Remembering 49th Street Elementary School: Los Angeles, California 1984

A shooter who was also a survivor
of the mass suicide at Jonestown... so many missed signals. 

Date: February 24

Year: 1984

School: 49th Street Elementary School

Location: Los Angeles

State: California

Wounded: 12

Fatalities: 2

Shots Fired: 39 AR-15/18 Shotguns (1 in 4.07 ratio)

Time lapsed: 10

Police response time: 17, 

How ended: After a 3 and a half hour standoff, after tear gas was deployed by police, house was raided, shooter was found dead of an apparent suicide. 

Civilians involved: None known

Perpetrator: Tyrone Mitchell

Age: 28

Family history: Childhood history is scant, but it was reported that he had issues with anger even as a child. In school he was a popular student, active in sports. His childhood home had been torn down to make room for an addition to the school. He lived across the street from the school at the time. 5 1/2 years prior to the shooting, his family had joined the People's Temple and cult leader Jim Jones at Jonestown. Mitchell and his girlfriend had planned to join them, but were unable to due to passport issues. He lost both parents, his grandmother, four sisters and brother in the subsequent mass suicide that claimed 912 lives. His girlfriend says he had a nervous breakdown after this, and was unable to work after. 

Red flags: Police had been called to the home multiple times on reports of threats using firearms, he was known for violent and irrational behavior. Neighbors complained that he had threatened them with weapons on multiple occasions as well. Neighbors reported that he often shot at planes in the sky, and 3 weeks before the incident he had fired shots into the empty playground of the school. 

Mental illness history: Five years earlier, county officials ruled him ‘unemployable’because of an ‘anxiety neurosis’ characterized by excessive fear or dread,” after losing his family in the Jonestown case. History of violent and irrational outbursts.

Drug or medication use: Known to use alcohol and pcp, though accounts on how much vary. None were found in his system at time of death. 

Inspiration: Unknown. 

This attack is very similar to the San Diego Cleveland Elem./ Brenda Spencer attack in 1979, which would have been heavily covered on the news, especially locally with the schools being only 120 miles apart. There is no proof it was a copycat incident, but the similarities are striking and only being 5 years apart makes it suspect. Though the loss of his family and friends in the Jonestown suicide cannot be discounted a a factor.

Possible motive: None given. Lost family in Jonestown in November of 1978. Uncle was forcing him to move out of his apartment. Girlfriend wouldn't marry him because he didn't have a job. He had attended the school as a child, and his childhood home was torn down to make room for the building targeted. At the time he lived in an apartment over his uncles home, with a full view of the school. While there is no known motive, there were many psychological stressors in his life in the years prior and even weeks leading up to the shooting. 

Weapons: 

AR-15

Stoeger 12 gauge double-barreled shotgun

Winchester 12 gauge pump-action shotgun

Weapons obtained: Unknown

Training: Unknown

Aftermath: After the shooting there were many questions as to how the signs could have been missed. His psychological issues were well known, and the police had been at his home multiple times on weapons complaints but nothing was done.

This shooting inspired the Los Angeles Police Department to take action. Advocates for the mentally ill were brought together with representatives from the Mental Health Department, Health Services and other city emergency services to find a way to prevent or even predict potential violent situations.

They devised a plan to add mental health specialists to heavily burdened police departments, along with additional mental health crisis training for police officers. The goal was to switch the handling of those individuals who might be mentally ill from a law enforcement issue to a total community mental health situation.
More: http://articles.latimes.com/1985-02-24/news/mn-24485_1_mentally-ill-offenders/2

"This will give us a better chance of spotting the Tyrone Mitchells beforehand and preventing some of them,"  \
"The Police Department in the past has been in the position where we did not know what to do or where to take people (who appeared to be mentally ill)... It was totally frustrating for us, as well as dangerous for the community.
"Now we'll have a method to bring that person to the attention of the mental health system, hopefully before some kind of violence occurs. We won't catch all of them, but it we can prevent just one incident like the school shooting. . . . "

Cmdr. James Jones

Resulting Action: "The Mental Evaluation Unit/ System-wide Mental Assessment Response Team (SMART) and the Case Assessment Management Program (CAMP), work together assisting field officers with suspected mentally ill persons.  They provide referrals, intervention and/or placement in mental facilities for individuals needing acute mental health intervention.  The two entities have a partnership program with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health."
http://www.lapdonline.org/detective_bureau/content_basic_view/51704

The shooting: Mitchell's house was across the street from the school. Just as school was letting out for the day, the first shots rang out. One of the first hit was 10 year old Shala Eubanks, she was retrieved under gunfire by playground supervisor Albert Jones, and carried into a classroom where she died. 24 year old Carlos Lopez was walking past the school at the time on his way to the park when he was hit, he was rushed to the hospital where he underwent surgery and was listed in "guarded: condition for 8 weeks before passing away on April 13, 1984.

Children were rushed back into the building and sheltered in the library on the side farthest from the shooting. Those unable to make it in because of the gunfire sheltered behind objects until rescued by a paramedic willing to drive his ambulance on to the playground to pull them to safety.

After a 3 1/2 hour standoff, police surrounded the shooter and after firing tear gas into the home they entered and found the suspect dead of a self inflicted gunshot wound. 

Wounded: 
Albert Jones, 50
Alicia Pena, 10
Anna Gonzales, 8
Eloisa Cruz, 10
Iran Macias, 10
Jose Gavino, 11
Jose Prado, 12
Latreece Williams, 11
Mario Hernandez, 9
Mayra Cruz, 10
Stephen Gomez, 9
Victoriano Ulloa, 11

Conspiracy Theories: None known

Girl Killed 11 Shot at School on Coast Suspect Found Dead
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/25/us/girl-killed-11-shot-at-school-on-coast-suspect-found-dead.html

Tracking the killers dark mind
http://ourweekly.com/news/2012/jul/25/tracking-the-killers-dark-mind

Police and the mentally ill: LAPD unit praised as model for nation
https://www.scpr.org/news/2015/03/09/50245/police-and-the-mentally-ill-lapd-unit-praised-as-m/