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HISTORY OF MASS SHOOTINGS IN THE UNITED STATES
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10-11 killed at Pontiac's Rebellion school
The earliest known shooting in the U.S., 4 Lenape American Indian entered the schoolhouse and shot and killed all but two. -
Emma Connelly shoots and kills John Steedly
The first shooting in South Carolina, she shot him for "circulating slanderous reports" about her. -
The first known mass shooting
70 year old James Foster fired a shotgun at a group of students in the playground of St. Mary's Parochial School in New York, causing minor injuries to several of the students. -
The deadliest mass shooting
Andrew Kehoe, after killing his wife and destroying his house and farm, blew up Bath Consolidated School by detonating dynamite in the basement of the school, killing 38 people, mostly children. He then pulled up to the school in his Ford, blew the car up, and killed himself and four others. Only one shot was fired (to blow up the dynamite in the car. -
JULY 18, 1984
21 killed, 19 wounded: San Ysidro, Calif. James Oliver Huberty, a 41-year-old out-of-work security guard, kills 21 employees and customers at a McDonald’s restaurant. Huberty is fatally shot by a police sniper perched on the roof of a nearby post office. -
Portland Junior High School
In Portland, Connecticut the principal was having a heated discussion with a 13 year old eight grader, when the boy pulled out a 9mm assault rifle, and shot the secretary in the left forearm and injured the principal with glass from the glass door. He then fled to second floor where he shot the janitor in the head and took a seventh grader hostage. His father and another family member talked to him over the intercom and, after 45 minutes, he threw his gun out a window and was taken into custody. -
The Cokeville Elementary School Hostage Crisis
In a ransom scheme, David and Doris Young, both in their forties, took 150 students and teachers hostage. Their demand for $300 million came to an end when Doris set off a bomb that killed him and injured 78 students and teachers. David wounded John Miller, a teacher that tried to escape, then killed himself. -
AUGUST 20, 1986
Aug. 20, 1986 14 killed, 6 wounded: Edmond, Okla. Patrick H. Sherrill, 44, a mail carrier, walks into his post office and opens fire, killing 14 coworkers and wounding six others before killing himself with a bullet to the head. Sherrill, who faced possible dismissal, had been given a poor performance report by his supervisor the previous day. -
5 killed, 29 injured; Stockton, Calif.
Jan. 17, 1989 5 killed, 29 injured; Stockton, Calif. Patrick Edward Purdy turns a powerful assault rifle on a crowded school playground, killing five children and wounding 29 more. Purdy, who also killed himself, had been a student at the school from kindergarten through third grade. Police officials described Purdy as a troubled drifter in his mid-20s with a history of relatively minor brushes with the law. The midday attack lasted only minutes. -
10 killed, 4 wounded: Jacksonville, Fla.
June 18, 1990 10 killed, 4 wounded: Jacksonville, Fla. James E. Pough, a 42-year-old day laborer apparently distraught over the repossession of his car, walks into the offices of General Motors Acceptance Corp. and opens fire, killing seven employees and one customer before fatally shooting himself. Police later said they had confirmed that Pough was responsible for gunning down a man and woman on a Jacksonsville street 33 hours earlier. -
22 killed, 20 wounded: Killeen, Texas
Oct. 16, 1991 22 killed, 20 wounded: Killeen, Texas George Jo Hennard, 35, crashes his pickup truck into a Luby’s cafeteria crowded with lunchtime patrons and begins firing indiscriminately with a semiautomatic pistol, killing 22 people. Hennard is later found dead of a gunshot wound in a restaurant restroom. -
4 killed, 2 injured: Iowa City, Iowa
Nov. 1, 1991 4 killed, 2 injured: Iowa City, Iowa Gang Lu, a graduate student in physics from China, shoots four people to death at the University of Iowa. Lu, who took his own life in the incident, was upset about not getting an academic honor. The dead included faculty members and the student who had won the honor. Two others were critically wounded. -
4 killed, 10 wounded: Olivehurst, Calif.
May 1, 1992 4 killed, 10 wounded: Olivehurst, Calif. Eric Houston, a 20-year-old unemployed computer assembler, invades Lindhurst High School and opens fire, killing his former teacher Robert Brens and three students and wounding 10 others. He holds 85 students hostage for 8 1/2 hours before giving himself up. Houston was convicted in July 1993 on four counts of murder. He is currently on death row at San Quentin State Prison. -
8 killed, 6 injured: San Francisco
July 1, 1993 8 killed, 6 injured: San Francisco Gian Luigi Ferri, 55, kills eight people in an office building in San Francisco’s financial district. His rampage begins in the 34th-floor offices of Pettit & Martin, an international law firm, and ends in a stairwell between the 29th and 30th floors where he encounters police and shoots himself. -
6 killed, 19 injured: Garden City, N.Y.
Dec. 7, 1993 6 killed, 19 injured: Garden City, N.Y. Colin Ferguson shoots and kills six passengers and wounds 19 others on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train before being stopped by other riders. Ferguson is later sentenced to life in prison. -
5 killed, 10 injured: Jonesboro, Ark.
March 24, 1998 5 killed, 10 injured: Jonesboro, Ark. Middle school students Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden pull a fire alarm at their school in a small rural Arkansas community and then open fire on students and teachers using an arsenal they had stashed in the nearby woods. Four students and a teacher who tried shield the children are killed and 10 others are injured. Because of their ages, Mitchell. 13, and Andrew, 11, are sentenced to confinement in a juvenile -
13 killed, 24 injured: Columbine, Colo.
April 20, 1999 13 killed, 24 injured: Columbine, Colo. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, students at Columbine High, open fire at the school, killing a dozen students and a teacher and causing injury to two dozen others before taking their own lives. -
7 killed, 7 injured: Fort Worth
Sept. 15, 1999 7 killed, 7 injured: Fort Worth Larry Gene Ashbrook opens fire inside the crowded chapel of the Wedgwood Baptist Church. Worshipers, thinking at first that it must be a prank, keep singing. But when they realize what is happening, they dive to the floor and scrunch under pews, terrified and silent as the gunfire continues. Seven people are killed before Ashbrook takes his own life. -
7 killed: Wakefield, Mass.
Dec. 26, 2000 7 killed: Wakefield, Mass. Michael McDermott, a 42-year-old software tester shoots and kills seven co-workers at the Internet consulting firm where he is employed. McDermott, who is arrested at the offices of Edgewater Technology Inc., apparently was enraged because his salary was about to be garnished to satisfy tax claims by the Internal Revenue Service. He uses three weapons in his attack. -
2 killed, 13 injured: Santee, Calif.
March 5, 2001 2 killed, 13 injured: Santee, Calif. Santana High student Charles Andrew Williams, 15, fatally shoots two classmates and wounds 13 others on the campus. He is apprehended by police in the school bathroom, where his attack began. Williams is later sentenced to 50 years to life. -
5 killed, 9 injured: Meridian, Miss.
July 8, 2003 5 killed, 9 injured: Meridian, Miss. Doug Williams, 48, a production assemblyman for 19 years at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., goes on a rampage at the defense plant, fatally shooting five and wounding nine before taking his own life with a shotgun. -
9 killed, 7 injured: Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minn.
March 21, 2005 9 killed, 7 injured: Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minn. Jeffrey Weise, a 16-year-old student at Red Lake High School fatally shoots five students, a teacher, and a security guard and wounds seven others before taking his own life. Before his rampage at Red Lake, Weise kills his grandfather and his grandfather’s companion at their home on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. -
5 killed, 5 injured: Nickel Mines, Pa.
Oct. 2, 2006 5 killed, 5 injured: Nickel Mines, Pa. Charles Carl Roberts IV, a milk truck driver armed with a small arsenal, bursts into a one-room schoolhouse and kills five Amish girls. He kills himself as police storm the building. -
5 killed, 4 injured: Salt Lake City
Feb. 12, 2007 5 killed, 4 injured: Salt Lake City Sulejman Talovic, 18, wearing a trenchcoat and carrying a shotgun, sprays a popular Salt Lake City shopping mall. Witnesses say he displays no emotion while killing five people and wounding four others. An off-duty police officer eating dinner with his wife exchanges gunfire with the Bosnian refugee before other officers arrive and fatally wound Talovic. -
32 killed, 17 injured: Blacksburg, Va.
April 16, 2007 32 killed, 17 injured: Blacksburg, Va. Seung-hui Cho, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech senior, opens fire on campus, killing 32 people in a dorm and an academic building in attacks more than two hours apart. Cho takes his life after the second incident. -
8 killed, 4 injured: Omaha
Dec. 5, 2007 8 killed, 4 injured: Omaha Robert Hawkins, 19, sprays an Omaha shopping mall with gunfire as holiday shoppers scatter in terror. He kills eight people and wounds four others before taking his own life. Authorities report he left several suicide notes. -
5 killed, 16 injured: Dekalb, Ill.
Feb. 14, 2008 5 killed, 16 injured: Dekalb, Ill. Steven Kazmierczak, dressed all in black, steps on stage in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opens fire on a geology class. Five students are killed and 16 wounded before Kazmierczak kills himself on the lecture hall stage. -
13 killed, 4 injured: Binghamton, N.Y.
April 3, 2009 13 killed, 4 injured: Binghamton, N.Y. Jiverly Voong, 41, shoots and kills 13 people and seriously wounds four others before apparently committing suicide at the American Civic Assn., an immigration services center, in Binghamton, N.Y. -
13 killed, 32 injured: Ft. Hood, Texas
Nov. 5, 2009 13 killed, 32 injured: Ft. Hood, Texas Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, allegedly shoots and kills 13 people and injures 32 others in a rampage at Ft. Hood, where he is based. Authorities allege that Hasan was exchanging emails with Muslim extremists including American-born radical Anwar Awlaki. -
8 killed, 2 injured: Manchester, Conn.
Aug. 3, 2010 8 killed, 2 injured: Manchester, Conn. Omar S. Thornton, 34, a driver for Hartford Distributors, emerges from a disciplinary hearing and begins shooting, killing eight people at the family-owned distributorship and then himself. -
6 killed, 11 injured: Tucson, Ariz.
Jan. 8, 2011 6 killed, 11 injured: Tucson, Ariz. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, allegedly shoots Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head during a meet-and-greet with constituents at a Tucson supermarket. Six people are killed and 11 others wounded. Loughner is identified by witnesses as the gunman who fired at close range with semiautomatic pistol before being tackled. -
8 killed, 1 injured: Seal Beach, Calif.
Oct. 12, 2011 8 killed, 1 injured: Seal Beach, Calif. Scott Dekraai, 41, apparently enraged over a custody dispute, allegedly walks into a crowded Seal Beach hair salon where his former wife works and opens fire. Eight people are killed, including a man sitting in a truck outside the salon. Another person is critically wounded. Dekraai has pleaded not guilty in the case. -
12 killed, 58 injured: Aurora, Colo.
July 20, 2012 12 killed, 58 injured: Aurora, Colo. James Holmes, 24, is taken into custody in the parking lot outside the Century 16 movie theater after a post-midnight attack in Aurora, Colo. Holmes allegedly entered the theater through an exit door about half an hour into the local premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises.” He faces charges of of killing 12 -
27 killed, one injured: Newtown, Conn.
Dec. 14, 2012 27 killed, one injured: Newtown, Conn. A gunman forces his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. and shoots and kills 20 first graders and six adults. The shooter, identified by sources as Adam Lanza, 20, kills himself at the scene. Lanza is also believed to have killed his mother at the home they shared, prior to his shooting rampage. In emotional remarks from the White House, President Obama wiped away tears. “Our hearts are broken today, -
13 killed, 3 injured: Washington, D.C.
Sept. 16, 2013 13 killed, 3 injured: Washington, D.C. A shooter who engaged police in a running firefight through the sprawling Washington Navy Yard is shot and killed. At least 13 people including the shooter are killed in the rampage that began approximately 8:15 a.m. at the Navy Yard, a huge complex of buildings along Washington’s Anacostia River waterfront. The shooter is later identified as Aaron Alexis, a Navy contractor and former Navy enlisted man from
