth covered," she said.
Kingbird wasn't harmed physically, but she's shocked and confused
by the events that took place.
She said Weise's attack surprised her, even though about a year
ago he had told her he was going to shoot up the school on April 20,
which is Adolph Hitler's birthday. Weise told her the Nazi Germany
leader was his hero.
"But I didn't think he would really do it," she said.
Because she didn't take him seriously, Kingbird never told her
parents or teachers about the threat, she said.
Kingbird and Weise met over the Internet on MSN and that his ID
was decemberofthesoul@hotmail.com.
"He started talking to me first," she said.
Weise didn't share much of his feelings and thoughts with her,
but she said he did talk about the hurt he felt about his father's
suicide in 1997. And he was hospitalized after he attempted suicide
last month.
Kingbird and her friend, Tashina Benais, 13, said Weise was
taking antidepressants. Although some Red Lake High School students
have said that Weise was picked on, Kingbird and Benais said that
wasn't the case.
Both Kingbird and Benais say they don't want to return to Red
Lake High School because they are afraid of another shooting.
Kingbird said she wants to go to live with her aunt in the Twin
Cities, and Benais wants to go with her.
"I don't want to go back," Kingbird said.
