The juvenile son of the tribal chairman has been arrested in connection with last week’s shootings on a Minnesota Indian reservation, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said Monday.
Louis Jourdain, son of Floyd Jourdain Jr., was arrested Sunday, the source told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity. The younger Jourdain was arrested as part of an investigation into a potentially wider plot, the source said.
And as funeral services were held Monday for assailant Jeff Weise and three of his victims, information emerged on Weise and the prescription drug used to treat his depression.
Several other youths were being questioned about the case, federal authorities said. The Red Lake reservation is home to some 5,000 members of the Chippewa tribe.
Another four or five members of a group who hung out with Weise — described as black-garbed “goths,” who favor black clothing and heavy metal rock music — were being questioned about prior knowledge of Weise’s plans, WCCO-TV reported.
Conspiracy inquiry?
Law enforcement officials are trying to decide what charges to file and whether to charge the person arrested Sunday as an adult or a juvenile, NBC News’ Pete Williams has learned.
The officials say investigators are looking into whether there was a conspiracy, involving more than just the shooter. There are some suggestions, the officials say, that the original plan may have called for a bigger attack on the school involving more than just a single student.
Charges against the juvenile could come late Monday, officials told Williams.
An official said more arrests might follow, though that is not yet clear. Investigators had said last week that Weise acted alone in the rampage.
Federal authorities and witnesses say Weise killed his grandfather, a tribal police officer, and his grandfather's companion March 21 at a home on the reservation. Weise then took his grandfather's weapons to the high school, where he killed five students, a security guard and a teacher before killing himself.
NBC’s Kevin Tibbles is reporting that people who knew Weise say he suffered from depression and was being schooled at home because of it.
Family members told NBC News that Weise was taking the antidepressant Prozac and that his doctor had recently increased the dosage. “They had doubled the dosage a couple of weeks ago,” said Lee Cook, Weise's cousin.
Weise was one of millions of people on such drugs. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said that in 2002, doctors wrote 3.1 million prescriptions for antidepressants for children between the ages of 5 and 17 years old.
Dosage raises concerns
But because of increasing concern over side effects, including suicide, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration now requires manufacturers to include “expanded warning statements that alert health care are providers to an increased risk of ... suicidal thinking and behavior in children and adolescents.
And yet, Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Glenmullen told NBC that many doctors still aren't sufficiently aware of how a change in dosage can sometimes cause extreme agitation and violence in children.
“They put people over the edge, and things that never would have happened without the drug can happen when the drug is added to the mix,” Glenmullen said.
