Red Lake School Shootings: Investigators feel victims pain

FBI head says Red Lake case takes emotional toll

By Ruben Rosario

St. Paul Pioneer Press

      In Michael Tabman's 22 years as a "G-Man," no case has matched the scope, intensity and emotional drama of last month's deadly shootings at the Red Lake Indian reservation.

      "You are dealing with high emotions," said Tabman, 47, the new head of the Minneapolis-based, 130-agent FBI field office, which also covers the Dakotas. "Everyone up there feels for the families, they feel for the victims, and they feel for the community."

      Tabman said the investigation has taken an emotional toll on agents, and the case is "probably the most unique case of my career."

      Tabman, a New York City native and former Virginia cop and hostage negotiator, was a do-gooder in his adolescence, keeping bullies in check in his Whitestone, Queens, neighborhood.

      "One time, one of the kids said to me, 'Tabman, we are sick and tired of you always doing the right thing,'" he recalled.

      More than 30 years later, he's leading a high-profile investigation into the deadly actions of a troubled 16-year-old gunman who, some say, also was bullied.

FBI stereotype

      In a brief chat in his downtown Minneapolis office this week, Tabman spoke generally about the Red Lake probe. He also tried to counter the usual Hollywood stereotype he sees of FBI agents portrayed as cold-hearted, arrogant, ego-driven or bull-headed stiff shirts.

      "I've noticed that, too, and when they go to an extreme in Hollywood like that, it is sometimes humorous to me," Tabman said. "We are highly trained, educated people, but we are not infallible. We are out there trying to do the best job we can during trying circumstances."

      On March 21, Jeffrey Weise, 16, gunned down nine people - including seven at his high school - before taking his own life. Seven others were wounded in the assault. Tabman was in Washington, D.C., the day of the shooting, and rushed back to lead the ongoing probe, which has involved interviews with 400 people so far, as well as the seizures of 117 computers at the school and reservation.

Tight-lipped

      The usually tight-lipped FBI has cemented an even stronger clamp on the probe. It has not commented on the arrest six days later of the tribal chairman's 16-year old son, reportedly on conspiracy-to-commit-murder charges. It does not even acknowledge the existence of a federal grand jury in Minneapolis that sources say is investigating the shootings, as well as if there may have been other co-conspirators or other people with advance knowledge.

      Most of the reticence has to do with the fact that cases involving juveniles and juvenile proceedings at the federal level are confidential.

      "We know that people want to know more things," Tabman said. "I'm sensitive to that, but we can say what we can only say at this time. You have to weigh the people's right to know versus the privacy of people. We're doing the best we can, and we know it's frustrating for everybody."

      School shootings were not on Tabman's list of top crime fighting priorities when he took over the reins of the local FBI office. Counter-terrorism was - given the arrest here of Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty last Friday to participating in a plan by al-Qaida to fly planes into American buildings. Moussaoui was nabbed while taking lessons at an Eagan, Minn.-based flight school.

      Other areas of work include counter-intelligence and public corruption - two perennial high-profile targets - and cyber crime.

Wanted to be cop

      Tabman first wanted to be a cop in New York, but massive layoffs taking place at the time he graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice forced him to look to Fairfax, Va., where he started with the county's police department before moving to the bureau.

      "When you hear about who is the greatest ... it's the FBI, and you want to be a part of that," Tabman said.

      His biggest case was "Operation Sawbuck," which led to the dismantling of a New York-based money-laundering ring for Colombian drug cartels. The mastermind was sentenced to 666 years in federal prison, a fact Tabman proudly points to from a newspaper headline he has framed in his office. He hopes to be as proud of the Red Lake case, once it's completed.

      "We feel their pain, we have their best interests at heart, and we owe them a thorough investigation," Tabman said of the reservation's residents and affected families. "And that is our goal."