The Marysville Pilchuck High School shooting occurred in Marysville, Washington, on October 24, 2014, when 15-year-old freshman student Jaylen Fryberg shot five other students at Marysville Pilchuck High School, fatally wounding four, before fatally shooting himself.

Events

Prior to the shooting, Fryberg invited several students, all of whom were friends, to meet him for lunch via text message. He also reportedly sent a text message to his parents, although details of the message have not been revealed.

At lunchtime, the friends sat together at one table. Fryberg then entered the school cafeteria and sat down at a different table. At 10:39 a.m., according to eyewitnesses, he stood up, approached the table where the friends were sitting, and had a verbal altercation with them. He then pulled out a .40-caliber Beretta handgun and fired at least eight shots, shooting several students in a "calm, methodical way".

During the shooting, Fryberg was described by a witness as having "a blank stare" and "staring at the victims as he shot them". He also appeared to be targeting only the table where his friends were sitting. At the time of the shooting, about ten students were seated at that table.

Fryberg died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. An early eyewitness report stated that an adult school staff member tried to intervene by grabbing Fryberg's arm, inadvertently causing him to fatally shoot himself in the neck.

The employee was later identified as first-year social studies teacher Megan Silberberger, who tried to apprehend Fryberg as he may have been attempting to reload.

Police officials and the Snohomish County medical examiner later clarified that Fryberg committed suicide by shooting himself in the head and that Silberberger did not touch him in the moments preceding his death. Shortly after Fryberg committed suicide, Silberberger contacted authorities.

The motive for the shooting is unknown, although a student at the school stated that "[he] was angry at a girl who would not date him, and that the girl was one of the people shot", a claim that was supported by other classmates and by Fryberg's family members.

Aftermath

After the shooting, recordings of police radio communications during the event were released by the Snohomish County Police Staff and Auxiliary Services Center after requests for public records. A timeline was also provided by Marysville police spokesman Robb Lamoureux.

According to the timeline and recordings, an anonymous 9-1-1 caller, using a cellphone, first alerted police to the shooting. The school resource officer was the first law enforcement officer to make contact with the victims, arriving at the scene a minute after the first 9-1-1 call was received. He immediately reported that a fire alarm was going off and that there were students and staff evacuating from the building. A dispatcher then informed him about a report of a possible shooting in the cafeteria. The officer responded, "Ocean 12, it's confirmed. We have a shooter. We have five down." He later said, "Shooter is DOA [dead on arrival]. We have got apparently four [victims.]" Soon afterward, he said, "Ocean 12, I need aid here. I have two that are still breathing and alive. Looks like I have three possibly deceased." The first paramedics arrived on the scene ten minutes after the first radio dispatch.

At the time of the shooting, approximately 50 people were inside the cafeteria. The school went on lockdown "due to an emergency situation," according to a statement by the school. The victims were all identified as friends of Fryberg.

Some students fled the cafeteria immediately after the shooting started. Several climbed over the fence of a house next to the school and sought shelter there. Other students disregarded the school lockdown rules and fled their classrooms while they were in place. It was initially reported that at least six students were wounded.

As the school was cleared by local law enforcement officials, students were taken by bus to a nearby church. It took two hours for officers to evacuate hundreds of students who were still hiding inside the school, and more than 100 witnesses were interviewed by investigators.

Classes at Marysville Pilchuck High were cancelled for the following week, as well as an upcoming football game. The cafeteria where the shooting took place will not be reopened and is being considered for remodeling.

In the wake of the shooting, threats were made against several students belonging to the Tulalip tribe, the Native American tribe Fryberg belonged to. A spokesman for the Marysville School District stated that the school district was taking the threats seriously. The school reopened on November 3, with about fifteen counselors present on campus.

On October 30, a memorial service was held for Fryberg at a recreation center in the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Hundreds of people were in attendance.

Victims

Zoë Raine Galasso was killed at the scene by a gunshot wound to her head. Her death was ruled a homicide.

Shaylee Adelle Chuckulnaskit and Gia Christine Soriano were taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett in critical condition, with gunshot wounds to the head. The wounds were reportedly so severe that both were not immediately identifiable. It was announced on the evening of October 26 that Gia Soriano had died from her wounds. On October 31, one week after the shooting, Shaylee Chuckulnaskit was also confirmed to have died from her wounds.

Andrew Fryberg, a cousin of Jaylen Fryberg, was also taken to Providence Regional Medical Center, where he was in critical condition from a gunshot wound to the head. Late in the evening on November 7, two weeks after the shooting, it was confirmed that he had died from his wounds.

Nate Hatch, another cousin of Jaylen Fryberg, suffered a gunshot wound in the jaw and was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment. He was listed in serious condition and placed in intensive care. His condition was upgraded to satisfactory on October 27, after having surgery to repair his jaw. He was discharged from the hospital on November 6.

Two other students were treated for minor injuries at the school, although it was unclear whether these injuries were inflicted by gunfire.

Perpetrator

Jaylen Ray Fryberg (July 31, 1999 – October 24, 2014), a 15-year-old freshman student at the school, was identified as the shooter based on reports from other students at the scene. Fryberg was a wrestler and football player at the school. He was described as "generally happy", "a really nice kid", and "not a violent person".

Fryberg was of Native American descent and a member of the Tulalip tribe. He was close friends with his cousins Andrew Fryberg and Nate Hatch. One week prior to the shooting, Fryberg had been announced as the school's freshman homecoming prince at a football game. He used multiple social media accounts that frequently depicted him hunting and using rifles. The ownership of the Beretta handgun used in the shooting was traced to Fryberg's father.

Fryberg's last few Twitter posts were described as "emotional". Hours before the shooting, a fellow student had asked him if he was doing okay following a fight with another student who had been using racial slurs. Fryberg had been suspended from school and the football team following the fight.

A student claimed that Fryberg fought with a student over a girl, and another that one of Fryberg's victims was a girl who turned him down when he asked her out on a date. This girl, later identified as Zoë Raine Galasso, was reported to have been dating Fryberg's cousin Andrew at the time.

Fryberg also had an ex-girlfriend at the time of the shooting, Shilene George, to whom he sent pictures of him with the handgun in the school cafeteria immediately prior to the shooting. She told authorities she was forced to end the relationship days prior to the shooting after Fryberg became violent with her. Fryberg's posts to Twitter shortly before the shooting are believed to have been written because of the breakup.

Reactions

Washington State Senator John McCoy, a member of the Tulalip tribe, said in a released statement, "I do know the family. We're all related in one shape or form. We live and work and play together."

Washington Governor Jay Inslee also said in a Twitter post regarding the shooting, "Like all of WA, [my wife] and I have everyone at #MPHS in our hearts and prayers. Please take care of each other." He later declared November 3 "Red and White Day" in the state, urging Washington residents to wear red and white, the school colors of Marysville Pilchuck High, as a sign of support.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan pledged his support for the Marysville community and commented regarding the national issue of gun violence, "Gun violence has no place anywhere, least of all at our nation’s schools, and we must do more to keep guns out of the wrong hands."

The Tulalip tribe released a statement on October 29 denouncing Fryberg's "horrific actions" and adding that the shooting was "the [act] of an individual, not a family, not a tribe". They later added, "We are supporting the family of Jaylen Fryberg in their time of loss, but that does not mean we condone his actions."

The school football team was met by the Seattle Seahawks football team and were invited to their practice facility on October 28. On November 2, players on the Seahawks and the Oakland Raiders teams wore decals of Marysville Pilchuck High on their helmets during a game at CenturyLink Field in Seattle. Inactive Seahawks players, coaches, and staff also wore lapel pins bearing the same decals. In addition, a moment of silence was observed before the game began.

A vigil was attended by over 1000 people on the evening of October 24, 2014, at the Grove Church. The football team from Oak Harbor High School showed up in uniform. They had been scheduled to play Marysville Pilchuck in a playoff game for the division title Friday night, but it was canceled.

Becky Cooke Berg, superintendent of the Marysville School District, said Oak Harbor, Washington had offered to accept second place out of respect for its opponents. "We understand other teams in the league will be wearing red and white in support of Marysville-Pilchuck," Berg said. A second vigil occurred the next day at Mountain View Presbyterian Church. On October 27, a moment of silence was observed by the Marysville community at 10:39 a.m., exactly 72 hours from the moment the shooting started.

Wikipedia.org
 

Newly released Marysville 911 calls include student witness

By Diana Hefley - Heraldnet.com

December 16, 2014

MARYSVILLE — She asked the emergency dispatcher if a police officer was going to find them.

The girl and 17 others were crammed inside what she described as an abandoned closet in an art room at Marysville Pilchuck High School on Oct. 24.

A freshman had opened fire inside a cafeteria. His actions ended the lives of five young people, including his own. A sixth, who was shot in the jaw, survived.

The last of the calls to 911 from that morning were released Tuesday by SNOPAC, the dispatch center that serves much of Snohomish County.

The shootings remain under investigation by the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team, a special task force of homicide detectives typically assigned to investigate police-involved shootings. The investigation is expected to take months.

The girl hiding in the closet gave the dispatcher her phone number. A police officer would call her. Pick up the phone, the dispatcher said.

The girl’s voice trembled as she said goodbye.

Other students told dispatchers they were in the cafeteria when the gunfire broke out.

“There is what at the high school?” a dispatcher asked a boy.

“Gunshots, in the cafeteria,” he said.

“Anyone injured?”

“Yeah, this kid, he shot a couple of kids, I’m pretty sure,” the boy answered.

Did he see where the students were shot?

“No. I saw kids just drop to the ground, at the cafeteria table.”

Another boy, hiding in a classroom with eight other students, said he ran out of the lunch room. He told the dispatcher that Jaylen Fryberg, a freshman, was the shooter. He had a black handgun, the boy said.

“If it was Jaylen, I know him. He didn’t seem ...” he began to tell the dispatcher, but was interrupted with a question about what weapons may have been used.

The boy didn’t know the names of the injured.

“I think four people were hit or more,” he said.

Killed were Zoe Galasso, Gia Soriano, and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, all 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15. Nate Hatch, 14, survived.

The boy hiding in the classroom told the dispatcher no one with him was hurt. They were safe, he said. He wasn’t hearing anymore gunfire.

“I don’t want you to open that door. OK?”

Reporters Rikki King, Eric Stevick and Scott North contributed to this story.
 

Break silence on shooter's crimes, 2 victims' families say

By Andrew Gobin - Heraldnet.com

December 10, 2014

TULALIP — The mothers of Nate Hatch and Andrew Fryberg say the silence must end. It's time for frank discussion about Jaylen Fryberg and his crimes.

“It's about accountability. He has not been made accountable,” Denise “Nessie” Hatch-Anderson said. Her son, Nate Hatch, 14, is the only surviving victim of the Oct. 24 shootings in a Marysville Pilchuck High School cafeteria.

“Jaylen is not a victim. What he did was premeditated, calculated murder,” said Lahneen Fryberg, Andrew's mother.

She worries that the silence surrounding Jaylen's actions sends the wrong message, particularly to other young people.

Jaylen, 15, shot five of his friends in the head as they sat at a table in the cafeteria where he'd invited them to lunch. Hundreds of students ran for their lives.

Killed were Zoe Galasso, Gia Soriano and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, all 14. He also shot his cousins — who were as close to him as brothers. Andrew Fryberg, 15, was in a Seattle hospital for two weeks before he died. A bullet shattered Nate's jaw, lodging in his chest.

Detectives have released enough information to show the attack was planned, at least days in advance. Jaylen killed himself before anyone had the chance to ask why.

On the Tulalip Indian Reservation, where the shooter and most of his victims were raised, a question is growing: How should that day be remembered?

Within the tribal community, hundreds gathered three times for funerals to remember lost children. The first ceremony was for Jaylen. He was grieved as a son, somebody who'd been raised to become a future leader. The same was true of Andrew. It is still true for Nate.

Outside the high school, a fence became a makeshift memorial covered in flowers and balloons and posters in tribute to all six who were shot. Jaylen was remembered and mourned alongside his victims. Almost nothing was said about what he did.

On the reservation, silence born from grief, and disbelief and respect for the families, now has become something else. It is perpetuating the harm Jaylen caused, say the mothers and sisters of Nate Hatch and Andrew Fryberg.

“As a family, we just try to remember the victims and their families through all of this,” said Natasha “Tasha” Fryberg, who is about a decade older than her little brother, Andrew.

Tanisha “Tawny” Fryberg, 30, is Andrew's eldest sister. She doesn't understand why people are not condemning Jaylen's conduct, as has happened in other school shootings.

“Why is this different?” she asked. “Why is he seen as a victim? Because of the life he lived? Because he was their friend? Because they were family? He is not a victim, he is a murderer.”

Nessie Hatch knew Jaylen all of his life. She doesn't know what motivated him in the cafeteria that day. She's struggling to live with the harm he caused.

“I didn't consider Jay a victim,” she said. “I loved him while he was here, but his actions have changed everyone's lives. He destroyed all of our lives. He totally changed my son's life.”

Sports have always been an important part of Nate's identity. He's played football and baseball and wrestled since he was small. He now faces multiple surgeries as doctors do facial reconstruction.

It is unclear whether he will be able to play sports again. That's just one piece of Nate's life that Jaylen took from him, his mother said.

Within a week of the shootings, the tribal board of directors released a statement, denouncing Jaylen's “horrific” actions. Since then, little has been said.

At community meetings on the reservation, some tribal leaders have begun to say, “Silence is violence.” In other words, To say nothing condones the wrong.

Nate's and Andrew's families are encouraged that some leaders are starting to break the silence.

“If it's seen as OK, we are teaching our younger generation that this is OK. We need to say it now, we need to teach them now, that what he did is wrong,” Nessie Hatch said.

Silence, they say, also makes it difficult to forgive, particularly Jaylen's family. They've yet to offer any sort of public apology for what he did.

Andrew's sister, Tawny Fryberg, was close with Jaylen's family. Jaylen's father and aunts were like her brother and sisters. Because of that love, her heart wanted to extend forgiveness. Whatever their reasons, their silence makes that impossible.

“The way they are handling it, they are the ones building a wall,” she said. “And to stand with my family, I can't forgive that.”

Andrew, Nate and Jaylen are part of a larger family. Jaylen Fryberg is the namesake of his father and grandfather. Andrew Martin Leroy Fryberg is the namesake of three of his grandfathers.

Nate's great grandmother, Molly Hatch, was born a Fryberg.

“My grandmother always said never to drag our name through the mud. Never to do anything to bring shame and disgrace to our Fryberg name,” Nessie Hatch said.

That is what Jaylen has done, and everyone who carries the Fryberg name has been forced to bear that shame, she said.

The Fryberg family is one of the largest on the reservation.

Off the reservation, Andrew's family has encountered people who mistakenly presume that anyone named Fryberg somehow bears responsibility for what Jaylen did. They apparently don't realize that Frybergs number among his victims.

Nate and Andrew grew up next door to each other. As he heals, Nate continues to split his time between both homes. He's grieving the loss of his friends and struggling to forgive the unfathomable.

From his hospital bed, two days after being shot, Nate posted to Twitter that he had forgiven Jaylen.

Weeks later, it is not that simple, his mother said.

“My son did forgive Jaylen, in the beginning,” Nessie Hatch said. “But after he lost his friends, one after another, that forgiveness has gone from him, turned to anger.”

That doesn't mean the families hold any ill will toward Jaylen's family.

“I don't want to live in hate. I can't live in hate. I won't hate them, but I will never forget, and I will not forgive them,” Tawny Fryberg said.

The families of both boys are grateful for the compassion of friends and strangers. People from all around the state, people who don't even know the families, sent cards and letters and food.

“We cannot thank everyone enough for the outpouring of love and support,” Nessie said.

Lahneen Fryberg is thankful to have had Andrew for 15 years. That wasn't long enough. He was her eldest son. His father, Leroy Fryberg Jr., died in December 2013.

“I thank God that (Lee) was there to take him,” she said.
 

Evidence refutes claim about chopper availability after MP shootings

By Scott North and Rikki King - Heraldnet.com

December 7, 2014

MARYSVILLE — It was a story that grew wings and has persisted despite mounting evidence the conclusions were wrong.

Within days of the Oct. 24 shootings at Marysville Pilchuck High School, people in Seattle began questioning whether everything possible was done to save the victims’ lives.

In particular, they wondered why paramedics took the grievously wounded students by ambulance to Everett’s Providence Regional Medical Center instead of loading them onto helicopters for a flight to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, the region’s top-ranked trauma hospital.

In reality, the two helicopters sent to help that morning weren’t close enough to make a difference, and firefighters weren’t even told about a third medical chopper that reportedly was in the area.

Airlift Northwest released a timeline three days after the shootings describing how a helicopter carrying trained trauma nurses was hovering over the high school when it was waved off by Marysville firefighters.

But interviews, emergency radio traffic recordings from that day, emergency dispatch logs and other public records cast doubt on that version of events.

When paramedics in Marysville began transporting patients to Everett they were told by dispatchers that Airlift Northwest helicopters, sent from Seattle and Bellingham, were still roughly 20 minutes away.

Moments before the helicopters were canceled, Airlift Northwest told emergency dispatchers those helicopters still were 14 minutes away from the high school, records show.

Airlift Northwest now acknowledges the only helicopter it had near the school as the emergency unfolded wasn’t even responding to the shootings. Instead, it was flying back to base in Arlington after completing an unrelated call.

“They were flying their normal route and from their vantage point saw the activity on the ground. They were not part of the Airlift Northwest deployment to the scene, but were definitely over the area,” said Susan Gregg, a spokeswoman for both Harborview and Airlift Northwest. Both are components of the medical program run by the University of Washington.

The helicopter that was reported to be over the high school — a different aircraft than Airlift Northwest listed in its original timeline — wasn’t in contact with ground crews. Indeed, firefighters didn’t learn of its presence until days later.

In addition, Airlift Northwest did not have access to radio channels that would have allowed direct communication with local firefighters, records show. Similar problems arose in the hours after the March 22 mudslide in Oso, which killed 43 people.

The school shootings added urgency to a conversation about improving radio connections between medical helicopters and Snohomish County police and firefighters. The discussions were already taking place.

Greg Corn, chief of the Marysville Fire District, was at the high school the morning of the shootings. He thought the helicopters circling overhead were all television media.

Marysville paramedics focused on trying to save lives that morning, he said. They followed their training and protocols, which included describing the nature of the patients’ injuries to emergency doctors at Providence. The doctors told them to bring all of the victims to Providence, as quickly as possible, Corn said.

“Even if we would have known that helicopter was there, we still would have gone to Providence,” he said. “That was where we were directed.”

A large medical team was waiting at the Everett hospital. It included two heart surgeons, two neurosurgeons, a chest surgeon, a vascular surgeon and 12 emergency room physicians.

Dispatch logs show that each of the four ambulance rides from Marysville to Everett, a roughly 11-mile trip, took 12 minutes or less. The logs and other documents were obtained by The Daily Herald under the state public records law.

Shooter Jaylen Fryberg, 15, and victim Zoe Galasso, 14, died at the scene. Shaylee Chuckulnaskit and Gia Soriano, 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15, all were rushed to Providence with gunshot wounds to the head. Nate Hatch, 14, was shot in the jaw. He and Andrew both wound up at Harborview in the hours after the shootings. Nate is the only shooting victim to survive.

Waiting for a helicopter to land in Marysville and to safely load patients would have taken at least 10 minutes, plus time in the air for transport, landing and unloading at the hospital, Corn said.

When the wounded students were being loaded into ambulances, “none of those (airlift) helicopters would have been overhead, none of the helicopters we were aware of,” Corn said.

The fire chief said he is “very comfortable and confident in the decisions and actions our personnel took at the scene (and) that those decisions and those actions were in the best interest of those patients — even after the light of scrutiny.”

Steve Guptill, the assistant fire chief in Monroe, serves as board chairman for SNOPAC, the dispatch center serving much of the county, and heads up SNOPAC’s advisory group on fire-service operations. He also is chairman of the committee within the Snohomish County Fire Chiefs Association that looks at emergency operation issues and makes recommendations for countywide changes.

He has examined the steps taken after the school shootings by Marysville fire battalion chief Scott Goodale, who also was on the leadership team in Darrington in the first week after the mudslide.

“I think he made an excellent decision under the circumstances he was dealing with,” Guptill said.

For a long time, airlift helicopters have been recognized as “the gold standard of rapid transport,” Guptill said. However, in recent months and years, firefighters have realized that ambulances often can be faster when considering the “golden hour,” the window after a traumatic injury when life-saving efforts can be most effective.

Medics making split-second calls at the scene have to consider the time it takes to get a patient into a helicopter and off to Seattle, Guptill said. That includes weather and traffic conditions.

“When we start thinking about the golden hour and what’s best for our patients, we have to consider all the pieces of the puzzle,” he said.

Guptill is among those in Snohomish County focused on improving radio communications with Airlift Northwest.

Days before the shootings, Airlift Northwest asked the county fire chiefs association for access to additional firefighter radio channels, Guptill said. The agreement now is moving through the final levels of approval.

A similar expansion of radio access for Airlift Northwest began earlier this year for the Snohomish County sheriff’s helicopters, chief pilot Bill Quistorf said. The sheriff’s helicopter team provides on-scene air traffic control during major emergencies in the county.

Making changes takes time because Airlift Northwest has to reprogram all of its aircraft radios, Quistorf said.

Giving Airlift Northwest access to additional local radio channels should improve communication during complex incidents, SNOPAC Executive Director Kurt Mills said.

“They already had permission on our radio system, but they’re expanding the number of talk groups that they have,” he said.

Still, improved communications likely would not have changed transport decisions at Marysville Pilchuck, officials say.

The emergency medical response to the Marysville Pilchuck shootings was reviewed last month in a private meeting with paramedics, doctors from Providence and Harborview, Airlift Northwest and state health officials.

Those involved have declined to talk about it, citing patient confidentiality.

Corn said he feels questions raised about the decisions his crews made in Marysville were put to rest once the facts were shared.
 

Marysville-Pilchuck shooter's texts turned dark

Associated Press - The Daily Herald

November 20, 2014

MARYSVILLE, Wash. - A detective investigating the high school shooting in Washington state that left five teens dead says in court papers that the young shooter's texts turned dark the week before he opened fire, with references to his funeral and the message: "Bang bang I'm dead."

Moments before Jaylen Fryberg, 15, shot his fellow students Oct. 24 in the Marysville Pilchuck High School cafeteria, he texted more than a dozen relatives, describing what he wanted to wear at his funeral and who should get his personal possessions, the detective's search warrant affidavit says.

The boy asked relatives to apologize to the families of his friends "who get caught up in the (expletive) tomorrow" - referring to the day after the shooting. He also sent texts in the previous days to a female friend talking about his death and funeral.

The popular teen fatally shot four friends he had invited to lunch and wounded a fifth teen before killing himself.

The victims are Gia Soriano, Zoe Galasso and Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, all 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15. All were shot in the head. Nate Hatch, 14, was shot in the jaw and is recovering. Andrew Fryberg and Hatch are the shooter's cousins.

Investigators have found no evidence to support a rumor that students had expressed concerns about Jaylen Fryberg to school authorities before the shooting, police spokeswoman Shari Ireton said Wednesday.

The Daily Herald of Everett obtained the Everett police detective's affidavit, which provided details of the boy's last text messages, but not their full contents. The detective had been seeking a judge's permission to examine the boy's cellphone. Multiple agencies are investigating the shooting and are sifting through hundreds of text messages and social media posts.

While the boy had publicly posted some angry messages on social media starting in late July, his posts otherwise were "pretty normal," the detective wrote. The change began Oct. 18.

Detectives learned that he had been upset by something that happened between him and a 15-year-old identified in the affidavit only by her initials and described as a "close friend."

Investigators know what happened between the two but decided against including specifics in the search warrant documents to protect her identity, court papers said.

On Oct. 18, Fryberg texted: "Ohk (sic) well don't bother coming to my funeral." The girl stopped responding and ignored other text messages. On Oct. 22, the boy texted: "I set the date. Hopefully you regret not talking to me," ''You have no idea what I'm talking about. But you will" and "Bang bang I'm dead." When the friend asked Fryberg to stop, he replied: "No. You don't care. I don't care."

When she stopped responding, Fryberg tried to reach her through another friend. The morning of Oct. 24, Fryberg used Facebook to send that friend a picture of a gun sitting between his legs, court papers said. He told the friend to have the girl "call me before I do this."

That message was sent minutes before the shooting started.

The detective met with two of Fryberg's uncles the day of the shooting, the Daily Herald reported. One man said he and 13 other relatives received a text from the boy minutes before the gunfire. The message was titled: "My Funeral (expletive)."

Detectives later searched the boy's room.

"My hope was that we could find a note or something that would help explain what happened," the detective wrote. "Nothing of evidentiary value was located in Jaylen's room."