Marysville school shooter sent series of distressed messages to ex-girlfriend

In the days leading up to a deadly school shooting in Marysville, the shooter sent his ex-girlfriend a series of distraught text messages.

Jaylen Fryberg, 15, and the 15-year-old girl were presumably on bad terms after he was caught with another girl during a party. Though they were seeing other people, Fryberg was begging his ex to take him back.

Related: Ron & Don ask why there were no signs before shooting

Days before Fryberg killed four classmates, wounded another, and killed himself, he told his ex that “his bro” would die for what he did.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Richard Okrent ordered the release of the text messages, saying there was legitimate public interest in releasing the messages, which were part of the police investigation.

Fryberg explained to his ex-girlfriend why he “really broke up [with her].”

“Tell everyone that you tried choking me and threw some punches,” he wrote. “I would have been fine with staying with you but you just went crazy …”

Many of Fryberg’s messages went unanswered. He made a series of threats about killing himself.

“Just please talk me out of this … ” Fryberg wrote. “The guns in my hand …”

The girl told Fryberg to stop texting her, but he wrote on Oct. 22:

“I set the date. …

“You have no idea what I’m talking about. But you will.”

“Bang bang I’m dead.”

There were no more texts to the girl until the morning of the shooting.

“Just please read my messages today,” he wrote to her around 7 a.m. on Oct. 24.

Just after 10:30 a.m. he sent another text to the girl’s cousin.

“Have ___ call me before I do this.”

She wrote back: “Jaylen, stop.”

He replied, “Please just have her call me.”

The cousin told Fryberg she would tell his dad “about your whole ‘killing yourself’ situation,'” which was at about the same time as she told him his ex-girlfriend had blocked his number.

A few minutes later, Fryberg’s ex-girlfriend received a call from a student telling her that Fryberg had just shot people.

“This was a teenager devastated by a breakup,” KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross said.

That’s what it seems like, said co-host Colleen O’Brien, who read through the 1,400-page report released earlier this week. The report included witness interviews, photos, and other phone messages.

The girl’s attorney, Thomas Ahearne, argued that she would be harmed if the texts were made public.

“Broken hearts are as old as time,” Dave continued.

The question remains: Should anyone who Fryberg wasn’t directly messaging have picked up on it? He grew up around guns, so would a reference to weapons draw concern?

If a parent had seen any of those messages, there’s a good chance they would have taken precautions and sanitized the home of firearms, Dave said.

The Associated Press, MyNorthwest’s Stephanie Klein, and KIRO Radio’s Colleen O’Brien contributed to this report.