This chronological list of school shootings in the United States before the year 2000 includes any school shootings that occurred at a K-12 public or private school, as well as colleges and universities, and on school buses. Excluded from this list are the following:
Shooting by school staff, where the only victims are other employees, are covered at workplace killings. This list does not include the 1970 Kent State shootings, or bombings such as the Bath School disaster.
incident.
incident.
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1853 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Murder of William Butler Student Mathews Flounoy Ward shot the schoolmaster William H.G. Butler as revenge for what he perceived as an unfair punishment of his brother the day before. Butler died, and Ward was acquitted.[4] | |||
| 1856 | ||||||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | The schoolmaster warned students not to harm his tame sparrow, threatening death. One of the boys stepped on the bird and killed it. When the boy returned to school, the master took the boy into a private room and strangled him. The boy's father upon hearing what had happened went to the school and shot the schoolmaster dead.[5] | |||
| 1858 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | The 15-year-old son of Col. John T. Farlow (Baltimore's Marshal of Police 1867–70), was killed during a Sabbath School gathering. The perpetrator escaped, but several arrests were made.[6] | |||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | A son of Col. Elijah Sebree was killed by another student. He had been led to believe that Young Sebree was threatening him; the latter student got a gun and fatally shot Sebree in the schoolhouse.[7] | |||
| 1864 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | George W. Longfelt (or George W. Langfitt), the school teacher of the Pyfer's School House, killed student Alfred Desem (or Albert Diesem) and fled.[8] [9] | |||
| 1867 | ||||||
| 2[10] | 0 | 2 | Mr. McGinnis was killed by his daughter's teacher George T. Cheshire after McGinnis threatened the teacher for expelling his daughter from school. When McGinnis' son learned of this, he went to the school and killed the teacher.[11] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Frank Pope, a pupil at St. John's seminary, shot and killed his teacher Mr. Bristow.[12] | |||
| Buffalo, New York | 0 | 1 | 1 | 13-year-old Arthur Day secretly took a loaded pistol to PS No. 18 to shoot a dog he said had bitten him. While playing with the pistol, Day accidentally shot and wounded classmate Robert Morton.[13] | ||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1871 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | John Roberts, aged 10 or 12, was accidentally shot in the eye at school and died.[14] | |||
| 1872 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | At the all-girls Union School, 17-year-old Thomas McGiffin shot and seriously wounded the principal, Prof. Wilson, in the hip because Wilson refused to deliver a note to one of the girls. McGiffin was a son of Col. Norton McGiffin, and brother of US naval hero Philo McGiffin.[15] | |||
| 1873 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A man shot the school mistress for whipping his son.[16] | |||
| 1874 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | After being ejected from school for disobedience, 20-year-old Thomas Squires fatally shot Prof. Hayes three times in the abdomen.[17] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | John Robert Breckinridge, son of the late Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, attending classes in law at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, was killed by John L. Anderson, the Mayor's son. The latter was reportedly "crazed with liquor."[18] [19] | |||
| 1878 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 13-year-old boy, Luckert, accidentally shot and wounded Allie McDonald, another boy at the Neill school. The youth was expected to recover. His mother Mrs. McDonald went to the police station, but did not file a formal complaint.[20] | |||
| 1879 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | Telegraph operator Frank Shugart shot and severely injured Mr. Carr, superintendent of the stables at a girls' school.[21] | |||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1881 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | While working late at the schoolhouse on a program for the children's concert, Mr. O'Donnell, the school master, and Mr. Williams, one of the parents, got into an argument. Williams fatally shot O'Donnell in the back.[22] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | School teacher Charles J. Gregory shot at a pupil at close range because he refused to write on a slate. The bullet missed the boy. The teacher was arrested.[23] | |||
| 1882 | ||||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A group of boys shot into a schoolhouse, but no one was hurt. Two of the boys were arrested and pleaded guilty three weeks later. They were fined $9.00 each.[24] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | G.W. Gray, a student at the Sam Houston Normal School, shot and wounded another student, M.J. Jordan. They were arguing over a comic valentine.[25] | |||
| 1883 | ||||||
| 0 | 3 | 3 | As some children were playing and throwing snowballs outside the Ponca Creek schoolhouse, Lem Harbaugh and the Shipley brothers, three young men, pulled up in a wagon and engaged the children in a snowball fight. One of the Shipley brothers had a .45-caliber needle gun. As the children kept throwing snowballs, Harbaugh aimed the gun at them. The lock was faulty and the gun went off; he wounded Mamie Shipley, Joy Price, and Marquis Price. Harbaugh later surrendered himself to the authorities.[26] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A bunch of drunken cowboys stopped at several schoolhouses, forcing two teachers to drink whiskey, and firing numerous shots at three schoolhouses.[27] | |||
| 1884 | ||||||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | As Allen Wamack, a 15-year-old boy, drove by an all black schoolhouse, he called out "school butter" (an insult meaning a cobbing, or a whipping).[28] The students came out and fired several shots at him; he shot back, hitting two students.[29] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | As news of outlaw Jesse James reached the East Coast, young boys started to imitate him. For instance, boys shot at police investigating their activities at the Concord Street schoolhouse.[30] | |||
| 1887 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Will Guess shot and killed teacher Miss Irene Fann, for whipping his little sister the day before.[31] | |||
| 1889 | ||||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Charles Crawford, upset over an argument with a school trustee, went up to the window and fired a pistol into a crowded schoolroom. The bullet lodged in the wall just above the teacher's head.[32] | |||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890 | |||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | While the pupils of the Meridian Street School were at play, student Ben Corbery drew a revolver and seriously wounded 10-year-old Cora Brubach in the face. Cora had told the teacher about Ben's misconduct.[33] | ||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At Kable's Military Academy, 15-year-old A.H. Hathaway of Denison, Texas, was accidentally shot and killed by his 17-year-old classmate James Whitworth of Sulphur Springs, Texas, while they were playing with an old pistol.[34] | ||||
| 1891 | |||||||
| 0 | 14 | 14 | During a school exhibition and concert at the Parson Hill schoolhouse, an unknown gunman fired a double-barreled shotgun into the mixed audience, made up of black and white students, parents and teachers. 14 people were wounded, some seriously.[35] | ||||
| 0 | data-sort-value="2" | 2+ | 2+ | 70-year-old James Foster fired a shotgun at a group of students in the playground of St. Mary's Parochial School, causing minor injuries to several of the students.[36] | |||
| 1893 | |||||||
| 4 | 1 | 5 | During an evening school dance at Plain Dealing High School, a fight broke out. Two students were shot and killed immediately, two more were fatally wounded, and the high school's Professor Johnson was wounded in the arm.[37] | ||||
| 1898 | |||||||
| 6 | data-sort-value="3" | 3+ | 9+ | During the school exhibition, a group of young men tried to break up a student performance. When teacher Mr. Fisher tried to throw them out, they turned on him. Audience members joined the fray. Harry Flasher was shot and instantly killed, Henry Carney was fatally shot in the back, Ralph Jones and two others were also fatally shot, and George Gibson was shot in the hand; Haz Harding had his skull crushed, and several others received minor wounds.[38] | |||
Total incidents listed here in this section (19th century):
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1903 | |||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Edward Foster, a 17-year-old student at Inman High School, was fatally wounded by his teacher Reuben Pitts after jerking a rod from Pitts' hands to avoid punishment. According to the teacher, Foster struck the pistol Pitts had drawn, and caused it to fire. Pitts was acquitted of murder on grounds of self-defense.[39] | ||||
| 2[40] | 1 | 3 | At the Cave Run School, James Barrett and Mack Howard argued over a card game and fought a duel with pistols, killing each other. Twelve-year-old student James Vires was shot in the abdomen while sitting at his desk during the gunfight.[41] | ||||
| 1904 | |||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Two students had been fighting for months over a girl. Henry Schaze threw 16-year-old Paul Jelick to the ground, drew a revolver, and killed his rival.[42] | ||||
| 2 | 1 | 3 | At the Indian School, a gun fight broke out between pupils. Charles Colby was shot in the head with a pistol, then returned fire, killing Tom Bucanoros, and fatally wounding Fred Smith.[43] | ||||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | Parent E.E. Mangum was shot through the head and killed by the principal of the high school, Professor J. E. Woodward, after shooting the principal in the hand. Mangum had argued with Woodward, who had given Mangum's 15-year-old son a severe whipping.[44] | ||||
| 1905 | |||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | The meeting of 17-year-old Elmer Hildreth with a school Trustee ended in an armed encounter over Hildreth's being suspended. When Mr. Ingrim went after Hildreth with an axe, Hildreth shot him in the stomach. Hildreth was arrested and was found to have acted in self-defense; no charges were filed. Ingrim survived.[45] | ||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Parent George Nicholson killed John Kurd at a schoolhouse during a school rehearsal. Kurd had made a disparaging remark about Nicholson's daughter during her recital.[46] | ||||
| 1907 | |||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Nine-year-old Arthur Roberts was shot in the head and killed outside his school during a military drill by school children of the Dayton school district. Armed with old guns believed to be empty, the children had pulled the triggers.[47] | ||||
| 1908 | |||||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | At around 6 a.m., as George O Mortensen, 35-year-old janitor of the Washington Street School building, was unlocking the outer door of the school. Someone discharged a shotgun from a few feet away. The shot riddled the door within a foot of his head.[48] | ||||
| sort | Fenway–Kenmore, Massachusetts | 2[49] | 0 | 2 | 39-year-old teacher Miss Sarah Chamberlain Weed killed 34-year-old teacher Elizabeth Bailey Hardee, then shot herself, at the Laurens School, a fashionable boarding school. Weed was said to be suffering from melancholia (depression).[50] | ||
| 1909 | |||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | During a school performance of The Grand Central, John Moake, portraying the villain, was shot in the forehead and dangerously wounded by the hero, Roy Slater. The cartridge was thought to have been blank.[51] | ||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Walter Harris, an 11-year-old student, accidentally shot his teacher, B. C. Briggs, in the head while on a school field trip, killing him.[52] | ||||
| sort | White Rock Township, Missouri | 1 | 0 | 1 | John Butram, a student at the Bear Hollow School, told his fellow students that school was cancelled. The teacher, A. T. Kelly, said it was not. When Butram drew a knife on his teacher, Kelly shot and killed him.[53] | ||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1910 | ||||||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | "A black-bearded maniac drew an automatic pistol" and fired five shots into a crowd of boys at the Harlem School, who were taunting him. Six-year-old Robert Lomas was hit and died instantly; six-year-old Arthur Shively was critically wounded.[54] | |||
| 1 | data-sort-value="2" | 2+ | 3+ | A general fight broke out during school board elections. Lewis Napier was shot and killed, and several other people were hurt. Several men were arrested.[55] | ||
| 1911 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | During a school play rehearsal, a boy loaded his revolver, unknown to others. Pearl Reedy, an 18-year-old student who was to use the gun in the play, said she was afraid to handle it. The teacher, Sister Rose, said that the gun was not operational. She pointed it at the ground and squeezed the trigger. The bullet ricocheted and wounded Reedy in the shoulder.[56] | |||
| 1912 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | During a stone throwing confrontation near the Oriental School on Clay Street, a group of white boys became trapped between two groups of Chinese boys. Jose Aguilar fired a BB shot air rifle twice to frighten the Chinese. Wong She, age 10, had a gun and fired back. One bullet passed through Aguilar's coat sleeve and fatally struck 14-year-old James Kane in the school's rear yard.[57] [58] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 14-year-old May McQuade was killed by classmate Raymond B. Carroll. Carroll said the shooting was accidental, as he did not think the gun was loaded.[59] | |||
| 1914 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | While walking to school, 14-year-old Charles Listman killed 15-year-old Andrew Milton over rivalry for classmate 13-year-old Minnie London.[60] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 15-year-old W.J. Vanardle opened fire in a classroom, causing no casualties. He was disarmed by a janitor.[61] | |||
| 1915 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | During a parent-teachers' meeting, 15-year-old student Murlan Decker was accidentally shot by his younger brother, Luther.[62] | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 20-year-old Will Yates, teacher of Clear Pond School in Hamilton County, Florida, was shot and killed in a fight with Claude Holtzendorff and his two sons. The Holtzendorffs objected to one of the boys being whipped at school. When they showed up, Yates had armed himself. He shot the father through the mouth, and was fatally shot through the body, dying an hour later.[63] | |||
| 1916 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | Olga Dahl, the 19-year-old teacher at the Round Lake District School, was found tied to a tree near the school, assaulted, and shot twice in the face. She had been working late after school, when a man with a revolver entered the schoolhouse and ordered her to obey him. He raped and shot her; she was expected to live. A group of men in Itasca County, Minnesota joined in hunting the assailant.[64] [65] | |||
| 1 | data-sort-value="2" | 2+ | 3+ | During the Christmas tree celebration at the Harris Creek School, a fight broke out in the room packed with children and visitors. William Benedict Sr. was instantly killed, William Benedict Jr. was shot in the ankle, Bourdon Galloway was shot in the right arm, and Mike Gaddis was shot in the leg. Many others were injured. Thomas Thornton had been drinking and objected to Benedict telling him to calm down. Thornton's brother George left the room and returned with a revolver.[66] | ||
| 1917 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | Sixteen-year-old freshman Earl Wolf was accidentally shot in the leg with a revolver about noon, in the company of classmates at Central High School.[67] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Brothers 16-year-old William and 15-year-old Ralph Carter broke into the May Public School, robbing the phone boxes and teachers' desks. When they were discovered by janitor Howard Parks and policeman Thomas Conway, the latter shot at them. William was critically wounded and not expected to live; Ralph Carter was taken to jail.[68] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | At the Perkins School's Thanksgiving night pie supper, 21-year-old teacher Joe Todd, was mysteriously shot. He was expected to recover.[69] | |||
| 1918 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At the Lincoln Institute, State Negro Normal School, 31-year-old Professor Romeo West, was killed in the dormitory by superintendent of school Theodore Martin. They were arguing about dishes to use at a social. Martin said he shot in self-defense, fatally hitting West with three of five shots.[70] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | During the afternoon recess, a boy was looking over a 22-caliber rifle; it discharged, striking the head of the Coyne boy in the seat to the front, killing him instantly.[71] | |||
| 1919 | ||||||
| Philadelphia, Missouri | 0 | 0 | 0 | While school was in session, Hugh Claggett shot through the schoolhouse's front door, while on his way home from work. No one was hurt, and he was fined $20.[72] | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | During a high school assembly, six boys shot off their guns. Permission had been given in the belief the guns were loaded with blanks, but they had live shot. Teacher Verna Davidson was shot in the foot.[73] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | Roger Sprague, an assistant in the department of chemistry at the University of California, despondent over his inability to obtain a position, shot and wounded 59-year-old Professor Edmond O'Neill, head of department, and 37-year-old Dr. Joel Henry Hildebrand, professor of chemistry, in the offices of Gilman Hall. He went to California Hall and shot at 57-year-old May L. Cheney, appointment secretary, but hit only one of her hair combs before he was subdued.[74] | |||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | At the Durant Normal School, teacher Albert McFarland, was seriously wounded by one of his pupils.[75] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 14-year-old student Lawrence Angel shot his teacher, Beatrice Conner, through the arm for sending him to the principal's office.[76] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | At the High School, 15-year-old student Alexander Potter fired six shots at his teacher, Prof. Ransom, but missed. Potter was upset over having been whipped and expelled. He was sentenced to six years at a reform school.[77] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | While attending her son's school track meet, Mrs. F. Mahl was killed accidentally by a shot from the starter's pistol.[78] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | Mike Smults, the night watchman at the Utah school for the Deaf and Blind, shot a 10-year-old boy, Dennis McDonald, as he and his brother Clinton cut through the campus. The watchman said he fired into the air as a warning.[79] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | Mrs. Carmila Rindoni went to the school and twice shot Rosalind I. Reynolds, her son's teacher, for spanking her son the day before. Mrs. Rindoni was arrested; Miss Reynolds was expected to recover.[80] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Prof. Barnes of Middlesboro High School was fatally shot by Adolphus Oaks for whipping Oaks' sister the week before. Barnes had submitted his resignation to the school board, as students had boycotted his class in protest over the whipping. He intended to leave the city that weekend. Oaks went to jail.[81] | |||
| 1922 | ||||||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | John Glover broke into the schoolhouse, where he killed a girl and fatally wounded a boy. A mob tracked and killed Glover in Indianola (now Naylor, Georgia).[82] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Bryant Hignight and four other students were at the outhouse of the Mount Zion school. Hignight fired two shots. One instantly killed Raymond Guinn. When questioned, the other three boys said it was an accident.[83] | |||
| 1926 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 12-year-old Frederick Heilman was shot through the right instep when Gettysburg College janitor Joseph Carver fired toward a group of boys trying to force their way into the college gymnasium. Carver had shot into the ground, and did not realize a bullet had ricocheted. Heilman's father did not press charges.[84] | |||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1930 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 24-year-old Douglas Petersen, killed 20-year-old teacher, Margaret Wegman, who was standing in the doorway of a rural schoolhouse.[85] | |||
| 1931 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Katherine McMillen, 24-year-old teacher at the Howard Gensen rural school near Duluth, was accidentally killed by a pupil who brought a revolver to school.[86] | |||
| 1934 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Headmaster Elliott Speer was murdered by a shotgun blast through the window at Northfield Mount Hermon School. The crime was never solved.[87] | |||
| 1936 | ||||||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | Wesley Clow killed his Lehigh University English instructor, C. Wesley Phy, for giving him a failing grade. Clow committed suicide after shooting Phy.[88] | |||
| 1937 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 16-year-old Robert Douthitt was accidentally killed backstage during high school play practice. The revolver was to have been loaded with blanks, but it held live ammunition.[89] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | 12-year-old Robert Snyder wounded his principal, June Mapes, in her office at Arlington Public School when she declined his request to call a classmate. He fled the grounds and wounded himself.[90] | |||
| 1938 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 17-year-old Edward Marley was accidentally killed by a fellow actor with a loaded gun while rehearsing for a play at Blencoe High School.[91] | |||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1940 | |||||||
| 5 | 2 | 7 | Verlin Spencer, the 38-year-old principal of South Pasadena Junior High School, killed five of his colleagues and left another seriously injured in shootings at two locations. Spencer had a long history of clashes with faculty and staff and was forced to serve a three-week involuntary leave of absence the year prior. When cornered by police, he shot himself in a suicide attempt but survived and was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences. Three years later, Spencer learned that the blood sample taken after his arrest was found to have high levels of bromide, a popular painkiller he took for headaches. While the amount was high enough to render him legally insane at the time of the shooting, he did not receive a retrial but was released from prison in 1970.[92] [93] [94] | ||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Angered by the refusal of his daughter, 15-year-old Melba, to leave a boarding school and return home, 47-year-old Joseph Moshell went to the school and shot and killed his daughter.[95] Moshell was sentenced to death for the murder; the governor of New York later commuted his sentence to life in prison.[96] | ||||
| 1942 | |||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Irwin Goodman, 36-year-old mathematics teacher at William J. Gaynor Junior High School, was shot and killed in the school corridor by two boys.[97] | ||||
| 1946 | |||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 15-year-old student was shot in the chest at the PS 147 annex of Brooklyn Automotive Trades High School after refusing to give money to a gang of seven youths.[98] | ||||
| 1948 | |||||||
| Ramapo, New York | 1 | 0 | 1 | A 14-year-old student was fatally wounded in the head by a shot from fellow student, 17-year-old Robert Ross, when he happened to be into range where Ross was target shooting near a lake at the school, and was caught in the crossfire.[99] | |||
| 1949 | |||||||
| sort | East Village, New York | 0 | 1 | 1 | A 16-year-old student at Stuyvesant High School was accidentally shot in the arm by a fellow student who was "showing off" with a pistol in a classroom.[100] | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Ohio State University freshman James Heer took a .45-caliber handgun from the room of a Delta Tau Delta fraternity brother and killed 21-year-old Jack McKeown, a senior and fraternity brother.[101] Heer was sentenced to life in prison for the crime.[102] | ||||
| sort | Bronzeville, Illinois | 1 | 0 | 1 | 16-year-old LaVon Cain of DuSable High School was shot to death at the school after a group of female students began shooting at another group of female students. The shooting was over domestic disputes that had occurred days prior. Edwina Howard, aged 19, and two other teenage girls were charged in the shooting.[103] The shooting was noted as one of the first fatal shootings in a Chicago public school.[104] | ||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | |||||||
| January 31, 1950 | Evanston, Illinois | 0 | 1 | 1 | A 13-year-old boy shot his classmate, 13-year-old Nancy Penfield, in the neck with a pistol at Skokie High School.[105] | ||
| March 16, 1950 | Los Angeles, California | 0 | 0 | 0 | Five young gangsters fired three shots at members of a rival gang once classes were dismissed at Roosevelt High School.[106] | ||
| March 20, 1950 | Antlers, Oklahoma | 0 | 1 | 1 | A 12-year-old boy shot 15-year-old Byron Baker in the abdomen on the grounds of Antlers High School as revenge for a fight they had the previous day.[107] | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 16-year-old boy was shot in the wrist and abdomen at the PS 141 dance during an argument with a former classmate.[108] | ||||
| October 8, 1950 | New Orleans, Louisiana | 0 | 6 | 6 | Two unidentified suspected gangsters opened fire on each other from opposite ends of a balcony at Book T. Washington High School while a jazz band was playing. Six bystanders were slightly injured, and the gunmen fled the scene.[109] | ||
| 1951 | |||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 61-year-old Henry Suhre, quartermaster at Western Military Academy, was killed in the cadet store on campus.[110] | ||||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | Professor W.E. Sweatt, superintendent and teacher at the Alexander School, was killed by 16-year-old Billy Ray Powell and 19-year-old Hugh Justice, students whom he had reprimanded. The boys fled and also shot Wade Johnson, 15, for reporting their rule infraction to Sweatt.[111] | ||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 15-year-old student David Brooks was fatally shot in front of other pupils. Two former students were sought by police.[112] | ||||
| 1952 | |||||||
| Rabun Gap, Georgia | 1 | 0 | 1 | A 15-year-old boarding school student shot a dean rather than give up his pin-up pictures of girls in bathing suits.[113] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Bayard Peakes shot and killed secretary Eileen Fahey at the American Physical Society (APS) office at Columbia University, where he was reportedly upset that the APS had rejected a paper of his.[114] Peakes was deemed insane by a judge; he was held at an asylum for the criminally insane until his death in 2000.[115] | ||||
| Old Norwood Park, Illinois | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16-year-old Lawrence Karr and 17-year-old James Bergan broke into Taft High School, stole two ROTC carbines and ammunition, and vandalized the school with the guns. Both were convicted of burglary and sentenced to one to two years in prison.[116] | |||
| 1953 | |||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 61-year-old Special Deputy Vernon Graves was accidentally shot in the face with a shotgun at the Fairview school.[117] | ||||
| May 19, 1953 | Miami, Florida | 0 | 1 | 1 | 29-year-old Paul Singer, a teacher, was teaching firearm safety to his students at Edison Junior High School when his pistol slipped from its holster and discharged when it struck the floor. The bullet hit Singer in the lower abdomen, severely wounding him.[118] | ||
| sort | Brighton Park, Illinois | 1 | 0 | 1 | 14-year-old Bernice Turner killed 14-year-old Pasquale Coletta inside the science classroom at Kelly High School. The shooting was later ruled to be accidental.[119] | ||
| 1954 | |||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 14-year-old John Frankenberger was accidentally killed in a classroom at Day Junior High School when a pistol held by a classmate discharged.[120] | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Putnam Davis Jr. was killed during a fraternity house carnival at the Phi Delta Theta house at the University of North Carolina. William Joyner and Allen Long were wounded during the exchange of gunfire in their room. The incident followed an all-night beer party. Long told police that Davis pulled out a gun and started shooting while the three were drinking beer at 7 a.m.[121] | ||||
| 1955 | |||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | After some of his dormmates urinated on his mattress during a hazing, Robert B. Bechtel, a 22-year-old student proctor at Swarthmore College, returned to his Wharton Hall dorm with a shotgun and killed fellow student 19-year-old Francis Holmes Strozier.[122] Betchtel was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity and spent five years in a psychiatric hospital.[123] | ||||
| January 26, 1955 | Charlotte, North Carolina | 0 | 1 | 1 | 15-year-old Kenneth Ray Griffin was showing his stepfather's pistol to his friends in the restroom of A. J. Junior High School when he accidentally fired it, striking 14-year-old Jack Plummer in the left side.[124] | ||
| 1956 | |||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 14-year-old Peter Ray Forger shot and wounded 15-year-old William Shurlow after a disagreement at Edmore High School. Forger was charged with assault with attempt to murder.[125] | ||||
| March 13/21, 1956 | Lakeland, Florida | 1 | 1 | 2 | 24-year-old Clarke Gavin Jr. shot one student of Florida Southern College in the foot and fired at a second student because his wife had been having an affair with them. As punishment, he was expelled from the school. Gavin later killed his friend, 23-year-old Anthony McBride, at McBride's apartment. Gavin was later acquitted by reason of insanity and sent to a mental hospital.[126] | ||
| April 5, 1956 | Salisbury, Maryland | 0 | 0 | 0 | Three drunk Navy veterans fired shots into the windows of the Wicomico Senior High School's gymnasium and a parked car at night.[127] | ||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 15-year-old student Billy Ray Prevatte fatally shot 32-year-old teacher Frazer Cameron and injured 25-year-old athletic coach Francis Daniel Wagner and 31-year-old teacher Robert Hicks at Maryland Park Junior High School. He left after waiting outside the principal's office for a reprimand due to failing to turn in a written physical education assignment; he returned with a rifle, shooting the three staff members.[128] Prevatte was sentenced to 30 years in prison and was released in 1988.[129] | ||||
| May 7, 1956 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 0 | 2 | 2 | Burlie Lord and James Pollard, both 17, shot each other in the basement of Overbrook High School due to a gang feud.[130] | ||
| sort | Manhattan Valley, New York | 0 | 1 | 1 | A Booker T. Washington Junior High School student was shot and wounded in the forearm by another student armed with a homemade weapon.[131] | ||
| 1957 | |||||||
| February 16, 1957 | Lolo, Montana | 0 | 1 | 1 | A 16-year-old boy was shooting at a target in the snow at his home. The bullet went through the snow and hit Manley Brown, a student in the schoolyard of a school a quarter mile away from where the bullet was fired.[132] | ||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 16-year-old student was shot in the leg by a 15-year-old classmate at a city high school.[133] | ||||
| 1958 | |||||||
| sort | Park Slope, New York | 0 | 1 | 1 | A 17-year-old student shot the future major league baseball player Joe Pepitone (who was also 17 years old at the time) through his stomach at the Manual Training High School.[134] [135] | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | A 15-year-old Massapequa High School freshman was killed by a classmate in a washroom.[136] | ||||
| September 5, 1958 | Dallas, Texas | 0 | 1 | 1 | A student was shot and severely injured while attending a Latin class in Booker T. Washington High School.[137] | ||
| September 11, 1958 | Dallas, Texas | 0 | 0 | 1 | Two students of Lincoln High School were having a shootout in the hallway until teachers restrained them. | ||
| 1959 | |||||||
| April 25, 1959 | Nash County, North Carolina | 0 | 0 | 0 | Three teenagers vandalized North Whitakers Colored School by breaking eight windows with an automatic rifle and egg-sized rocks, causing over $300 in damage.[138] | ||
| sort | Melrose, New York | 1 | 0 | 1 | 27 men and boys were arrested and an arsenal was seized in the Bronx as the police headed off a gang war resulting from the fatal shooting of a teenager at Morris High School.[139] | ||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | ||||||
| 3 | 0 | 3 | Hartford City, Indiana, Principal Leonard Redden shot and killed two teachers with a shotgun at William Reed Elementary School before fleeing into a remote forest, where he committed suicide.[140] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 14-year-old Donna Dvorak brought a target pistol to Dubose Junior High School and fatally shot 15-year-old Bobby Whitford in their 9th-grade science class. Dvorak believed Whitford posed a threat to one of her girlfriends.[141] | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 41-year-old mail carrier Lester Betts confronted 33-year-old principal Carson Hammond in his Blaine Elementary School office and shot him dead with a 12-gauge shotgun in apparent jealousy over Hammond's relationships with his former wife. Betts later committed suicide.[142] [143] | |||
| 1961 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Donald Kurtz, a 17-year-old senior at Delmont High School, was fatally wounded by a .22-caliber bullet from a rifle. The shot, intended as a sound effect for a school play, hit him in the chest during a rehearsal minutes before the play was to take place.[144] | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 14-year-old Tennyson Beard got into an argument with 15-year-old William Hachmeister at Morey Junior High School, shooting and wounding him. Another shot fatally struck 14-year-old Deborah Faith Humphrey. Beard attempted suicide but survived. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.[145] [146] | |||
| 1963 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 15-year-old Augie Holmquist, a student at Jefferson High School, was in the locker room after swimming class and was shot twice in the back and once in the hip with a .22-caliber revolver by student, 16-year-old Randy Schultz. Schultz ran home and told his parents to call the police. The boys had been playing water polo, and Holmquist had reportedly dunked Shultz. When Schultz objected, Holmquist hit him. Schultz retaliated with a gun.[147] | |||
| 1966 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 48-year-old teacher John S. Lane was fatally wounded when he tried to stop 16-year-old student James Arthur Frampton, who was armed with a shotgun and seeking boys he had argued with earlier that day. Lane died about six weeks later.[148] Frampton was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder.[149] | |||
| 18 | 31 | 49 | University of Texas tower shooting 25-year-old engineering student Charles Whitman fatally shot 15 people and wounded 31 more during a 96-minute shooting rampage from the observation deck of the university. He was shot and killed by police. He had earlier murdered his wife and his mother at their homes.[150] It was the deadliest shooting on a U.S. college campus until the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007. | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | Grand Rapids High School student 15-year-old David Black killed school administrator Forrest Willey and seriously wounded a fellow student, 14-year-old Kevin Roth.[151] Black was tried as an adult and was paroled after serving five years of a 25-year sentence.[152] | |||
| 5 | 2 | 7 | 1966 Rose-Mar College of Beauty shooting 18-year-old Robert Smith took seven people, including four students, into a backroom at Rose-Mar College of Beauty and ordered them to lie down in a circle. He shot each in the head. Four women and a 3-year-old girl died; another woman and a baby were injured but survived. Police arrested Smith, who reportedly admired Richard Speck and Charles Whitman.[153] Smith was sentenced to death in Arizona's gas chamber, but his sentence was commuted to life when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in 1972. | |||
| 1967 | ||||||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 18-year-old dropout Michael Pisarski killed his former girlfriend, 17-year-old Christine Mitchell, inside West Leyden High School. The school's athletic director was wounded.[154] Pisarski was sentenced to a minimum of 35 years to a maximum of 60 years in prison, with 4–5 years to be served concurrently for the aggravated battery of the athletic director.[155] [156] | |||
| 1968 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 16-year-old Blanche Ward killed fellow student 16-year-old Linda Lipscomb at Miami Jackson High School. According to Ward, she was threatened with a razor by Lipscomb during an argument over a fountain pen, and in the ensuing struggle, her gun went off.[157] Ward pled guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to eight years in prison.[158] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 15-year-old David Lee Walker was killed just outside Central High School by 15-year-old Gerald Locklear.[159] Locklear was tried as an adult and was sentenced to 30 years in prison but was released after serving only 11.[160] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | Ernest Lee Grissom, a 15-year-old student at Drew Junior High School, seriously wounded a teacher and a 13-year-old student after he had been reprimanded for behavior.[161] | |||
| sort | Canaryville, Illinois | 0 | 1 | 1 | At Tilden High School, a violent clash between black and white students occurred when black students walked out of classes after a school pep rally was cancelled. Black and white members of neighborhood street gangs gathered in front of the school and began fighting; which resulted in a 16-year-old white student being shot.[162] | |
| 1969 | ||||||
| sort | Westwood, California | 2 | 0 | 2 | Alprentice Carter and John Huggins, two student members of the Black Panther Party, were fatally shot during a student meeting inside Campbell Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles. Reportedly there was disagreement over who would control the school's African American Studies Center. The shooter, Claude Hubert, was never found; three other men were later arrested in connection with the shooting.[163] | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 45-year-old Cardozo Senior High School assistant principal Herman Clifford was killed in the school's hallway by 18-year-old Ronald Joyner while trying to stop him and two other youths who had robbed the school's bank.[164] | |||
| sort | Canaryville, Illinois | 0 | 1 | 1 | A 17-year-old student was shot when a racially motivated brawl erupted involving white and black students at Tilden High School. The brawl began in the school's auditorium and continued outside the school building. Eight Chicago police officers were injured and six students were charged with disorderly conduct in the incident.[165] | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 13-year-old Ernest Napoleon Carter Jr. was accidentally killed by a 13-year-old classmate at Hanes Junior High School who was armed with a pistol. The shooter was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Carter's mother filed a lawsuit against the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education for $50,000 in damages.[166] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 46-year-old Martin Mogensen, principal of Tomah Junior High School, was killed in his office by a 14-year-old boy.[167] the student was determined to be in diminished capacity at the time of the shooting and was put into the Mendota State Hospital instead of being sent to jail and was released from the hospital in 1972.[168] | |||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | ||||||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 15-year-old Tyrone Perry was killed at Hine Junior High School and another student was injured.[169] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 14-year-old student shot and wounded another boy at John Philip Sousa Junior High School.[170] | |||
| 2 | 1 | 3 | University of Pennsylvania professors 40-year-old Walter Koppelman and 45-year-old Oscar Goldman were shot by 33-year-old disgruntled graduate student Robert Cantor during a seminar. Cantor then took his own life. Koppelman died March 5 from his injuries, but Goldman recovered.[171] | |||
| Pine Bluff, Arkansas | 1 | 5 | 6 | There was a shooting at Coleman High School resulting in five injuries and one death.[172] | ||
| April 23, 1970 | Wilmington, Delaware | 1 | 0 | 1 | A PS duPont High School, 17-year-old football player Derek A. Johnson, was shot and killed by teammate 16-year-old Carlton E. Thornton, who had confronted him to stop the bullying against his siblings. Thornton was sentenced to 10 years in prison but was released on probation after serving seven years.[173] | |
| September 28, 1970 | Davenport, Iowa | 0 | 0 | 0 | A student fired a shot in the school bathroom at Central High School.[174] | |
| October 5, 1970 | Pontiac, Michigan | 0 | 4 | 4 | Outside of Pontiac Central High School four students were wounded after a fight broke out among many students and one of the students drew a pistol and fired, no perpetrators had been identified.[175] [176] [177] | |
| sort | Roseland, Illinois | 0 | 2 | 2 | Two students were shot while standing in a second-floor hallway of Harlan High School. Fifteen-year-old Kenneth House was shot in the lower left abdomen and left in serious condition. 14-year-old Portia Walls suffered a superficial wound on her lower back. The incident was thought to have involved gang recruiting in the school.[178] | |
| 1971 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 56-year-old teacher Samson L. Freedman was killed by 14-year-old student Kevin Simmons as he left Morris E. Leeds School. Freedman had suspended Simmons earlier in the day for cursing in the hallway.[179] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | At Benton Harbor High School, A 16-year-old male student was shot and injured due to a feud between students.[180] [181] [182] | |||
| 2 | 4 | 6 | 21-year-old former MIT student Larry J. Harmon, armed with a rifle, killed 68-year-old caretaker Hilary Kunzon, who came upon him wrecking St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, then fled onto the campus of Gonzaga University, where he wounded four more people before he was shot and killed by police. Harmon was described by his father as a religious fanatic claiming to have visions.[183] | |||
| 1972 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 16-year-old student at Stow High School shot and wounded his chemistry teacher during an argument.[184] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | [185] [186] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | At Tulare Western High School, student Albert Greenwood Brown brought a gun to school which he accidentally fired and grazed another student in the head.[187] [188] [189] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | On May 4, 1972, 33-year-old Libby Booth Elementary school principal Virgil Ouren was shot three times with a 22-caliber pistol which killed him instantly. The shooter, sixth grade teacher 53-year-old Samuel Grinstead Knipmeyer fled to Mexico, then moved to California and finally to Bend, Oregon where he was arrested on October 26, 1977.[190] [191] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At Decatur Central High School sophomore student George Jenkins was shot to death in his classroom by his sister Mickey who was a senior student.[192] [193] [194] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | Dean Henry S. Coleman, the dean of students for Columbia College, was shot three times by 20-year-old Eldridge McKinney at his office in Hamilton Hall. McKinney had been expelled and had gotten into an argument with Coleman, demanding to be reinstated before pulling out a pistol.[195] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | At Saginaw High School, A 17-year-old male student shot two other 17-year-old male students at in the school hallway due to a longstanding argument between two of the students, the third student was an innocent bystander.[196] [197] [198] | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | At Southern University during a peaceful protest, two African American students were shot and killed by white sheriffs deputies. The deputies who fired the shots were never identified.[199] [200] [201] [202] | |||
| 0 | 5 | 5 | At Pontiac Central High School five students were wounded, one seriously when a crowd of students gathered around a 16-year-old white student who was being kicked and beaten up by black students when 16-year-old Roderick Bortón, another student pushed through the crowd and opened fire with a 22-caliber pistol, the fight and shooting were believed to be racially motivated.[203] | |||
| 1973 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 17-year-old Wayne Phillips was killed when he was caught between two youths who were fighting in the hallway of Armstrong High School.[204] | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | School superintendent Marcus Foster was killed and his assistant Robert Blackburn was wounded when members of the Symbionese Liberation Army opened fire on them as they exited a school board meeting. Two members of the SLA were later arrested and convicted of the crime. Both were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The SLA had reportedly believed that Foster supported a measure to install police on school grounds and make students carry identification cards. In reality, Foster opposed both measures.[205] | |||
| 1974 | ||||||
| sort | Auburn Gresham, Illinois | 1 | 3 | 4 | 52-year-old elementary school principal Rudolph Jezek Jr. was killed in his office by 14-year-old Steven Guy, a former student. Assistant principal Gordon Sharp and janitor Ezekiel Thomas were injured by gunshot wounds while 29-year-old 8th grade teacher Peter Smith was injured while escaping due to falling down a flight of stairs. Guy said to be angry about being transferred to a social adjustment center.[206] | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 48-year-old James T. Blevins, athletic director at Brownstown Central High School, was fatally shot in the school parking lot by David L Fleetwood, a 17-year-old student waiting for him. He gave the police no motive.[207] Fleetwood was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 2 to 21 years in prison.[208] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 19-year-old McKeesport, Pennsylvania student Ray D. Gilmore was wounded in a scuffle with two men in his third-floor campus dormitory room. 26-year-old Benjamin F. Goodman and 22-year-old Carl Bell, who were not students, had their .32-caliber pistols taken and were wrestled to the floor by other students.[209] | |||
| 3 (including a pregnant woman) | 11 | 14 | 1974 Olean High School shooting During a two-and-a-half-hour siege, 17-year-old honor student Anthony Barbaro, the best marksman on his rifle team, killed three adults, one pregnant, in and around his high school and wounded 11 others. He shot from the windows at the street and neighborhood. The school was closed for the Christmas holiday.[210] Barbaro committed suicide in prison before he could stand trial. | |||
| 1975 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Marist College freshman Shelley Sperling was shot and killed in the dining hall by her ex-boyfriend, Louis Acevedo.[211] | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 24-year-old David Gary killed the 33-year-old Reverend Thomas Quinlan inside a classroom at St. James School. Quinlan was the school's principal. A teacher was also wounded.[212] Gary was sentenced to life in prison for the crime.[213] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 16-year-old Stephen Goods, a bystander, was killed during a fight between other teens. Three youths were convicted for the homicide. | |||
| 1 | 5 | 6 | Student James Briggs killed fellow student Randy Truitt at Grant High School, wounding several others.[214] Briggs was convicted of first-degree manslaughter by an Oklahoma County juvenile court jury the following year. A judge ordered Briggs committed to an unidentified, nonprofit institution in another state until he turned 18.[215] | |||
| 1976 | ||||||
| 0 | 5 | 5 | Intruders entered Murray-Wright High School, shooting and wounding five students after an apparent dispute over a girlfriend of one of the intruders.[216] | |||
| sort | Mid-Wilshire, California | 1 | 9 | 10 | Computer Learning Center shooting 18-year-old Neil Liebeskind of Chatsworth, California entered a Los Angeles computer school and opened fire on his class with a 12-gauge shotgun, killing 24-year-old Fernando E. Alcivar and wounding 6 others, in an attempt to kill another student. After Liebeskind left the classroom, he was confronted by an armed security officer, Howard Barnes, who ordered him to drop his weapon. Liebeskind shot and wounded Barnes, but Barnes and a second security guard returned fire and critically wounded Liebeskind with a shot to the neck. Liebeskind had previously been shot and wounded by a homeowner four years earlier while burglarizing a house in Woodland Hills, California.[217] In January 1977, a jury found Liebeskind not guilty by reason of insanity and he was confined to a psychiatric hospital.[218] [219] The shooting disrupted a filming of the television series Jigsaw John.[220] [221] [222] [223] | |
| 7 | 2 | 9 | California State University, Fullerton massacre 37-year-old Edward Charles Allaway, a custodian at the California State University, Fullerton library, shot and killed seven people and wounded two others in the library's first-floor lobby and at the building's Instructional Media Center (IMC), located in the basement. Allaway was convicted of murder, but a judge ruled him insane and ordered him confined to a mental institution. | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | A man entered the Burt Elementary School campus and walked into a second-grade teachers classroom then shot and killed The teacher who happened to be the shooters estranged wife who had transferred to the school from a different school in order to get away from her husband.[224] | |||
| 1977 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | High School principal M. O. Tripp was killed on the front steps of the school by 17-year-old student Ricardo Lopez for unknown reasons.[225] Lopez was convicted of murder and subsequently sentenced to life in prison.[226] | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | An officer with the California State University, Hayward Police Department got into an argument with a sergeant and a patrolman following a call at a campus field station. The argument escalated, and the officer shot both men, killing them.[227] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | A young man wearing a hood and surgical mask shot and seriously injured the business manager of St. John's College High School during an attempted robbery.[228] | |||
| 1978 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 13-year-old student Andre Davis was wounded while watching a fight between two students in the front lobby of Christian County Middle School, one of whom had a gun. A 16-year-old was charged with the assault.[229] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 14-year-old Hayes Junior High School student Stuart Wayne Perrock killed 14-year-old schoolmate Arthur Clinton Smith. He subsequently fled the school, sparking a search that lasted several hours before he was arrested and he was tried as a juvenile.[230] [231] | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | After being taunted for his beliefs, 15-year-old Roger Needham, a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi, killed one student and wounded a second with a pistol at Everett High School. He was tried as a juvenile for the crime.[232] [233] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | At Fordson High School an 18-year-old student was shot in the head in a locker room by a 16-year-old student with a handgun.[234] | |||
| sort | South Dallas, Texas | 1 | 0 | 1 | 38-year-old Woodrow Porter, a janitor at Paul Dunbar Elementary School, was killed by the 56-year-old grandmother of an eight-year-old who was allegedly spanked by Porter earlier.[235] | |
| sort | Northwest Hills, Texas | 1 | 0 | 1 | 13-year-old John Daniel Christian, son of Lyndon B. Johnson's former press secretary George Christian, killed his English teacher, 29-year-old Wilbur Grayson, with his father's rifle in front of approximately 30 classmates at Murchison Junior High School. Christian was arrested and charged but not prosecuted; he was committed to a mental hospital where he was treated for a period and released. | |
| 0 | 4 | 4 | 18-year-old Larry Ward and two companions were escorted from the halls of University City High School following a fight with 18-year-old student Carl Triplett. Ward ran back into the building with a gun and fired shots into a group, critically injuring Triplett in the chest and hip and wounding 17-year-old Angela Darden and 16-year-old Jennifer Pride. Ward sustained a head injury as he was tackled by assistant principal, Franklin McCallie. His companions grabbed the gun and fled.[236] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 13-year-old Robin Robinson was paddled by Lanett Junior High School principal Lewis Hoggs after having a disagreement with another student. Robinson left the school and returned with a .22-caliber handgun and shot Hoggs, grazing the top of his head.[237] Robinson was arrested two hours later about two blocks from the school and was later charged in juvenile court. | |||
| 1979 | ||||||
| sort | San Carlos, San Diego, California | 2 | 9 | 11 | Cleveland Elementary School shooting 16-year-old Brenda Spencer opened fire on Grover Cleveland Elementary School from her home across the street, killing two adults and wounding nine people. Spencer was sentenced to 25 years to life and remains in prison.[238] [239] [240] [241] | |
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 17-year-old Timothy Stahle was critically wounded in the leg and upper thigh with shot gun pellets as he threw rocks at the windows of Wisconsin Lutheran High School. 28-year-old school janitor Kenneth B. Stein was arrested.[242] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 15-year-old sophomore Darryl Williams was shot in the neck by a sniper during the halftime interval while standing with teammates and coach in the end zone of the Charlestown High School football field. The player for the predominantly black Jamaica Plain High School team was left paralyzed. A racial motivation was determined by Mayor Kevin White.[243] 17-year-old white youths Joseph Nardone and Stephen McGonagle were charged with the shooting and received 10-year sentences.[244] | |||
| 2 | 5 | 7 | A University of South Carolina student opened fire during a party at a fraternity house, killing two and injuring five.[245] | |||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 16-year-old Evan Hampton, a freshman at Lafayette County High School, waited in a classroom for 19-year-old student Mike Sanders, whom he immediately killed. Hampton went to the principal's office, turned in the gun and waited for his arrest by police.[246] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 49-year-old fifth-grade teacher Rosie Pearson was killed in J. Leslie Patton School by an unknown assailant.[247] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Business professor Robert Brauer was killed in class by 20-year-old student Thomas Kakonis at Ferris State College, who had failed an exam in his class. Kakonis was the son of an associate dean at the college.[248] Kakonis was found not guilty by reason of insanity. | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 17-year-old Rudy Farmer pulled out a .22-caliber pistol and wounded a fellow student in the art room of Hueytown High School, then turned the gun on himself.[249] | |||
| 1981 | ||||||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 19-year-old former freshman James Howard Taylor brought a 12-gauge single-shot shotgun into the Delta Delta Delta sorority house on the University of Arkansas campus. He entered the house at 5:45 p.m. and terrorized an initiation dinner. After attempting to negotiate a surrender, he was shot and killed by police when he aimed his shotgun into the dining room.[250] | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | As students fled their rooms after a homemade firebomb set a minor blaze on the sixth floor hallway of Bursley Hall dormitory, 22-year-old psychology student Leo E. Kelly Jr. fired a sawn-off 12-gauge shotgun at his University of Michigan schoolmates at point-blank range. 19-year-old pre-medical student Edward Siwik and 21-year-old resident advisor Douglas C. McGreaham died in hospitals a few hours later. Kelly had been dismissed from UM once and was on the verge of another dismissal due to poor grades.[251] [252] In 1982, he was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | Shortly before noon in Engineering Hall on the school's campus in north Portland, 34-year-old University of Portland night janitor John C. Holbrook killed 37-year-old engineering teacher Brian D. Massey before taking his own life.[253] | |||
| 1982 | ||||||
| 1 | 3 | 4 | 17-year-old Valley High School student Patrick Lizotte killed his teacher Clarence Pigott and wounded two students, before being shot and wounded by police. Lizotte was originally sentenced to life in prison without parole, but his sentence was reduced and he was paroled in 2017 after the passage of Nevada Assembly Bill 267, which “revises provisions concerning the sentencing and parole of persons convicted as an adult for a crime committed when the person was less than 18 years of age," in 2015.[254] | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 26-year-old Kelvin Ray Love, who was struggling academically, entered Garland Community College in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and shot dead his teacher, 38-year-old William "Buddy" Putnam, and fellow student Donald Schamp, 34, with a .357 magnum revolver. Love fired six shots during the incident before taking a female student hostage and forcing her to flee with him in her car. During the ensuing 125-mile high-speed chase, Love exchanged shots with pursuing patrol officers but no one was injured. The pursuit came to an end after Love crashed through a police roadblock and wrecked his vehicle; both he and his hostage survived unharmed.[255] Love was later found guilty of two counts of capital murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.[256] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 13-year-old Deer Creek Junior High School student Scott Darwin Michael was killed by 14-year-old classmate Jason Price Rocha. Rocha was tried as an adult and sentenced to 12 years in prison, plus one year of parole but was instead released in 1987 at the age of 20.[257] [258] | |||
| sort | Hubbell-Lyndon, Michigan | 0 | 2 | 2 | Two students were accidentally shot in a hallway at Cooley High School when the shooter, another student, was showing off a handgun.[259] | |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 18-year-old dropout James Hartzog killed his girlfriend, 17-year-old Faye Williams, in her algebra class at Wingfield High School. Hartzog then took his own life.[260] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | At Finney High School, a 15-year-old student was shot in the abdomen when three men entered the school and went to the hallway where the student was, demanded his jacket and after he gave it to them one of the men shot him anyway.[261] | |||
| 1983 | ||||||
| 2 | 1 | 3 | 14-year-old Parkway South Middle School student David F. Lawler, sitting in a study hall classroom of 28 students, opened fire, killing Randall Koger and injuring Greg Saffo. Lawler then took his own life. | |||
| sort | Lake Highlands, Texas | 1 | 0 | 1 | Billy Conn Gardner, a friend of a food-service worker's husband, robbed the Lake Highlands High School cafeteria manager at gunpoint as she was counting the day's revenue in the office. Gardner shot her and took $1,600. Gardner was subsequently sentenced to death for the crime and was executed by lethal injection on February 16, 1995.[262] | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | After being fired from his job as a substitute teacher for fighting with a student, Robert O. Wickes entered Brentwood East Junior High School in Brentwood, New York, dressed in camouflage fatigues and armed with a semi-automatic .22-caliber rifle and over 100 rounds of ammunition, to get revenge on the student, 15-year-old Luis Burgos. Shortly after noon, Wickes entered a ninth-grade social-studies classroom inside the school and fired three shots at Burgos, hitting him twice in the stomach and hand, before taking the entire class of 18 students hostage. School principal William Howland was also shot and wounded by Wickes when Howland peered into the classroom. After firing four shots down the hall at responding police officers, Wickes barricaded himself inside the classroom and a standoff ensued. During the standoff, Wickes periodically released 17 of the 18 hostages before shooting himself in the head nine hours into the siege, dying in the hospital later that night. Both Burgos and Howland survived their injuries.[263] [264] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At Henry Ford High School, a 16-year-old student was fatally shot after a fight which was believed to be gang-related.[265] [266] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At Highland Park High School a 15-year-old student shot and killed a 17-year-old student, the shooting is believed to be related to an earlier fight between the two students.[267] | |||
| sort | Harlem Park, Maryland | 1 | 0 | 1 | 14-year-old Dewitt Duckett was shot in the neck and killed at Harlem Park Junior High School. Alfred Chestnut and Ransom Watkins, who were both 16 at the time, and 17-year-old Andrew Stewart were convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. However, evidence was withheld from the defense that pointed to another suspect, 18-year-old Michael Willis, who witnesses said saw run away and ditch the gun; Willis died in 2002. The case was reviewed and the evidence that was withheld was recovered and used by the defense. Four teenage witnesses who testified against the three in the first trial recanted, saying they were pressured by police to change their stories. In November 2019, Chestnut, Watkins and Stewart were exonerated.[268] [269] | |
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 17-year-old Calvin Dowell was shot during a senior economics class at Crawfordsville High School by fellow student 17-year-old Grant Carey in a dispute over a girl. The case was waived to adult court, and Grant was sentenced to six years in prison. Dowell survived the shooting but was paralyzed.[270] [271] | |||
| 2 | 1 | 3 | A man took seven Cornell University students hostage at a dorm, including a woman who had rejected him. The gunman let all the hostages go except for the woman and her roommate, before shooting both. After fleeing the scene and being pursued by police the gunman shot himself in the head but survived.[272] | |||
| 1984 | ||||||
| 3 | 12 | 15 | 49th Street Elementary School shooting Tyrone Mitchell killed two people and wounded twelve others when shooting at students leaving 49th Street Elementary School. He then committed suicide. | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 13-year-old Kelly Crittendon was accidentally killed by two classmates in a classroom at the Precious Blood School.[273] [274] | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | A 33-year-old student shot and wounded a teacher and a student with a revolver at Fresno City College. The student then killed herself with a shot to the head.[275] | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 17-year-old student Todd Dunahoo killed 16-year-old Valerie Rockafellow in the hallway at Southeast Polk High School, then turned the gun on himself.[276] | |||
| 0 | 12 | 12 | A 17-year-old student brought a shotgun on the Norco High School campus and fired a round in the air. Several students tackled the gunman and a second shot went off. A dozen students suffered minor injuries either from shot or the scuffle to secure the gun.[277] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | An 18-year-old was shot in the arm near the Mumford High School parking lot by mistake in a gang-related incident.[278] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | On September 27, 28-year-old Samuel George shot at 13-year-old Curtis McGuffie with a .22-caliber rifle outside Bleyl Middle School in Houston, Texas. The following day, George shot and wounded 10-year-old Joshua Baker Littell as he raised the American flag at Millsap Elementary School in Cypress, Texas. George told authorities he was "angry and upset with the world". He was charged with one count of attempted murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.[279] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 1981 alumnus Barry Wayne Shaw returned to his alma mater Richland High School carrying a 9mm Uzi submachine gun, an AR-15 and a .45-caliber pistol looking for Ms. Ball, his English teacher. After some time, he gave up the hunt, yelled out "Homecoming, homecoming," and sprayed the school's foyer with 30 rounds of ammunition. None of the dozen or so students in the foyer was hit, though one was injured by flying debris. Principal Ray Williams arrived to confront him after Barry had fired his last shot. Barry threw both rifles at Ray, saying, "I did it." Ray had Barry sit down and wait for the police. Barry offered no resistance. It was later discovered that Barry had killed Dallas karate instructor Jimmy Glen Wilson and wounded Rudy Smedley earlier in the week with the submachine gun. He was charged with two counts of intent to commit murder, one count of retaliation and one count of murder.[280] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | In the hallway of Central High School, two students, a male and a female (both 16) were shot during a fight.[281] [282] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 45-year-old Shirley Shindeldecker killed 54-year-old school-bus driver Gene Green as he stopped to pick up the son of Shindeldecker's estranged husband. After serving 19 months of her sentence, Shindeldecker was found not guilty by reason of insanity and released.[283] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | At Southeastern High School during a fight between a 17-year-old male and a 15-year-old male, a security guard grabbed the 17-year-old around the waist during which a gun that the 17-year-old was carrying fell out of his jacket pocket. It hit the security guard’s foot, discharged and hit the 15-year-old male in the left leg.[284] | |||
| 1985 | ||||||
| 1 | 3 | 4 | Armed with a rifle and a handgun, 14-year-old James Alan Kearbey killed principal James McGee and wounded two teachers and a student at Goddard Junior High School.[285] Kearbey was released in 1991 but was arrested again in 2001 after being found with a gun; he was paroled in 2003.[286] | |||
| sort | Woodbridge, Michigan | 0 | 7 | 7 | Murray-Wright High School shooting During halftime of the homecoming football game between Northwestern and Murray-Wright high schools, a youth opened fire with a shotgun, injuring seven people including six students with whom he had fought earlier in the day.[287] | |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | Armed with a .22-caliber rifle, 14-year-old Heather Smith shot and killed 15-year-old Gordon Pickett, her ex-boyfriend, and 14-year-old Christopher Ricco in the gymnasium at Spanaway Junior High School, before fleeing the school grounds. She later returned to the school and, after a short standoff with police, shot herself in the mouth; she died the following day.[288] | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | At Concord High School, 16-year-old dropout Louis Cartier entered the school with a shotgun and took two students hostage: 18-year-old Patrick Lena and 16-year-old Scott Hayes, before engaging in a standoff with responding police officers. After the gunman aimed his weapon at football coach Don LeBrun, Concord Police Officer Michael Russell shot Cartier in the head with his service revolver, wounding him. Cartier returned fire with one shotgun blast at police, wounding police officer Stephen McDonnell in the chin with a shotgun pellet, before being shot twice more in the chest by Russell and CPD Officer John Clark. Cartier died of his wounds the following day in the hospital; Officer McDonnell was treated and released.[289] [290] | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | After being suspended for refusing to take off his hat while at school, 13-year-old student Floyd Warmsley pulled out a firearm at Portland Junior High School, shooting and wounding the 53-year-old school secretary Lynn Haddad and killing 36-year-old janitor David Bangston.[291] [292] | |||
| 1986 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 52-year-old math teacher Norma Cooper was shot in the shoulder at Thornridge High School by one of her freshman students, who apparently had recently received poor grades. He was charged with attempted murder, unlawful use of a weapon and aggravated battery.[293] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Using a 20-gauge shotgun, 16-year-old Ritchie Overman shot and killed 15-year-old Leslie Lynn Wyatt in front of a classroom of students and teacher Sheila Adams at Senath-Hornersville High School.[294] [295] | |||
| 0 | 3 | 3 | 17-year-old student Major Ray Simmons shot and wounded three classmates, one critically, at Pine Forest High School with a .25-caliber handgun.[296] [297] | |||
| 2 | 74 [298] | 76 | Cokeville Elementary School hostage crisis 43-year-old former town marshal David Young and his 47-year-old wife Doris Young took 136 children and 18 adults hostage at Cokeville Elementary School. During the standoff, Doris accidentally detonated a bomb she was carrying, injuring herself and 73 others. David then shot and killed Doris, shot and wounded a teacher, and committed suicide.[299] [300] | |||
| 1 | 3 | 4 | 14-year-old Kristofor Hans intended to shoot his French teacher, LaVonne Simonfy, at Fergus High School because of a failing grade. Instead, Henrietta Smith, who was substituting for Simonfy, was shot in the face and died. Hans fired several other shots as he fled, wounding vice principal John Moffatt,[301] and two students. He then ran about a mile to his home, where he was arrested after the police surrounded his house. A classmate said Hans had repeatedly threatened to kill Ms. Simonfy, saying, "I'm going to blow Simonfy's head off."[302] He was charged as an adult, convicted and sentenced to 206 years in prison.[303] Hans was released in June 2015.[304] | |||
| 1987 | ||||||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 15-year-old boy fired five shots in gym class at Redford High School, wounding 15-year-old Marcus Childress. The shooting stemmed from a fight of two groups of teenagers.[305] | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 35-year-old associate professor of Computer Science Djamshid (Amir) Asgari was confronted in the Engineering Building of California State University, Northridge by 25-year-old graduate student Fawwaz Abdin. Abdin was angry about a low grade Asgari had given him a year earlier, which caused him to be put on academic probation. After Asgari refused to change his grade, Abdin shot him twice, then fatally shot himself. Asgari later died at the Northridge Hospital.[306] | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | After being caught with beer at the Orme School in Mayer, Arizona, 17-year-old Jarod Huskey went on a shooting rampage on the school campus, wounding two people, before being killed in a shootout with police.[307] | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | After constant teasing about his weight, 12-year-old honors student Nathan Ferris killed 13-year-old classmate Timothy Perrin, then turned the gun on himself.[308] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Compton Unified School District police officer Roosevelt Farrell was shot in the leg after confronting three juvenile intruders as he was patrolling the campus of Chester Adult School in Compton, California. Farrell died on March 16 from complications resulting from the wound. The 16-year-old gunman was arrested and charged with murder; two other youths were sought by police.[309] [310] | |||
| sort | Woodbridge, Michigan | 1 | 2 | 3 | Murray-Wright High School second shooting A ninth-grade student at Murray-Wright High School shot and killed 17-year-old Chester Jackson and wounded 17-year-old Damon Matthews and 18-year-old Tomeka Turner.[311] | |
| 0 | 1 | 1 | After being kicked off the soccer team for smoking on school grounds, 16-year-old student Blake Docter of Illiana Christian High School shot 44-year-old John Hoogewerf, the teacher who had reported him for smoking, in the chest.[312] In September 1989, Docter was sentenced to spend the next 12 weekends in jail, was given a fine of $1,000 and put on 30 months of adult probation.[313] | |||
| sort | Bronzeville, Illinois | 1 | 0 | 1 | 15-year-old freshman student Dartagnan Young of DuSable High School was shot to death in a third-floor hallway of the school by 16-year-old student Larry Sims.[314] [315] Sims, a documented gang member, had argued with Young the previous day about street–gang activity. Sims was convicted in 1994 of first degree murder and sentenced to 40 years in prison.[316] | |
| sort | Detroit, Michigan | 0 | 1 | 1 | A 16-year-old male was shot while sitting in his car in the Southwestern High School parking lot when the shooter approached the victim, asked him for money then shot him when he told him he didn’t have any money. | |
| 1988 | ||||||
| 1 | 3 | 4 | 15-year-old students Jason Harless and Jason McCoy took stolen .38-caliber revolvers to Pinellas Park High School. Harless shot two assistant principals and a student teacher inside the school's cafeteria. 53-year-old Richard Allen died from his injuries; Nancy Blackwelder and intern Joseph Bloznalis were wounded. Harless was shot and wounded during a shootout with police outside the school; McCoy was later apprehended at a residence.[317] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 13-year-old girl played with a gun on the school bus and fired it by accident and injured a 12-year-old.[318] | |||
| 2 | 5 | 7 | 30-year-old Laurie Dann killed eight-year-old Nick Corwin inside Hubbard Woods School. Five additional students were wounded. Dann later committed suicide after taking hostages in a nearby home.[319] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 14-year-old male student and a 15-year-old male student got into a fight at Joy Middle School, after the fight the younger one went home, retrieved a handgun then went back to the school and shot the older boy at the school stairwell.[320] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 17-year-old 'Aiea High School student Romel Castro shot his summer school teacher who survived.[321] [322] [323] [324] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 25-year-old Robin Jenkins was shot in the elbow after a basketball game turned violent at Siefert Elementary School. A 28-year-old man was taken into custody the following day.[325] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | At Central High School, A 17-year-old male student was shot in the left arm and right leg while he was in one of the hallways in a gang-related shooting.[326] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 35-year-old principal Dennis Ray Hepler was robbed at gunpoint by Kevin Dean Young, William Henry Bell, and John Glenn on the grounds of West Franklin Street Elementary school. Young, 20, fired a fatal shot from the .25-caliber pistol into Dennis' back. After Hepler fell to the ground, Bell fired another shot into his head. In 1989, Young was sentenced to death for the murder, and in 2000 was executed by lethal injection. Bell was also sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted in 2017 to life with parole. Glenn was convicted of armed robbery and accessory to murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison. A fourth man who acted as the getaway driver, Arthur Ray Jones, pleaded guilty to an accessory charge and was sentenced to 10 years in jail, with all but months suspended.[327] | |||
| sort | South Dallas, Texas | 0 | 2 | 2 | Two groups of teens fired handguns at each other across Lincoln High School's parking lot. Caught in the crossfire were 15-year-old Mark Lee and LaSonya Betts, striking Lee in the hip and Betts in the abdomen. A 17-year-old male former student of Lincoln was arrested in connection with the shootings.[328] | |
| sort | Near West Side, Illinois | 5 | 2 | 7 | After killing 41-year-old John Van Dyke of Lisle, Illinois and 26-year-old Robert Quinn of Franklin Park, Illinois at a nearby auto parts store called Comet Auro Parts, 40-year-old Clem "Clemmie" Henderson entered Moses Montefiore Academy, where he shot and killed the school custodian. Henderson then shot and killed police officer Irma Ruiz and wounded her partner, Greg Jaglowski, as they confronted him. Despite being shot in both legs, Jaglowski managed to return fire, killing Henderson. The last victim includes 34-year-old Arthur Baker, a custodial worker at Montefiore and injured Laplose Chestnut.[329] | |
| 2 | 9 | 11 | Oakland Elementary School shooting 19-year-old James William Wilson entered Oakland Elementary School and started firing shots in the cafeteria, wounding two students and a teacher. After reloading his gun in a girls' restroom, he was confronted by teacher Kat Finkbeiner, who tried to stop him; she was wounded twice. He then entered a third-grade classroom and shot toward the students, killing eight-year-old Shequila Tawoon Bradley and Tequila Maria Thomas and wounding five others. Wilson was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.[330] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 9-year-old Leah Wilbanks was shot twice by an unknown gunman at Mascotte Elementary School during P.E. class from behind the school fence. The shooter fled and was never arrested.[331] | |||
| 0 | 5 | 5 | Eight teachers, 20 students, and 13 cheerleaders were leaving Ribault Junior High School after a football game when their bus was pelted with gunfire and rocks. The bullets and rocks struck the bus on the drivers side, with the bullets penetrating all the way through the bus. Five girls suffered minor injuries from broken glass. | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 33-year-old Evelena B. Moore, a special-education teacher at Galvez Elementary, opened fire on cafeteria worker Beatrice Hills in the school's parking lot. Hills was not injured. Police arrested Moore and charged her with attempted second-degree murder. Moore was back at work the next day. Superintendent Ralph Ricardo said that the school board had no provisions to dismiss a teacher charged with attempted murder, and therefore Moore was allowed remain on the job until pleading guilty or being convicted of the charge. | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | In the Southwestern Senior High School 1st floor hallway, a 17-year-old boy fired a shot at someone but missed and hit a 15-year-old girl.[332] [333] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | Arilyn Jean Lelande, 29, invaded 35-year-old teacher Angela Jean Brown's sixth-grade classroom, pointed a handgun at the children and told them to move back. Lelande, Brown's sister, demanded money from Brown before firing several shots at her, hitting her at least once in the abdomen and leaving her in serious condition. Lelande was arrested and charged with first-degree assault. | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 15-year-old Serrocko James Henry, a Sacramento High School sophomore, and 12-year-olds Edell Story, Jerry Wilson, and DeVon Johnson-Curry were taking turns using a baseball bat to smash windows at the school, tripping the school's alarm. Police arrived and encountered the children in a dimly lit hallway, Story still carrying a baseball bat. Henry was shot in the chest and killed. The other three boys were detained for questioning and then released to their parents. The sheriff declared the shooting a justifiable homicide. | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 16-year-old student Mason Staggs shot Cooper High School teacher Rick Maloney in the face with a pistol, severely injuring him. Staggs surrendered to police two hours later, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.[334] | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | At Atlantic Shores Christian School, 16-year-old student Nicholas Elliott shot two teachers with a Mac-10 9-millimeter machine pistol, killing 41-year-old Karen Farley and critically wounding 37-year-old Sam Marino, then began firing on a classroom full of students before the gun jammed; no students were hit.[335] He was sentenced to life plus 114 years in prison with 15 years before parole.[336] | |||
| 1989 | ||||||
| 6 | 32 | 38 | Stockton schoolyard shooting 24-year-old Patrick Edward Purdy fatally shot five children and wounded 32 others at the Cleveland Elementary School before taking his own life. The victims were children of refugees from Southeast Asia. Purdy had a history of violence, alcoholism and drug addiction, and criminality.[337] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | At Thomas Jefferson Junior High School, a 12-year-old boy fired a handgun at a vice principal, William Crumbaugh. No one was injured.[338] | |||
| sort | Kalihi-Palama, Hawaii | 1 | 0 | 1 | A gang-related shooting at Farrington High School left 18-year-old Edilberto Asuncion dead in the parking lot.[339] | |
| 1 | 1 | 2 | While riding the school bus, 16-year-old Serra Catholic High School student Robert Butler shot 16-year-old schoolmate Adam Ference in the back of the head before fatally shooting himself.[340] Ference was in critical condition but survived.[341] | |||
incidents.
| Date | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Total | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | ||||||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | Two shooters fired at three people near Huntington Middle School. Stray rounds hit two students inside the school.[342] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A 15-year-old student fired a shot on the playground of Batesburg-Leesville Middle School. He was disarmed.[343] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A black youth was taunted with racial slurs by three white youths in the stairwell of a public school in the Bensonhurst area of Brooklyn. A 14-year-old was then shot and slightly wounded because he had acted as peacemaker when the same boys had clashed with another black teen the month before.[344] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A student fired two shots inside a classroom at Mayport Junior High School. He was disarmed by a parent visitor.[345] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | At least five shots were fired at students outside on the playground at Fairview Middle School.[346] | |||
| May 15, 1990 | Bozeman, Montana | 2 | 0 | 2 | 19-year-old Brett Byers entered the dorm room of James Clevenger and Brian Boeder, both also 19, while they were sleeping and fatally shot both of them with a sawed-off shotgun. He was convicted of two counts of deliberate homicide and sentenced to 165 years in prison. Byers was denied parole in 2007, 2015, and 2020.[347] [348] [349] | |
| August 26, 1990 | Sunrise Manor, Nevada | 1 | 0 | 1 | Minutes before the first bell rang on the first day of school at Eldorado High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, 15-year-old Curtis Collins shot 16-year-old Donnie Lee Bolden Jr. in the neck, killing him in the crowded high school cafeteria.[350] Collins was released from prison in 2005 on permanent parole.[351] | |
| 0 | 3 | 3 | Three students were wounded when gang-related gunfire broke out at Sam Houston High School. 17-year-old John Campbell was wounded in the right foot, 18-year-old Larry Johnson was wounded in the right thigh and calf, and a 16-year-old received a chest wound. 18-year-old Kenneth Wolford and two other male students were arrested and charged.[352] | |||
| 0 | 3 | 3 | A 13-year-old girl was shot in the head on her school bus at John Marshall Junior High School. Two other students were injured by flying glass.[353] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A 13-year-old student was arrested after he fired a shot on the grounds of Brogden Middle School.[354] | |||
| 1991 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | A teenager fired a handgun at a security guard who had chased him and three friends off the grounds of Ralph J. Bunche Middle School. He missed and instead killed 11-year-old bystander Alejandro Vargas, a student at the school.[355] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A student fired several shots into a door at the principal's office of Andrew Jackson Middle School.[356] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | A teenage boy fired a gun toward a crowd in the Coronado Middle School cafeteria which injured a boy and a girl. Police said the shooting was gang-related.[357] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 17-year-old Arthur Jermel Jack was killed by 15-year-old LaKeeta Cadoree in the cafeteria at Crosby High School.[358] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A student at the University of Texas at Austin attempted to kill university president William Cunningham, but was disarmed during a struggle in which a shot was fired.[359] | |||
| 6 | 1 | 7 | University of Iowa shooting 28-year-old former graduate student Gang Lu killed four members of the University of Iowa's faculty and a research student and seriously wounded another student. 47-year-old professor of physics and astronomy Christoph K. Goertz, 45-year-old associate professor of physics and astronomy Robert Alan Smith, 44-year-old chairman of the physics and astronomy department Dwight R. Nicholson, 56-year-old associate vice president for academic affairs Dr. Theresa Anne Cleary were shot in the head and died the following day, and 27-year-old research investigator in physics and astronomy Dr. Shan Linhua. 23-year-old Miya Rodolfo-Sioson, Dr. Cleary's temporary student receptionist in the grievance office, survived but was left paralyzed from the neck down. Lu then shot himself in the head and died shortly after police arrived.[360] [361] [362] [363] | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | At Thomas Jefferson High School, During an argument between two teens, three shots were fired and a stray bullet killed a third, uninvolved 16-year-old student and a teacher, Robert Anderson, who was approaching to intervene was critically wounded. 14-year-old shooter Jason Bentley was sentenced to three to nine years in prison.[364] [365] [366] [367] | |||
| 1992 | ||||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A student fired a shot into the ceiling at Fort Caroline Middle School. They were arrested.[368] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 26-year-old graduate student Sarah Smith was shot and wounded in the chest as she was waiting for her husband to pick her up at Kent State University.[369] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | 16-year-old Gerald Smith shot and wounded two 19-year-old students after an argument at William M. Raines High School. | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | Thomas Jefferson High School second shooting 15-year-old Kahlil Sumpter killed fellow students 16-year-old Tyrone Sinkler and 17-year-old Ian Moore on the school's second-floor hallway.[370] In 1993, he was sentenced to 6⅔ to 20 years in prison. He was released on parole in 1998. | |||
| March 5, 1992 | Obetz, Ohio | 0 | 1 | 1 | At Hamilton Middle School, 12-year-old Gordon W. Dye Jr. shot his bully, 14-year-old Gregg Johnson, in the head with a .22-caliber pistol in the school cafeteria. Johnson survived, and Dye was released to his parents and put on house arrest.[371] | |
| March 9, 1992 | Lancaster, Pennsylvania | 1 | 0 | 1 | At Carter MacRae Elementary School, 13-year-old student Ricardo Cruz fired a handgun at another classmate but missed and accidentally shot and killed 18-year-old Debbie Rivera. Cruz was sentenced to life without parole for the shooting but was resentenced in 2017 to 25 years to life and was immediately paroled.[372] [373] [374] | |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A student fired a shot at another teenager inside Potomac High School.[375] | |||
| March 31, 1992 | Algiers, Louisiana | 1 | 0 | 1 | 15-year-old Jomo-Kenyetta Joseph was shot in the head and killed at O. Perry Walker High School during an early morning scuffle involving 10 boys from two rival neighborhoods, Herman Tureau who was also 15 fired the fatal shot and was sentenced to life in prison without parole but was resentenced and paroled.[376] [377] | |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | Indiana University graduate student Susan Clements was shot to death in her dorm by a former boyfriend before he committed suicide. A friend who attempted to intervene, Steven Molen, was also shot and critically injured; he died several days later.[378] | |||
| 4 | 10 | 14 | Lindhurst High School shooting Former student 20-year-old Eric Houston killed three students and one teacher and wounded nine other students and another teacher before surrendering to police. Houston was later sentenced to death and remains on California's death row. | |||
| 0 | 7 | 7 | Following a pep rally at Palo Duro High School, 17-year-old Randy Earl Matthews shot and wounded seven students with a .22-caliber pistol. Matthews had attended the school for nine days when the incident occurred and was believed to have been bullied at his previous school. Matthews was charged with one count of attempted murder, five counts of aggravated assault, and one count of unlawfully carrying a weapon onto school grounds. He was convicted and served eight years.[379] | |||
| 0 | 3 | 3 | Two 14-year-old girls and a 16-year-old boy were shot outside a Bronx high school, the apparent result of a dispute between the gunman and the boy. The girls were bystanders.[380] | |||
| sort | Detroit, Michigan | 0 | 6 | 6 | Six students at Finney High School were grazed by buckshot after three ski-masked gunmen opened fire in a crowded hallway.[381] | |
| Detroit, Michigan | 0 | 3 | 3 | A 14-year-old was in custody for shooting three Foch Middle School students as they passed by the Marcus Garvey Academy. | ||
| Detroit, Michigan | 0 | 1 | 1 | In the third school shooting of the day in Detroit, 16-year-old DeWayne Boyd was hit in the chest when shots were fired at two Mumford High School students, one of which escaped injury after a bullet struck the students wallet. | ||
| November 20, 1992 | Canaryville, Illinois | 1 | 2 | 3 | 15-year-old freshmen student DeLondyn Lawson, of Tilden High School was shot to death in a hallway on the school's second floor by 16-year-old student Joseph White. The shooting was ruled gang-related. In addition to killing Lawson, White who was a documented gang member, wounded two other students in the shooting.[382] | |
| December 14, 1992 | Great Barrington, Massachusetts | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1992 Bard College at Simon's Rock shooting Wayne Lo, a Taiwanese-born American, opened fire at Bard College at Simon's Rock. He killed one student and a professor and wounded four people.[383] Lo was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders. | |
| 1993 | ||||||
| January 6, 1993 | Brentwood, New York | 0 | 1 | 1 | Brentwood High School. Former student Matthew Hunter was shot and wounded by two gunmen during a basketball game between Brentwood High School and Sachem High School over a dispute about the theft of a gold chain.[384] | |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | East Carter High School shooting 17-year-old Scott Pennington, a student at East Carter High School, fatally shot his 48-year-old English teacher, Deanna McDavid, and 52-year-old head custodian Marvin Hicks. Pennington was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years. | |||
| sort | Reseda, California | 1 | 0 | 1 | 15-year-old Robert Heard fatally shot 17-year-old Michael Shean Ensley in the corridor of the Reseda High School's science building.[385] | |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 16-year-old Cornell Stewart fired shots into the ceiling of Gahanna Lincoln High School's cafeteria, then brandished his gun at people nearby before fleeing and being arrested.[386] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 44-year-old David Taber entered Ford Middle School and took three hostages. During the hostage crisis, Taber killed school nurse Carol Day. Taber was found not guilty of the murder by reason of insanity. | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 17-year-old Max Alexander Martinez shot and killed 17-year-old Jose Balderas with a .38-caliber revolver in a hallway in Nimitz High School during a dispute over girls. Martinez was sentenced to life in prison and was first eligible for parole in 2008 but remains incarcerated as of 2020.[387] [388] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 15-year-old student Jason Smith killed 16-year-old Michael Swann, another student who had bullied him at Upper Perkiomen High School. He was charged as an adult and sentenced to between 12 and 25 years in prison.[389] | |||
| sort | St. Claude, Louisiana | 1 | 0 | 1 | 17-year-old Shon Williams fired 10 shots in the Frederick A. Douglass High School schoolyard which took the life of 15-year-old student Gerald Dordain.[390] [391] [392] [393] | |
| 1 | 3 | 4 | Student Mark Duong, a senior at Weber State University, opened fire at a grievance hearing with a semi-automatic handgun. Duong wounded three people in the shooting, including a police officer; the officer subsequently returned fire and killed Duong.[394] Duong was attending the grievance hearing due to an accusation of sexual harassment by a female classmate. | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 15-year-old boy fired a gun at a male student in the cafeteria after an argument between the two. A 14-year-old girl who was not involved in the fight was non-fatally struck in the head.[395] [396] [397] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 15-year-old Phillip Powell killed 17-year-old Barrett Modisette at the Hinsdale South High School parking lot. Powell was a self-described gang member. Powell was tried as an adult and was sentenced to 37 years in prison in 1994.[398] | |||
| 1 | 4 | 5 | 29-year-old Kevin Newman opened fire with a 9mm Ruger P85 handgun on a group of about 30 middle schoolers gathered on a soccer field outside Central Junior High School. Newman fired a total of 23 shots and wounded four students before committing suicide. A suicide note left by Newman indicated extreme mental disturbance and his belief that he was an "evil person". He had been discharged from the navy 10 days earlier and had a history of misdemeanor offenses.[399] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 18-year-old Miguel DeJesus was shot and killed on the steps of New Britain High School.[400] Rival gang members, 24-year-old Maurice Flanagan and 23-year-old Thomas Mejia, were convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison.[401] [402] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 17-year-old Dillard High School student Marvin Jones fired a shot at an assistant principal after she suspended him. He fled the scene and was later arrested.[403] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Wauwatosa West High School shooting 21-year-old former student Leonard D. McDowell shot 46-year-old associate principal Dale Breitlow three times in a hallway of Wauwatosa West High School.[404] McDowell was found guilty of the murder and was sentenced to life in prison. His sentence was upheld by the state Court of Appeals in April 1997. | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Stephen Leith, a disgruntled Chelsea High School teacher shot and killed the school district's superintendent and also wounded a principal and another teacher.[405] Leith was sentenced to life without parole. | |||
| 1994 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 18-year-old Floyd Eugene Brown shot fellow Eau Claire High School student 17-year-old Earnest Dunlap following an argument the week before. Brown was arrested shortly after at his home.[406] A jury later acquitted Brown of murder.[407] | |||
| sort | Blue Ridge, Washington | 1 | 0 | 1 | 24-year-old Darrell Cloud, a former student at Whitman Middle School in North Seattle, Washington killed 45-year-old teacher Neal Summers, who had sexually abused Cloud since he was 13. Cloud served nine years in prison. He later received a $250,000 settlement in a civil suit against Seattle Schools, charging that Summers had not been adequately supervised.[408] | |
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 48-year-old former Cypress Lake Middle School special ed teacher Larry Ray Shelton went to the Lee County School District office to talk with superintendent 57-year-old James A. Adams but then shot him six times with a .38-caliber handgun, killing him. Larry then walked out of the office and out of the building then walked to a nearby parking lot and committed suicide.[409] [410] | |||
| sort | Osborn, Michigan | 1 | 0 | 1 | At the student parking lot of Osborn High School 19-year-old special ed student Steven Watkins was shot in his car by an unknown assailant and died from his injuries.[411] | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At Carlmont High School Edwin Sims, 15, and Gile W., 15, were arguing about who had the bigger gun when Sims pulled out a BB gun while Gile W. pulled out a real gun and killed Edwin. The boys had a history of feuds with one another.[412] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 24-year-old Roosevelt Johnson was shot in the leg after a basketball game at Spartanburg High School.[413] | |||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 33-year-old Dante D. Hayes, a hunter and ex-convict, killed 58-year-old Richard Vancena, a cafeteria manager, and 33-year-old Robin Michelle Coleman, a cook, in the mess hall of Kemper Military School and College. He was drunk and looking for his wife Anna Hayes with whom he had had a fight the night before. No students were harmed.[414] Hayes was later convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life without parole.[415] | |||
| sort | Ensley, Alabama | 0 | 1 | 1 | At Ensley High School 17-year-old Walter Westbrook II, a member of the Disciples gang shot 15-year-old Andre Allen, a member of the Crips. Allen survived, Westbrook was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.[416] | |
| 0 | 1 | 1 | At Eastern High School 17-year-old Cornell Andrew Cheeks Jr. Shot 17-year-old Jeremy Cook, Cheeks then fled the school and turned himself in the police station. Cook survived his injuries.[417] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | While watching a fistfight between students after class at Goose Creek High School, 18-year-old Michael Ryan Spann was shot and killed by a student that attended another school.[418] [419] | |||
| sort | Ballard, Washington | 1 | 1 | 2 | At Ballard High School during a drive-by shooting, 16-year-old Melissa Fernandez was fatally shot and a 16-year-old male student received minor injuries. The shooting was believed to be gang-related. Later in the year, police arrested Brian Ronquillo, 16, and Cesar Sarausad, 19, for the shooting. Brian, who was the trigger man was convicted of first degree murder and was sentenced to 52 years in prison and Cesar, who drove the car was convicted of second degree murder and was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison.[420] [421] | |
| Austin, Texas | 0 | 2 | 2 | At McNeil High School, a student brought a 9mm pistol to the school and showed it off to a classmate. As he did the gun fired, shot through a wall and injured two students. Three 16-year-old boys were arrested for the incident. | ||
| Upper Marlboro, Maryland | 0 | 1 | 1 | At Largo High School, 45-year-old arts teacher Barrington Miles was shot in the chest at the boys restroom by 17-year-old student Warren Emmanuel Graham with a 9mm semiautomatic Beretta pistol he had stolen from his police officer father that morning in an attempt to sell it to students. Warren fled the school and was arrested at a friend's house. He was convicted in adult court of intent to murder, possession of a firearm on school property and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.[422] | ||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 10-year-old James Osmanson, teased because his parents had AIDS, brought a gun to school and tried to shoot his bully but missed and killed a different student, 11-year-old Jeremy Bullock, on the playground of Margaret Leary Elementary School. Osmanson was sent to a private residential treatment center.[423] In 2016, James Osmanson, whose name had changed at that point, was convicted of possessing child pornography and given probation.[424] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At Eliot Junior High School, 21-year-old Louis Edward Lehear was shot to death.[425] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 14-year-old Jeremy Bryant shot and killed 13-year-old Terrence Murray at J.T. Moore Middle School.[426] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At North Miami High School, 18-year-old Tyhno Rock was showing his friends a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol at lunch, then accidentally fired it at 18-year-old Edvard Alvonor's chest; he who died two days later.[427] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At the Ardmore Child Care Center, 40-year-old teacher Diane Morse was killed by her former friend 36-year-old Arcelia Trumaine Stoval who had a history of mental illness. Arcelia was convicted of first degree murder and is serving a life sentence.[428] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | A feud between Scott Walker, 15, and Randy Hawkins, 19, climaxed when walker shot Hawkins to death on the Manchester elementary school basketball court. Walker was originally sentenced to life without parole for the shooting but was resentenced On April 26, 2018, to 35 years to life.[429] [430] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At Ottumwa High School, 16-year-old Michael Coffman shot and killed 15-year-old Jeramy Wayne Allen after the two boys argued earlier that day. Coffman was originally sentenced to life without parole for the shooting but was resentenced in February 2017 to life in prison with chance of parole.[431] [432] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A 13-year-old Folsom Junior High School student fired shots from a .22-caliber pistol and waved his gun around on school grounds before being subdued and arrested.[433] | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | After being suspended for smoking, 16-year-old Nicholas Atkinson returned to Grimsley High School with a 9 mm pistol. After wounding assistant principal Bill Whites, Atkinson took his own life.[434] | |||
| sort | West Lawn, Illinois | 0 | 1 | 1 | A 16-year-old female student was shot in the thigh outside Hubbard High School when a teenage boy rode past on a bicycle and fired into a crowd. It is believed the shooting was meant for rival gang members, but the girl was hit instead. The boy lived in the neighborhood.[435] | |
| 1 | 5 | 6 | Wickliffe Middle School shooting 37-year-old former student Keith A. Ledeger killed 41-year-old custodian Pete Christopher at Wickliffe Middle School and wounded 47-year-old assistant principal Jim Anderson, 47-year-old police officer Thomas Schmidt, and 50-year-old teacher Lowell Grimm. He then exchanged shots with police before being injured and taken into custody.[436] Ledeger was sentenced to 57 years in prison and died in prison of natural causes in 2011.[437] | |||
| December 14, 1994 | Albany, New York | 0 | 1 | 1 | Ralph J. Tortorici, 26, a military veteran and psychology major at the State University of New York at Albany, held hostage a large lecture hall. Tortorici, armed with a .270-caliber rifle with more than two dozen rounds of ammunition and a hunting knife, walked into the ancient history class of Hans Pohlsander, saying, "Don't worry. Nobody move. You guys are getting held hostage." The standoff ended when Tortorici had his gun taken away by 19-year-old student Jason McEnaney, who was shot in the leg, groin, and abdomen in the exchange. Tortorici, who suffered from a well-documented history of mental illness, argued during the hostage crisis that the government had implanted a control chip in his head during a procedure at Albany Medical Center. He committed suicide in 1999 in prison while serving a 15½-year sentence.[438] [439] [440] [441] | |
| 1995 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | A 16-year-old sophomore at Cardozo High School, Antar A. Hall, was fatally shot at an entrance to the school, allegedly by a 14-year-old freshman with whom he had been arguing.[442] [443] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | A 15-year-old student at Garfield High School left school during the day and returned with his grandfather's handgun. He wounded two students.[444] | |||
| 2 | 2 | 4 | A law student shot four people, two fatally, on and near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus.[445] [446] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A 13-year-old Fred F. Florence Middle School student fired a handgun repeatedly inside the school before barricading himself in a room for almost two hours. He was arrested.[447] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | A 7th-grade student walked into a classroom and shot 35-year-old Andy Pope, a social studies teacher in the upper chest at Chadron Middle School.[448] | |||
| 0 | 3 | 3 | At Pershing High School, a student was shot in the hallway. Later the same day, a student was shot in the hallway of Denby High School and a student was shot by the security desk at Redford Union High School. All shootings were initially believed to be gang-related.[449] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Armed with a sawn-off shotgun, 12-year-old Jonah Inverson shot and killed 12-year-old Elizabeth Rivera, who had turned down Inverson's request to go out with him, in a restroom at Memorial Middle School. | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At Cypress Junior High School two students jumped another student who retaliated with a gun and shot one of his attackers who later died.[450] [451] [452] [453] [454] [455] | |||
| 2 | 4 | 6 | During a football game at Olathe North High School, a student from Shawnee Mission North High School drove by the students and fired at them with a .22-caliber Jennings semiautomatic handgun which killed an Olathe North student and the students cousin.[456] [457] [458] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 14-year-old student Keith E. Johnson killed 13-year-old Joey Summerall at Tavares Middle School with a handgun he had stolen from his neighbor's home. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.[459] | |||
| 2 | 1 | 3 | Blackville-Hilda High School shooting Suspended student 16-year-old Toby R. Sincino killed 56-year-old math teacher Phyllis Senn and wounded 38-year-old math teacher Johnny Thompson before committing suicide at Blackville-Hilda High School.[460] | |||
| 2 | 1 | 3 | Richland High School shooting 17-year-old James Rouse killed a student and teacher at Richland High School and seriously wounded another teacher with a rifle. Rouse was later sentenced to life in prison without parole. | |||
| 1996 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | Two masked gunmen killed 14-year-old Damion Blocker in a stairwell at Winston Education Center. One shooter, 16-year-old Darrick Evans, was sentenced to 41 years to life in prison. | |||
| 3 | 1 | 4 | Frontier Middle School shooting 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis killed a teacher and two students and wounded another student when he opened fire on his algebra class. | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | At Mid-Peninsula High School, a student drove onto the basketball court of his Palo Alto high school, tossed a handful of money out of the car window and then opened fire on the students who had hurried over to grab the bills injuring one student then committed suicide.[461] [462] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | At Jenkins High School, Keith Antwone Green shot and killed Dwayne Cedric Martin.[463] [464] [465] [466] | |||
| 2 | 1 | 3 | 30-year-old Mark Boyd hired 23-year-old Malik Nettles to kill 15-year-old Kyunia Taylor as she rode on a school bus bound for Beaumont High School. Taylor was pregnant with a child fathered by Boyd; a baby girl was delivered by emergency caesarean section, but died 23 days later. The bus driver was also shot but survived.[467] Both Boyd and Nettles were convicted of murder. Boyd was sentenced to 26 years while Nettles was sentenced to life without parole.[468] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | At Swainston Middle School, two students were shot by another student with a pellet gun.[469] | |||
| 1 | 1 | 2 | On a school bus bound for Bingham Middle School, 15-year-old student Justin Allgood shot and wounded the bus driver and started driving the bus himself and led police on a high-speed chase before crashing into a house. Allgood then committed suicide.[470] | |||
| sort | Franklin Hills, California | 0 | 2 | 2 | Two students were shot and injured in a stairwell at John Marshall High School.[471] | |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | San Diego State University shooting At San Diego State University, 36-year-old graduate student Frederick Martin Davidson killed three professors, 32-year-old Chen Liang, 44-year-old D. Preston Lowrey III, and 36-year-old Costas Lyrintzis, whom he believed were involved in a conspiracy against him.[472] [473] Davidson was sentenced to serve three life terms without parole.[474] | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 19-year-old Jillian Robbins killed one student and injured two outside Pennsylvania State University's HUB–Robeson Center.[475] Robbins was sentenced to between 30 and 60 years in prison.[476] | |||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 16-year-old David Dubose Jr. killed English teacher Horace Morgan on the steps of Dekalb Alternative School. Dubose was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed indefinitely to a state mental hospital. | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 14-year-old Willis Ward Johnson killed 20-year-old James Earl Routt as they rode a school bus.[477] He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 46 years in prison.[478] | |||
| October 16, 1996 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 18-year-old Jarrod Allan Eskew killed 27-year-old Jay Severson, his Wiley Hall dorm counselor, and himself after being found with drugs the previous day.[479] [480] [481] [482] | ||
| 1997 | ||||||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 14-year-old Conniston Middle School student Tronneal Mangum fatally shot 14-year-old classmate John Pierre Kamel over a $40 debt.[483] He was originally sentenced to life in prison, later reduced to 40 years and again to 25 years.[484] [485] | |||
| 2 | 2 | 4 | 1997 Bethel Regional High School shooting 16-year-old student Evan Ramsey killed Bethel Regional High School principal Ron Edwards and 15-year-old student Joshua Palacios and wounded two other students. After a brief shootout with a responding police officer, Ramsey decided to surrender. He was later sentenced to 198 years in prison. | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 16-year-old Kenny Baumgart was shot and killed by 16-year-old Darrell Hagerman while walking away from a dispute in the Pershing High School parking lot.[486] | |||
| 3 | 7 | 10 | 1997 Pearl High School shooting 16-year-old Luke Woodham murdered his 50-year-old mother, Mary, at home before killing his ex-girlfriend, 16-year-old student Christina Menefee, and 17-year-old student Lydia Kaye Dew, then wounding seven others at Pearl High School. Woodham was sentenced to life in prison. [487] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | After an argument between them the day before, 13-year-old Brandon Hartsoe took a .38 revolver from his mother's dresser drawer and shot 13-year-old Lincoln Middle School classmate Trent Murray in the back, causing serious injury, then continued to fire three more shots in the general area of other students.[488] Hartsoe was sentenced in 1998 to serve until his 18th birthday.[489] | |||
| 3 | 5 | 8 | 1997 Heath High School shooting Three students were killed and five wounded by 14-year-old Michael Carneal as they participated in a prayer circle. Carneal was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | Concealed in a wooded area on school grounds, 14-year-old Joseph "Colt" Todd wounded two students as they were entering Stamps High School.[490] | |||
| 1998 | ||||||
| 5 | 10 | 15 | 1998 Westside Middle School shooting 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson and 11-year-old Andrew Golden killed a teacher and four students and wounded 10 others as Westside Middle School emptied during a fire alarm intentionally set off by Golden. Both shooters were sentenced to confinement until their 21st birthdays.[491] | |||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | A 15-year-old student armed with a semi-automatic handgun fired shots inside a classroom at The Advocate School, a school for special needs students. He was subdued by staff and arrested.[492] | |||
| 1 | 3 | 4 | 1998 Parker Middle School dance shooting 14-year-old student Andrew Wurst fatally shot 48-year-old teacher John Gillette and wounded two students and another teacher at an 8th-grade graduation dance. He is serving a 30- to 60-year sentence in a prison for young offenders.[493] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 18-year-old Jacob Lee Davis shot 18-year-old Robert Creson at Lincoln County High School in a dispute over a girl.[494] Davis received a life sentence on July 29, 1999, and will be eligible for parole in May 19, 2049.[495] [496] | |||
| 4 | 25 | 29 | Thurston High School shooting After killing his parents at home, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel drove to Thurston High School, where he killed two students and wounded 25 others. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to 111 years in prison.[497] | |||
| 0 | 2 | 2 | 14-year-old student Quinshawn Brooker wounded 45-year-old basketball coach and history teacher Gregory Carter and 74-year-old Head Start volunteer Eloise Wilson in the hallway of Armstrong High School.[498] | |||
| 0 | 3 | 3 | Two teenagers shot and wounded three people at North Miami Senior High School before fleeing.[499] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 52-year-old Professor Andrzej Olbrot was killed by 48-year-old graduate doctoral student Wlodzimierz Dedecjusat at Wayne State University.[500] | |||
| 1999 | ||||||
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 15-year-old Andrea Garrett was found dead and 17-year-old Jeff Miller seriously wounded in the girls' restroom at Central High School as part of a suspected suicide pact. Miller died the next day.[501] [502] | |||
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 15-year-old Shawn Cooper of Notus, Idaho took a 12-gauge shot gun to school and started firing, injuring one student and holding the school hostage for about 20 minutes.[503] | |||
| Littleton, Colorado | 15 | 24 | 39 | Columbine High School massacre 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold, students at Columbine High School, killed 12 students and one teacher. They injured 21 additional people, and three more were injured while attempting to escape the school. The pair committed suicide in the library after a brief gunfight with police at the end of the massacre. It was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in U.S. history until it was surpassed by the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in February 2018. | ||
| 0 | 6 | 6 | 15-year-old student Thomas "T.J." Solomon Jr. wounded six students at Heritage High School. A 15-year-old girl was hospitalized in critical condition, and the other victims suffered from non-life-threatening injuries. Solomon initially faced up to 351 years of prison if convicted of aggravated assault and other charges. In 2000, he was found guilty but mentally ill and was sentenced to 40 years in prison and 65 years of probation.[504] | |||
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 13-year-old Victor Cordova Jr. fatally shot 13-year-old Deming Middle School schoolmate Araceli Tena. Cordova said he had intended to commit suicide but was jostled by others and his gun moved.[505] He could not be charged as an adult as he was under 14, so he received the maximum sentence for a juvenile: a minimum of two years in prison, with a maximum of being held until his 21st birthday.[506] [507] In December 2003, he was released to his aunt and uncle to live with them in Colorado.[508] | |||
| 0 | 6 | 6 | 13-year-old Seth Trickey opened fire in the courtyard of his middle school using a gun brought from home. While there were no fatalities, several students felt sparks from the bullets hitting the building walls. Five were injured, including a girl who was shot in the face.[509] He was tried as a juvenile and released in March 2005.[510] | |||
Total number of 20th century incidents listed here:
