Washington high school gunman invited victims to lunch by text message

Investigators say five students were all at a lunch
table when they were shot by Jaylen Fryberg in
attack that killed two

A popular student responsible for a shooting at a
Washington state high school on Friday invited his
victims to lunch by text message, then shot them at
their table, investigators said on Monday.

Sheriff Ty Trenary said at a news conference that
the five students were at a lunch table when they
were shot by 15-year-old Jaylen Fryberg. Fryberg
then killed himself.

Detectives are digging through reams of text
messages, phone and social media records as part
of an investigation that could take months, Trenary
said.

“The question everybody wants is, ‘Why?’” Trenary
said. “I don’t know that the ‘why’ is something we
can provide.”

Fryberg, a football player who was named a prince
on the school’s homecoming court one week before
the killings, was a member of a prominent Tulalip
Indian Tribes family. He seemed happy although
he was also upset about a girl, friends said. His
Twitter feed was recently full of vague, anguished
postings, like “It won’t last ... It’ll never last,” and
“I should have listened. ... You were right ... The
whole time you were right.”

On Friday, after texting five friends to invite them to lunch, he pulled out a handgun in the cafeteria and started shooting. The victims were Zoe R Galasso, 14, who died at the scene; Gia Soriano, 14, who died at a hospital on Sunday ; Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, 14, who remains in critical
condition; and his two cousins, Nate Hatch, 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15. Hatch, who was shot in the jaw, is the only victim who has shown improvement. He was upgraded to satisfactory condition on Monday in intensive care at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, while Andrew Fryberg remained in critical condition there. Soriano’s family said her organs would be donated.

“We are devastated by this senseless tragedy,” her family said in a statement, read at a news conference by Providence Regional Medical
Center’s Dr Joanne Roberts. “Gia is our beautiful daughter, and words cannot express how much we will miss her.”

Trenary also confirmed that the .40-caliber
handgun used in the shooting had been legally
purchased by one of Fryberg’s relatives. It remains
unclear how Fryberg obtained the weapon.
A medical examiner on Monday ruled Fryberg’s
death a suicide. There had been some question
over whether he might have shot himself
accidentally as a teacher tried to intervene, but
Trenary said Monday that investigators confirmed
there was no physical contact between the teacher
and the gunman.

At the memorial outside the school Monday, a
group of mourners hugged each other tightly at
10.39am – the minute the shooting was reported
Friday. Flowers and signs were zip-tied to a chain-
link fence lined with red and white balloons
reflecting the school’s colors. Many referenced the
victims and said they’d be missed.