School Shootings In The US From The 1700s to 2012

By Eli Epstein | December 14 2012 4:59 PM

Photo: Wikipedia

Jan. 17, 1989, Stockton, Calif.

Patrick Purdy, 24, shot and killed five schoolchildren, while wounding 29 other schoolchildren and one teacher on the playground of the Cleveland Elementary School. The shooting ended with Purdy committing suicide.

Photo: Murderpedia

May 1, 1992, Olivehurst, Calif.

Armed with a pistol, Eric Houston, 20, took hostages at his former high school, killing four people and wounding 10. His motive was his inability to find a good job because he had failed a grade at school. He was given the death penalty for the shooting.

Photo: Murderpedia

Feb. 2, 1996, Moses Lake, Wash.

Armed with a high-powered hunting rifle and two handguns, Barry Loukaitis, 14, killed his algebra teacher and two students before taking hostages. He also shot a girl in the arm; he released her during the hostage situation. The incident ended when a teacher burst into the room and tackled him. Loukaitis is now serving life in prison.

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March 24, 1998, Jonesboro Ark.

Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, pulled a fire alarm at the Westboro Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark., and then, positioned in nearby woods, opened fire on their classmates and teachers as they fled the building. Four female students and a teacher were killed, while nine students and a teacher were wounded.

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April 20, 1999, Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo.

Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, entered the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., with numerous guns and killed 12 students and a teacher before taking their own lives in the school library, where they had shot students at point-blank range. Both were reportedly bullied for years.

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March 21, 2005, Red Lake, Minn.

Jeffrey Weise, a student at the Red Lake High School in Red Lake, Minn., killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend before killing seven more people: five students, a teacher, and an unarmed security guard.

Photo: Murderpedia

Oct. 2, 2006, Lancaster County, Pa.

Charles Carl Roberts, 32, a milk-tank truck driver, took hostages and eventually shot 10 girls, killing five (ages 7–13), before killing himself at the West Nickel Mines School, a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pa.

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Jan. 5, 2011, Omaha, Neb.

After being suspended for destruction of property, Robert Butler Jr. entered his high school and shot his principal and vice principal, killing the latter.

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Feb. 27, 2012, Chardon, Ohio

T.J. Lane shot six students at his high school, killing three.

The first reported school shooting in what is now the U.S. took place in the 1700s when four Lenape Indians entered a schoolhouse in what is now Greencastle, Pa., and killed the schoolmaster and as many as 10 children, according to K12academics.com.

Since that dark day, there have been hundreds of schoolhouse shootings, the most recent on Friday morning, when a gunman entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and started shooting. In all, 20 children and six adults were killed. The suspected shooter is also dead, as is another adult at a separate location.

Herewith is a short pictorial history of fatal incidents in U.S. primary and secondary schools since 1989.