Echoes of Columbine

Date:  March 21 Year:  2005 School: Red Lake Senior High Location: Red Lake State: Minnesota Wounded: 5 Fatalities: 9 (2 home, 7 school) Shots Fired:  45 (+13 at home) Time lapsed:  9 minutes Police response time:  3 minutes (4 minute shootout with police) How ended: suicide Civilians involved: No, an unarmed security guard at the school confronted him, but he was killed. Perpetrator: Jeffrey Weise Age: 16 Family history: His father committed suicide on July 27, 1997 after a standoff with police. Mother sustained severe brain injury in an alcohol related car accident on March 5, 1999 and had to be placed in an assisted living home. His grandmother was granted custody but she died in 2003. In postings on a National Socialism forum he says he wants to be a Nazi to preserve his Native heritage, he laments the damage done by drugs and alcohol to the native people. His parents both had alcohol issues. Red flags:  Record...

Editors note:  Though Columbine has become one of the most well known school shootings, even giving rise to the term "Pulling a Columbine," it was not intended to be a school shooting at all. What most of America saw as a school shooting was originally meant to be a mass bombing of unimaginable scale. The bombs placed in the cafeteria were enough to bring the library crumbling down on the cafeteria. Both rooms were full of students at the time. The shooters were positioned outside waiting for survivors to come running out of the building as unwitting targets. Both of their cars were wired as well. They set fire to several rooms, that were put out by bystanders or sprinklers. Thankfully, the bombs were mostly defective. This was not a school shooting it was a domestic terror attack.  This topic has been covered at length, and links will follow if you would like to know more about it but we won't cover the standard details here. These are the details used for our r...

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 ...

Last Updated: March 23, 2018 Date:  October 1 Year: 1997 School:  Pearl High School  Location:  Pearl State: Mississippi Wounded:  7 Fatalities: 3 (including mother: stabbed prior to shooting) Shots Fired: Time lapsed:  11 minutes Police response time:  Incident was over before police arrived and suspect detained. How ended:  Attempted to flee the scene, stopped by student and staff, held until police arrived.  Civilians involved:  Yes, assistant principal Joel Myrick (a U.S. Army Reserve Commander) retrieved his personal Colt 1911 .45 auto from vehicle. Student helped pin car down. Stopped from fleeing, held at gunpoint until police arrived. Perpetrator: Luke Woodham Age: 16 Family history: Red flags: History of animal torture, he wrote in his journal about torturing his dog Sparkle to death. "I will never forget the howl she made. It sounded almost human. We laughed and hit her hard." About a...

Victims Nacunan Saez and Galen Gibson Last Updated: March, 31 2018 Simon's Rock is often forgotten because it doesn't fit the definition of a mass shooting, because only 2 people were killed. This was a mass shooting halted, not by police or an armed bystander but by a jammed gun... there is no way of knowing how many would have been killed that day but the shooter himself confirms that his intention was to kill as many as possible. The Simon's Rock shooting is included in our school shooting research here mostly because this one more than any other illustrates what happens when people don't take a potential threat seriously.  Date: December 14 Year: 1992 School:  Simon's Rock College of Bard Location:  Great Barrington State:  Massachusetts Wounded: 4 Fatalities: 2 Shots Fired: Time lapsed:  18 minutes Police response time:  Shooter's gun jammed, at which point he discarded his weapon and reported his crime.  How ended:...

Last updated: March 22, 2018 Date:  May 1 Year: 1992 School:  Lindhurst High School Location:  Olivehurst State:  California Wounded: 10 Fatalities: 4 Shots Fired:  Unknown Time lapsed: Unknown Police response time: Unknown How ended: After 8 hour standoff with 80 hostages, the shooter surrendered to police. Civilians involved: None known Perpetrator:  Eric Christopher Houston Age:  20 Family history: Unknown Red flags: Told multiple people that he wanted to go to his old school and fire a few shots, maybe to scare people.  Mental illness history: Unknown Drug or medication use: Unknown Inspiration: Was said to watch the movie Terminator repeatedly, which would initiate conversation about shooting up his old school.  Possible motive: Was a former student, had dropped out. Regretted not graduating or getting his G.E.D. Admitted to holding a grudge against his former civics teacher a...

In every mass shooting case you will find what professionals refer to as "leakage". The perpetrators leaked plans before the attack. It was as if they boiled over, or perhaps were testing the reaction. These kids told at least one other personally, usually more than one ahead of time. In some cases dozens of students knew about the plot beforehand, they even gathered to watch that morning just to see if it would really happen. Almost a year before Columbine, local law enforcement officers were handed death threats, detailed bomb making instructions, and even details on the bomb tests. This information was all housed on a personal website run by one of the perpetrators. Law enforcement even went as far as obtaining a search warrant... but failed to execute it. After the criminal investigation began, that information disappeared for a time, only to be retrieved by a reporter. Up to that point law enforcement denied it existed at all. Many of the witnesses questioned after...

One of the first school shooters was a female, when asked why, she replied “I don’t like Mondays,” she said. “This livens up the day.” Date: January 29 Year: 1979 School: Cleveland Elementary School Location: San Diego State: California Wounded: 9 Fatalities: 2 Shots fired: 36 (3.2 ratio) Shooting Time lapsed: Approx 20 min. Police response time: Approx 20 min. How ended: Police were able to block her line of fire using a garbage truck, after a 6 and 1/2 hour standoff the female shooter surrendered.  Civilians involved: None known. Ended by police intervention. Perpetrator: Brenda Spencer Age: 16 Family history: Mother & father divorced for 7 years. Lived with father in house littered with alcohol bottles. They shared a single mattress on the floor. Reported father to be physically and sexually abusive. After the shooting, father impregnated a former cell mate of his daughter (also a juvenile). Reported to be withdrawn and lacking ...