Remembering Thurston High School shooting: Springfield, Oregon 1998

Last updated March 25, 1018

Date: May 21
Year: 1998
School: Thurston High School shooting
Location: Springfield
State: Oregon
Wounded: 25
Fatalities: 2 (4 counting his parents at home)
Shots Fired: 50 rounds, 37 hits
Time lapsed:  Under 7 minutes
Police response time: 8 minutes
How ended: Tackled and subdued by 7 students, including one previously injured student. The responding officer pulled them off of him and one student punched Kinkle in the face.

Civilians involved: Yes. Taken down by unarmed students.

Perpetrator: Kipland Kinkle
Age: 15
Family history: Family had struggled with Kinkle, and he had been in treatment for depression. He attended 9 sessions, but was withdrawn because he seemed to be improving. Kip was very intelligent according to tests, but struggled with spelling. His frustration and anxiety levels were abnormally high.
Red flags: Kinkle had attempted to buy a stolen gun from another student but was caught and expelled. He had reportedly told students that he planned on coming back the next day to get even with the people who had expelled him. He had talked about how fun it would be to shoot people in the past. Wanted to join the Army so he could "kill people." Was known to have an obsession with explosives. Ordered a copy of the bomb making instructional boo "Anarchists cookbook" over the internet. Gave a speech on bomb making.
Mental illness history: Prior to the shooting Kinkle and a friendgot in trouble for throwing rocks off of an overpass and hitting a car. After this a therapist saw him for 9 sessions, and prescribed Prozac. He responded well to treatment so his parents ended therapy. The therapist testified that he was in satisfactory mental health. In 2007 2 psychiatrists testified that he had in fact showed signed of paranoid schizophrenia at the time.
Drug or medication use: Yes. Prozac. Went off of Prozac sometime in the fall of 97.

Inspiration: He and a friend watched the coverage of the Jonesboro shooting at school. They both commented at the time "Hey, that's pretty cool."
Romeo and Juliet had a great effect on Kinkle when they read in it class, and he identified with Romeo for some reason. He loved the movie  Romeo+Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio which was released in October of 1996. In the modern movie adaptation the sword violence is replaced with guns, which may have been a big appeal for him. The soundtrack of the movie was playing at his house when police arrived, the song "Liebestod" (Wagner/Tristan und Isolde) which translates to "love death," was playing on repeat.
Kinkle paraphrased a line from the 1994 Tarantino movie "Pulp Fiction" in his writings,

"Love at first sight is only in movies. Where the people in the movies are better than you. That is why you go to a pone [pawn] shop and buy an AK-15 because you are going to execute every last mother fucking one of you."

Possible motive: Undiagnosed Paranoid schizophrenia certainly played a role, he had talked about killing people for some time but the triggering event was his expulsion from school. Suicide by cop was also presented as motive. Kinkle indicated that he had tried to commit suicide after killing his parents but was unable to go through with it. As he was wrestled to the ground he begged those who stopped him to kill him, and after his arrest he took a knife from a police officer at the station and begged the police to kill him.
In a note left at the scene of his parents deaths:

"I have just killed my parents! I don't know what is happening. I love my mom and dad so much. I just got two felonies on my record. My parents can't take that! It would destroy them. The embarrassment would be too much for them. They couldn't live with themselves. I'm so sorry. I am a horrible son. I wish I had been aborted. I destroy everything I touch. I can't eat. I can't sleep. I didn't deserve them. They were wonderful people. It's not their fault or the fault of any person, organization, or television show. My head just doesn't work right. God damn these VOICES inside my head. I want to die. I want to be gone. But I have to kill people. I don't know why. I am so sorry! Why did God do this to me. I have never been happy. I wish I was happy. I wish I made my mother proud. I am nothing! I tried so hard to find happiness. But you know me I hate everything. I have no other choice. What have I become? I am so sorry."

Repeatedly mentions that he has feeling for a girl who rejected him and he feels as if he will never experience love.
Weapons: 
9x19mm Glock 19 pistol
.22LR Ruger 10/22 rifle
.22LR Ruger MK II pistol
Plus 1,127 rounds of ammunition
Two hunting knives
Weapons obtained: Father purchased them for his son. He made his son pay for them, and they were required to be locked up at the gun range. Kip managed to sneak them home. His father gave in to the purchase even after several violent incidents. The therapist did not note the purchase in his notes, thought later he said he did know and did not approve of the fathers decision to purchase weapons.
Training: Kinkle was reportedly obsessed with guns, his parents had tried to discourage it but father had finally given in and bought him a gun hoping to bond with him. The gun was locked and inaccessible so Kinkle tried to purchase a stolen gun at school.

Aftermath: There was great outrage that a student who was suspended for possession of a weapon one day could be allowed to return to the school the next day without notice. People wanted to know why he wasn't being supervised or in treatment. The wrestling coach Gary Bowden on the event , "Any kid who takes a gun to school -- why he isn't put under observation for a few weeks is beyond me."

Resulting actions: The day after the shooting "The Blue Ribbon of Promise," was launched at Thurston called the “Let it end here” campaign. It was active for a time, but few recent mentions of it are found. "It was a campaign that went on for a few years post Thruston High School shooting, and it just doesn’t seem to be important anymore." Jennifer RieDy
http://www.kxl.com/17-years-later-the-thurston-high-school-shooting-is-remembered/
http://www.kezi.com/content/video/474247263.html

When school began the next year a police officer had been assigned as a full time resource officer at the school, a full time counselor specializing in trauma was also added to the school staff as well as a part-time counselor was added to the district staff.
http://www.oregonlive.com/special/index.ssf/2008/05/school_begins_with_fear_hope_o.html

They made a movie at the time called "Not My Friends, Not My School," but I have been unable to locate it. If you happen to know where to find it please let me know. Thank you.

The Shooting: Kipland (Kip) Kinkle was suspended the day before for being in possession of a stolen weapon that he tried to buy from a friend. After being caught he was charged with two felonies, and sent home with his father. His father told him that he would send him to military school if he didn't straighten up. Kip shot and killed his father, and then waited for his mother to come home killing her as well. The next morning Kip walked to school and opened fire at random. He emptied 59 rounds from the rifle, then reached for the .22 pistol. As he reached for the gun students attacked him and took him down. The first officer to respond arrived just a minute later, and pulled 7 students off of the shooter. One punched Kinkle in the face before being removed. The students were hailed as heroes.

Kinkle begged for the students to kill him. After his arrest Kinkle was found to have two bullets taped to his chest that he had planned to use for his suicide. He tired to goad officers into killing him at the station as well. He said the motive for the attack was to stop the voices in his head by killing himself, or having someone else kill him.

Kinkle is serving 111 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

After the shooting Kinkle wrote this statement -

"I have spent days trying to figure out what I want to say. I have crumpled up dozens of pieces of paper and disregarded even more ideas. I have thought about what I could say that might make people feel just a little bit better. But I have come to the realization that it really doesn't matter what I say. Because there is nothing I can do to take away any of the pain and destruction I have caused. I absolutely loved my parents and had no reason to kill them. I had no reason to dislike, kill or try to kill anyone at Thurston. I am truly sorry that this has happened. I have gone back in my mind hundreds of times and changed one detail, one small event so this never would have happened. I wish I could. I take full responsibility for my actions. These events have pulled me down into a state of deterioration and self-loathing that I didn't know existed. I am very sorry for everything I have done, and for what I have become."

Conspiracy Theories: None known

Sources:
http://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/kinkel-kipland.htm

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kinkel/kip/writings.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kinkel/kip/cron.html

http://www.cnn.com/US/9805/21/school.shooting.pm.2/