Survivor reached out to teen before rampage

The wounded Red Lake boy said the suspect cultivated an evil image.
BEMIDJI, Minn. (AP) -- A teenager wounded in the Red Lake High School shooting said he reached out to gunman Jeff Weise before the attack because the boy seemed to have no friends.
"He looked like a cool guy, and then I talked to him a few times," 15-year-old Cody Thunder said Thursday. "He talked about guns and shooting people."
Thunder said despite that, and even though Weise cultivated a dangerous appearance that included sculpting his hair into devil horns -- "It looked like he was trying to be evil" -- Thunder never thought Weise would shoot up their school.
At first, "I thought he was messing around, I thought it was a paintball gun or something," said Thunder, the first wounded student to describe the nation's deadliest school shooting since Columbine.
Weise, a hulking 16-year-old, shot to death five students, a security guard and a teacher Monday at the school on the Red Lake Indian reservation, then killed himself. Earlier, he shot to death his grandfather and the man's girlfriend.
School still closed
Officials said the 350-student school is not expected to reopen until the week of April 12 at the earliest. Students were asked to visit the nearby elementary school Thursday to meet briefly with teachers.
Asked during a hospital news conference what kind of expression Weise had -- some witnesses said he was smiling and waving during the attack -- Thunder said: "It was a mean face."
"He was aiming at me," said Thunder, who was shot once in the hip.
Thunder said he had a few classes with Weise last year and spoke with him a few times. "Because no one talked to him. I just thought it would be nice to go talk to him, so I did," Thunder said.
Also at the news conference at North Country Regional Hospital was 15-year-old Lance Crowe, Thunder's cousin, who relatives said may have survived by playing dead after being shot. He declined to speak.
The wounded also included one 15-year-old in serious condition, and another in critical condition.
Superintendent Stuart Desjarlait said officials were working with professionals from around the country to reopen school. He defended security measures that included a disaster plan, cameras and security guards. The guards were not armed.
"It goes to show that if something is going to happen, it's going to happen," Desjarlait said. "No matter what you do."
Investigation continues
Authorities were still trying to determine what set Weise off.
Authorities were investigating whether Weise, who dressed in black and wrote stories about zombies, posted messages on a neo-Nazi Web site expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler and using the name "Todesengel" -- German for "Angel of Death."
On Wednesday, TheSmokingGun.com reported that Weise posted a computer animation on a Web site in October, Newgrounds.com, that showed a gunman shooting four people, blowing up a squad car and committing suicide.
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