“I love you family. I really do. More than anything. I needed to do this tho…I wasn’t happy. And, I need my crew with me too. I’m sorry. I love you.” These are the final words of freshman Jaylen Fryberg, two minutes before opening fire in a Washington state high school cafeteria. These harrowing words were from a group text message to the teenager’s family apologizing to the parents of the students he was about to kill and outlining his own funeral wishes to his own family.
After a thorough investigation, the report from authorities say the motive remains unclear even though Fryberg’s classmates, some standing just a few feet away when he started shooting, told police that his girlfriend had broken up with him the day before and that he had recently gotten into a fight with a football player’s racial comments.
On the day of the shooting, Fryberg sent several messages out on social media:
10:25am: Sent a photo of a pistol between his legs and asking that “someone” call him “before he did this thing.”
10:27am: Spoke with a friend for two minutes and then sent the following message to his dad – “read the paper on my bed. Dad I love you.”
Four seconds later: Sent group text with the following funeral plans – “I want to be fully dressed in Camo in my casket. I don’t want my family to cancel their trip in December. Put my hat with the S on it on me in my casket. Make sure all of my trust money or whatever goes to my brother.
“Also apologize to the Andrews fam and _____ fam for me taking them with me. But I needed to ride or dies with me on the other side…Make sure everyone’s family goes to grams for dinner…You guys need to cook all that deer meat gram canned and the meet that’s in the downstairs freezer at our house.”
10:29am: The first 911 call came in reporting a mass shooting at the school.
It’s hard to read between the lines of this broken teenager’s words, but obviously, he was extremely distraught or depressed…something wasn’t right with him. Student witnesses said that he had a blank stare on his face and a really angry face while he stood up, leaned against a wall and shot, moving the gun from left to right.
Zoe Galasso, age 14, died at the scene while Gia Soriano and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, both 14 years of age, and Andrew Fryberg, age 15, died later at area hospitals. Another 14-year-old student survived a gunshot wound to his face.