School Shooter Texted Family Before Opening Fire

Jaylen Fryberg sent a text message to his family before opening fire in a high school cafeteria last year—but it didn't explain why the popular 15-year-old was killing four friends and himself, and after an investigation that runs 1,400 pages long, authorities still aren't sure why he did it. "I love you family. I really do. More than anything," Fryberg texted just before opening fire at Marysville-Pilchuck High School near Seattle, the AP reports. "I needed to do this tho ... I wasn't happy. And I need my crew with me too. I'm sorry. I love you." He outlined his funeral plans and apologized to the families of those he was taking with him, "but I needed to ride or dies with me on the other side."

Fryberg, a football player who had been named freshman homecoming prince just days earlier, invited his victims by text to join him in the cafeteria. Newly released police interviews don't pinpoint a cause for the shooting, but students say Fryberg, a Native American, was facing suspension from the football team over a fight apparently sparked by racial remarks, and his girlfriend had broken up with him the day before the shooting, the Seattle Times reports. An English teacher told investigators that just minutes before the shooting, the "disrespectful" teen had reached into his backpack during an angry exchange in class. Fryberg's father will go on trial later this month on charges of illegally possessing the gun his son used, the AP reports. (More school shooting stories.)