Marysville-Pilchuck HS closes for week as community grieves

Marysville-Pilchuck High School was quiet Monday morning at its 7:30 start time. The school is closed all week to give students and the community time to grieve after Friday’s deadly shooting.

A moment of silence was held at 10:39 a.m., the same time Jaylen Fryberg opened fire in the school cafeteria. Fryberg turned the gun on himself after hitting five students.

Zoe R. Galasso died at the scene and Gia Soriano passed away as a result of her injuries Sunday night. Three more students are hospitalized.

Jaylen Fryberg

Jaylen Fryberg, a MPHS freshman who, by most accounts, was not the typical school shooter. He reportedly wasn’t a loner. Immediately following the shooting, friends who spoke to media described him as “happy” and “popular.”

He was recently crowned a homecoming prince. A number of images on his social media accounts show Fryberg as a seemingly happy teen with his girlfriend, fishing and playing sports. An image on his Instagram feed, that has since been taken down, showed the beaming teen holding a new hunting rifle and thanking his parents for what he called probably the best birthday present ever.

Fryberg and his family are long-time, prominent members of the Tulalip Tribe. The close-knit community on the Tulalip Indian Reservation has struggled to find answers following the shooting.

According to The Everett Herald, Fryberg was going through a breakup and was riddled with angst, as indicated by dark and disturbing posts on his Twitter feed. But contrary to early reports, his girlfriend was not a target in Friday’s shooting and did not attend Marysville-Pilchuck.

Herald writer and fellow Tulalip tribesman Andrew Gobin reported Jaylen’s actions are even more confounding to his tribe than they are to the rest of the Marysville community.

Gobin reported Fryberg’s upbringing was aimed at grooming him to be a tribal leader. His grandfather, Ray Fryberg Senior, sat on the tribal council and his grandmother, Sheryl Fryberg, was an executive with the tribe. His father, Ray Fryberg Junior, also works for the tribe and his mother, Wendy Fryberg, is a former Marysville School Board member.

There have been some rumors of bullying, which led to a fight and his suspension from Friday’s football game. Two of his cousins that he shot Friday were on that football team.

The Snohomish County medical examiner said Monday that Fryberg died of a handgun wound to the head. The office ruled his manner of death a suicide.

The victims

Harborview Medical Center reports 14-year-old Nate Hatch is in satisfactory condition Monday with a gunshot wound to his jaw. Spokeswoman Susan Gregg says he’s awake and breathing on his own. He is still in the intensive care unit.

Another student at Harborview Medical Center, 15-year-old Andrew Fryberg, remains in critical condition in intensive care.

Both Hatch and Andrew Fryberg are cousins of Jaylen Fryberg.

Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, 14 remains, in critical condition in intensive care at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. Gia Soriano, 14, passed away Sunday night.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner officially identified 14-year-old Zoe R. Galasso, Monday. The teen died at the scene of a handgun wound to the head.

A community in mourning

The community gathered several times over the weekend to grieve and pray for the victims of the shooting.

On Friday evening, hundreds of people gathered at the Grove Church in Marysville.

Oak Harbor High School and MPHS were supposed to play a football game that would determine the league championship Friday. After the shooting, the game was canceled. In a show of support, Oak Harbor forfeited the game, taking second place and giving Marysville-Pilchuck the championship.

On Sunday, hundreds of students, parents and community members gathered at Marysville-Pilchuck High School to comfort each other, pray, and discuss ways to move forward from Friday’s shooting that left three dead and three other teens critically wounded.

Tribal members played drums and sang songs, while young people hugged each other and cried, and speakers urged people to come together during the community meeting.

The Marysville Police Department said officers have been assigned to secondary schools and will drop in to visit elementary schools over the next week.

Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux says “our mission moving forward will be to focus our efforts on making students and staff feel as safe as we possibly can for their return to classes.”

The Associated Press and the MyNorthwest and KIRO Radio staffs contributed to this report.