A TEENAGE lovers’ bitter breakup led to America’s latest high school shooting horror.
In an exclusive interview with The National ENQUIRER, two days after the Oct. 24 tragedy at Marysville-Pilchuck High School the aunt of gunman Jaylen Fryberg’s girlfriend revealed why the troubled youth snapped.
The aunt confirmed her niece Shilene George had been in a toxic romance with Fryberg, a 14-year-old Native American student who had recently been named the school’s freshman “Homecoming Prince.”
The aunt, who asked that we not publish her name, told The ENQUIRER: “He (Fryberg) started to become aggressive and violent and controlling in the relationship, and she (Shilene) was trying to get away from it.”
Shilene – who attended another high school and was not at Fryberg’s school at the time of the shooting – had been Fryberg’s date at his school’s homecoming dance on Oct. 18, a few days before the shooting.
Shilene’s aunt said around the time of the school dance, the couple’s “youthful love exploded with terrible results.”
She revealed that Fryberg had “become violent” and the family agreed Shilene “would remove herself from the abusive relationship.”
The ENQUIRER learned Fryberg wrote to his girlfriend: “I love you, but I hate you. I miss you, but I’m better off without you.”
After the shooting, the aunt said the FBI came to Shilene’s home and interviewed the student.
“They took her cellphone because there was an image he had sent to her from the school just prior to the shooting,” her aunt revealed.
Fryberg’s killing spree erupted when he walked into the school cafeteria with “a blank stare” on his face, according to a witness, and pulled out a .40-caliber handgun.
Student witness Jesse Samra told The ENQUIRER: “I saw him stand up (and) pull the gun out of his backpack.”
A female student, identified as Zoe Galasso, was killed.
Fryberg died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Four others were shot, including female students Shaylee Chuckulnaskit and Gia Soriano, both 14.
The two others who were injured – Nate Hatch, 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15 – were cousins of Fryberg.
As of press time on Oct. 26, all four students were still hospitalized.
Shilene’s aunt told The ENQUIRER: “He may have targeted the boys because they were good friends of Shilene and they didn’t appreciate how he was treating her.”
A student who witnessed the shooting told The ENQUIRER: “Just before shooting one of the girls, he said to her, ‘You’re dead.’”
