Remembering Heath High School shooting: West Paducah, Kentucky 1997

Last updated: March 23, 2018

Date: Dec, 1

Year: 1997

School: Heath High School

Location: West Paducah

State: Kentucky

Wounded: 5

Fatalities: 3

Shots Fired: 8 rounds, fast succession

Time lapsed: 12 seconds

Police response time: Shooting ended before police arrived. 

How ended: After firing 8 shots, Carneal laid the gun on the ground and sank to his knees. some reports say he was crying. The principal approached him and took him by the shoulders, shaking him asking why he'd done it. Carneal responded "I can't believe I did that, kill me please." He was taken to the office and put under guard while waiting for the police to arrive. 

Civilians involved: Carneal surrendered without intervention and was taken quietly.

Perpetrator: Michael Carneal

Age: 14

Family history:

Red flags: Told students that "something big is going to happen on Monday" but no one took him seriously.

Mental illness history: Later said he did not intend to kill anybody, and that he thought that a .22 wasn't fatal. He seemed to think that he would just fire a few shots, scare people, and indicated that he believed he would come back to school the next day and people would respect him. Suffered from anxiety, depression and severe paranoia when younger. Often thought he was being watched. After the shooting he was diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder and dysthymia, which was later changed to paranoid schizophrenia, and then schizophrenia.

Drug or medication use: Prior to shooting, unknown. Currently on antidepressant Zoloft and antipsychotic Geodon.

Inspiration: 1994 film Natural Born Killers and the 1995 film The Basketball Diaries have been cited as inspiration as well as the 1977 Stephen King/Richard Bachman book "Rage" which King pulled from print after the shooting. 

Possible motive: Bullying & mental illness. Students often bullied Carneal because he was small and quiet. Some of the athletes called him "gay" and "fag" and these rumors made it into a school gossip paper. Carneal was also a self proclaimed atheist, who opened fire on a prayer group. The first person he shot was a girl who had recently turned him down for a date. 

Weapons:
Two Marlin .22 rifles
Ruger 10/22 .22 rifle
Remington .22 rifle
Two 12 gauge pump-action shotguns
Marlin 336 .30-30 rifle
.38 special revolver
Ruger MK II .22-caliber pistol

Weapons obtained: Stolen from parents and neighbors

Training: Carneal had never shot a real weapon in his life. U. S. Attorney General John Ashcroft claimed Carneal's marksmanship was due to practice in violent video games. 

Aftermath: A $33 million lawsuit was filed by victims families against two Internet pornography sites, several computer game companies and makers and distributors of the 1994 film Natural Born Killers and the 1995 film The Basketball Diaries.

http://wkms.org/post/ky-law-mandates-school-safety-plans

Resulting actions: At the time of the shooting, Carneal had a copy of the Stephen King/Richard Bachman book "Rage" in his locker. After this shooting Stephen King had his publisher pull the book from print.

"In 1997, Michael Carneal, age 14, arrived at Heath high school, in Kentucky, with a Ruger MK II semi-automatic pistol in his backpack. He killed three and wounded five. A copy of Rage was found in his locker. That was enough for me. I asked my publishers to pull the novel."

Stephen King 

The Shooting: On the morning of the shooting Carneal rode to school with his sister and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He had brought a blanket wrapped package to school with him that day, but had explained it away as a school project. The prayer group had just finished their morning prayers when Carneal calmly inserted ear plugs and began shooting.

Killed in the shooting were students Nicole Hadley (14), Jessica James (17), and Kayce Steger (15). 

Conspiracy Theories: In this case it is less of a conspiracy theory and more of a rumor that took on a life of it's own. Immediately after the shooting it was widely reported that leader of the prayer group and student Ben Strong had walked up to the shooter an demanded that he give up the gun. He reinforced this idea in multiple interviews. Several of those who witnessed the event eventually filed a lawsuit against him challenging his heroic tale. He was forced to admit that the shooter had already put the gun down by the time Strong reached him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/25/us/when-grief-wanted-a-hero-truth-didn-t-get-in-the-way.html


Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/03/us/forgiveness-after-3-die-in-shootings-in-kentucky.html

http://murderpedia.org/male.C/c/carneal-michael.htm

http://wkms.org/post/heath-high-school-reflects-20-years-after-shooting

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/01/stephen-king-pulled-book-gun-controls