By Herald staff

MARYSVILLE – Jaylen Fryberg, the 14-year-old who killed one and shot four others before turning the gun on himself in the Marysville-Pilchuck High School cafeteria Friday, was the son of Wendy Fryberg, a former Marysville School Board member.

Friends and family said two of the shooting victims are Nate Hatch and Andrew Fryberg, Jaylen’s cousins. All three freshmen grew up together and went to the homecoming dance as a group earlier this month after Jaylen was voted freshman Homecoming prince.

“They were like three brothers,” said Nate’s grandfather, Don Hatch, also a former Marysville School Board memer. “They were inseparable. They did everything together. It doesn’t seem real.”

Hatch said he couldn’t begin to speculate on a motive.

“Only God knows,” he said. “My feeling is we may never know, not until we get to the other side.”

Hatch went to his grandson’s bedside at Harborview, where he said Nate’s condition was improving. Hatch spent time with Andrew Fryberg’s family as well. Andrew is 15, Nate 14.

The families prayed together, he said.

Hatch also hopes to visit with Jaylen’s family as well and pray with them. The boy recently brought his grandmother a deer he had shot. Feeding elders wild game is an act of great cultural significance.

“God can help us all get through this,” he said.

The high school, which has 1,212 students, will be closed next week.

George Swaney, who taught in the Marysville School District for more than 30 years, had Andrew Fryberg in one of his classes three years ago at Totem Middle School in Marysville.

“Andrew was just a real sweet kid,” Swaney said. “He is one of those kids you can joke around with and he always had a smile on his face.”

For the Langstraat family, Friday’s shooting was just one more traumatic event. Last week, their house in Marysville was hit by five bullets when a Lake Stevens man went on a shooting rampage that spanned three cities.

Michelle Langstraat, a mental-health therapist, was in a session with a client when her elder son, Wyatt, 17, called her about the shooting. Wyatt attends Marysville- Pilchuck and Everett Community College, and was in Everett at the time.

Wyatt’s brother, Noah, 15, was in the M-PHS cafeteria drinking Gatorade when the shooting began. In the commotion he left behind his cellphone and was unable to contact his mother.

It was an agonizing hour of waiting.

“I heard two loud shots and then a slight pause, and then five or six others,” Noah said. “I got on the ground. I knew I had to stay on the ground.”

Noah and his friends pressed close to each other and waited until they felt it was safe to leave the cafeteria.

Sophomore Skylar van der Putten was in another cafeteria at the high school when the shooting occurred. He said he is not afraid to return to school when it reopens.

“I have no idea why he did it,” he said. “It is one kid acting on one weird emotion. He shouldn’t have had access to the gun.”

Michael Dufour, 17, a senior, was eating a ham sandwich and painting a bridge in the back room of an art class. He initially thought the shooting was just a drill.

Like many students, Dufour said the tragedy should not reflect on his school.

“Our school is usually really safe. It is just one of those freak things that happen,” he said. “I just wish it didn’t happen here.”

For his mother, Raquel Dufour, news of the shooting meant leaving work in Lynnwood to search for her son.

“The whole time I’m thinking, ‘Just let me get to my child,’” she said. “As a parent, you just have to see them for yourself. You just have to hold them. I don’t ever want to got through this again.”

Sophomore Jordan Reynolds and her mother, Kim, comforted each other Friday afternoon at the Living Room Coffee House on State Avenue. Kim and her husband, Mike, are pastors at Hillside church. It meets at the coffee house, which they own.

Jordan was in the cafeteria when she heard a pop and saw people running. She stayed with others who hid under the tables. Someone pulled the fire alarm.

Then a police officer ran in and told them to leave.

“As I got up, I could see everything,” she said. “It was horrible. I’ll never forget that. After I’d seen everything, I just started running.”

Jordan found a classroom without windows to hide in. About 30 kids were crammed inside, she said. Many of them knew the shooter and the victims.

Time blurred, but after awhile, a police officer knocked on the door. He led them off campus through a hole in a fence.

As Jordan talked, her mother started to cry. The two paused to hug.

“I’m so sorry, baby girl.”

“It’s OK, Mom, it’s not your fault.”

Hailee Simenson, a junior cheerleader, was in Spanish class when a classmate received a text about the cafeteria shooting. She said she was shocked to learn the shooter’s identity.

“He just never seemed like someone who could do something like that,” she said. “He was a real nice guy. It caught me by surprise and I think it caught a lot of people by surprise.”

Her father, Dan Simenson, said he is thankful for technology. He quickly received texts from Hailee and her older brother, Spencer, confirming they weren’t hurt.

He tempered his immediate relief with long-term concern.

“It is going to be tough on these kids,” he said. “I think that’s the toughest part for me. They will have to live with it forever.”