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Jaylen Fryberg: Washington HS Shooter’s Social Media Posts Reveal a Desperate, Love-Sick Teen

Jaylen Fryberg, identified as the shooter in Friday’s rampage at a Washington State high school, was apparently a well-liked, popular student, who was recently voted freshman homecoming prince. Howe...
Jaylen Fryberg: Washington HS Shooter’s Social Media Posts Reveal a Desperate, Love-Sick Teen
Written by Pam Wright
  • Jaylen Fryberg, identified as the shooter in Friday’s rampage at a Washington State high school, was apparently a well-liked, popular student, who was recently voted freshman homecoming prince.

    However, recent social media posts may lead investigators to the darker side of the youth, who killed one other student, shot at least four others, and eventually took his own life.

    The Tulalip Bay, Washington youth’s posts seem to reveal a head-over-heels-in-love teenager who apparently grew more and more upset and desperate when the relationship fell apart.

    “I can’t believe I just witnessed a shooting,” Austin Joyner, a student at the school, said on Twitter. “Kid came into the cafeteria and walked over to a table and pulled out the gun and shot 4-6 shots at students sitting down.”

    Kobe Baumann, 14, told the paper that he was with Fryberg in his Marysville-Pilchuck High School English class shortly before the shooting, and that he appeared to be kind of nervous, according to the Seattle Times.

    “He sits right up in the front,” Baumann said. “He got called on, but he just kept his head down and didn’t really say anything.”

    Fryberg’s social media accounts depict a teen with a passion for sports, music, hunting, family and his Native-American culture.

    Many of Fryberg’s social posts are about the girl with whom he was smitten.

    But, later in June, something has clearly happened in the relationship and the posts become negative, full of expletives. Fryberg seems to threaten something sinister in August.

    Jarron Webb, 15, confirmed to the Seattle Times that the shooter was angry at a girl who would not date him.

    He sent his final tweet on Thursday, the day before the shooting.

    Many took to social media in the aftermath to share their grief over the incident.

    “Over a girl he was heartbroken and didn’t know what to do,” tweeted a 16-year-old, who said she was a cousin of the shooter. “Jaylen wasn’t a bad kid he just made a mistake.”

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