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Ten people died and 13 were injured after a 17-year-old opened fire at Santa Fe High School. The police found evidence that the attacker carefully planned the whole thing. As of February 2023 the accused is still ruled incompetent to stand trial.
A total of 13 people were shot by a white 18-year-old gunman, 10 of which died, in this racially motivated attack. The gunman live-streamed the whole thing. He was charged with first-degree murder.
On October 27, 2018, a gunman entered the Tree of Life Synagogue carrying an assault rifle and three handguns, and killed 11 people. This was the deadliest attack on members of the Jewish community in the US.
A 28-year-old man gunned down 10 people, among which were his mother and four other family members. The gunman ended up taking his own life after the event.
A Marine Corps veteran shot down 12 people and injured 18 in a bar in Thousand Oaks, California. The gunman took his own life after the mass shooting.
A total of 12 people died and eight were injured when an ex-US sailor opened fire at the headquarters of Naval Sea Systems Command at the Washington Navy Yard. The gunman was shot down by the police.
A 40-year-old man who had worked at the Municipal Center for 15 years opened fire and killed 12 people. The gunman was shot dead by the police.
A man shot and killed 11 members of his family at his own mother's house in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1975. He was charged with two life sentences and died in prison.
Ten people were gunned down by a man at a supermarket in Boulder, CO. The gunman was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
This mass murder, which became known as Palm Sunday massacre, took place in East New York, Brooklyn, in 1984. A gunman walked into an apartment and killed 10 people. He was convicted of manslaughter but cleared of murder charges due to his emotional, drug-fueled state. The motive for the crime was jealousy.
A gunman detonated smoke bombs and opened fire during a midnight movie session killing 12 people and injuring 70. The shooter was sentenced to life without parole.
Thirteen dead and 24 injured was the result of this attack instigated by two armed students. Both gunmen killed themselves after the mass shooting.
A gunman walked into the American Civic Association Center in Binghamton and shot down 13 people, then fatally shot himself.
A couple opened fire at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people. One of perpetrators worked there as a health inspector. The couple's vehicle was tracked down by the police four hours later and they were both killed.
Fourteen people were the target of a gunman at a gambling spot at the Louisa Hotel in Seattle's Chinatown-International District, 13 of which died.
A mail carrier shot down 14 postal workers before killing himself at a US Post Office in Edmond, Oklahoma, in 1986.
A US Army major fatally shot 13 people and injured 32 at an army base in Texas. The gunman was sentenced to death and is currently in prison. Another mass shooting occurred in Fort Hood in 2014, killing three people and wounding 14.
A former student armed with a semi-automatic rifle killed 17 people and injured 17 more in a school mass shooting. The gunman was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
On September 25, 1982, an ex-prison guard fatally shot 13 people in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, including five of his children. The man was given the death penalty, but was eventually ruled incompetent to die by execution.
A reported WWII veteran fatally shot 13 people while he walked around his neighborhood in what became known as the "Walk of Death."
A total of 21 people were killed and at least 15 were injured when a student opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The 18-year-old gunman was shot dead at the scene.
A man carrying a semiautomatic rifle opened fire at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Twenty-six people died and 22 were injured. The gunman was found dead shortly after.
In 2019, A 21-year-old gunman named Patrick Crusius carried out a racially-motivated mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, killing 23 people and injuring another 23. He plead guilty to 90 federal charges on Feb. 8, 2023
A senior at the school killed 32 people and injured 23. The gunman took his own life after the attack. This remains the deadliest school shooting in US history.
In 1966, a sniper shot a number of people from the University's observation deck known as the Tower. A total of 16 people died, and 31 were injured. The sniper was killed by the police.
A gunman, who was said to have had connections with ISIS (though police never found evidence of it) opened fire at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. A total of 49 people died and at least 50 were wounded in the attack. The gunman died during a shootout with the police. This remains the deadliest terrorist attack in the US since 9/11.
A man shot dead 21 people and injured 19 more at a McDonald's in the San Ysidro district of San Diego in 1984. The gunman was shot at the scene by a police sniper.
After shooting his own mother at home, the 20-year-old gunman went to Sandy Hook Elementary School and opened fire, killing 27 people. The gunman then killed himself.
A man armed with a semi-automatic gun drove his pickup truck through the front window of Luby's Cafeteria and fatally shot 23 people (including himself) and injured 27 others.
Many of those attending the Route 91 Harvest festival in October 2017 in Las Vegas witnessed this mass shooting. A gunman opened fire from his hotel room, killing 58 people and injuring more than 850. The attack lasted over 15 minutes. Police then found the shooter dead in his room.
Sources: (Insider) (CNN)
See also: Gun control laws: celebrities who are either for or against stricter legislation
On July 17, a 22-year-old man opened fire at the food court of the Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Indiana. The shooter used what appeared to be a long-gun rifle to shoot five people, one male and four females. Three of the victims died, while the two others, one of whom was a 12-year-old girl, were brought to hospital in stable conditions. The perpetrator was shot and killed by a civilian who was lawfully carrying his own gun and happened to be in the food court when the shooting broke out. Local law enforcement praised the local man who may have saved many lives with his quick action. Though the motivations of the gunman remain unclear, police found he was reportedly "infatuated" with Nazi Germany and mass killings.
On July 24, two people were killed and at least seven others were injured after gunfire erupted at a Los Angeles park. The incident occurred during a yearly softball game organized to bring rival gangs in the community together peacefully and improve relations, which it had been doing successfully. Police say that it was just a couple of individuals at the event that had a dispute which resulted in them opening fire on each other in the park. Hundreds of participants and spectators ran for cover but sadly, several bystanders were shot while trying to escape. One of the victims was shot and killed while trying to exit the car park in his vehicle, blocking other cars from fleeing and delaying the arrival of the emergency services. Police later found more than 50 shell casings at the scene. As of September 14, three out of four male suspects arrested have been released.
On September 7, a young man named Ezekiel Kelly reportedly went on a shooting spree in the city of Memphis, Tennessee. The first victim was fatally shot in their driveway at 1 am, followed by the next shooting at a different location at 4:30 pm when a man in his car was shot and killed. A woman was shot in the leg nearby. Police then received reports that the shooter was streaming on Facebook Live around 6 pm when he entered a store and killed another person. At this point, they issued a citywide shelter-in-place order and began a manhunt for the suspect. Kelly allegedly shot and killed a woman before stealing her car, and was eventually apprehended by police after a high-speed chase around 9:30 pm. By the time he was captured, four people had been killed and three more wounded. Facebook reportedly worked with police to remove the footage of the shooting.
On October 24, a 19-year-old gunman entered Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis with a rifle and what the St. Louis interim police chief Mick Sack described as "no mystery about what was going to happen," NBC reports. The gunman, a recent graduate of Central with no criminal history, killed a teacher and a 16-year-old student, and sent several others to the hospital. After a gunfight with authorities, the suspect was taken into custody and later pronounced dead. Sack said the gunman may have been experiencing a mental illness.
On the evening of November 13, students at the University of Virginia were sent warnings from the police department and the university's emergency management office to "shelter in place" or "RUN HIDE FIGHT" soon after gunfire was heard near the school's drama building, NBC reports.
"I am heartbroken to report that the shooting has resulted in three fatalities," university president Jim Ryan later said in an email to students, adding that two other victims were injured. "This is a message any leader hopes never to have to send, and I am devastated that this violence has visited the University of Virginia." UVA student Christopher Darnell Jones was eventually arrested in connection with the deadly shooting.
On the night of November 19, a young man in body armor wielding an AR-15 style rifle attacked an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five and injuring 25 others before being subdued by patrons of club, reports The New York Times. By the time police showed up, at least one person inside the nightclub, Club Q, had seized a handgun from the gunman and was pinning him down. Colorado Springs police Chief Adrian Vasquez identified the suspect as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich.
A shooting in Monterey Park, California, on the night of January 21 left 10 dead and another 10 wounded in the deadliest mass shooting in the US since the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022. People had gathered in the park to celebrate the Lunar New Year when a gunman entered Star Ballroom Dance Studio and opened fire, killing five men and women who seemed to be in their 50s and 60s and "probably" of Asian descent, officials said, as per BBC. Around 12 hours after the shooting, a SWAT team swarmed a white van with the suspected gunman, then heard another gunshot. The 72-year-old suspect, Huu Can Tran, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot.
At least seven people were killed and one critically injured in shootings on January 23 at two separate locations in Half Moon Bay in the San Francisco Bay area, becoming California's second mass shooting in just three days. The suspect, identified as 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, was taken into custody more than two hours after the shootings in the small coastal community, one at a mushroom farm and the next at a trucking facility approximately two miles away, CNN reports. The attack echoes the mass shooting that occurred at Monterey Park just two nights prior. Zhao reportedly told investigators he was spurred to carry out the shootings after his supervisor demanded he pay US$100 to repair a forklift damaged at work even though the damage was his coworker's fault, and he told KNTV-TV in a courthouse interview that he was bullied and worked long hours on the farms while his complaints were ignored.
Eleven people were injured in a drive-by shooting on January 30 in Lakeland, Florida, with two of the wounded in critical condition and requiring immediate surgery. Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor said that the shooting happened at around 3:45 pm, and that there were four men who were in the slow-moving four-door dark blue Nissan. Investigators reportedly believe the shooting was targeted, not random, according to CBS. Shooting suspect, Alex Greene, 21, was killed after a police chase in February, and four others were arrested.
A mass shooting at Michigan State University left three people dead and at least five others injured after a suspect opened fire at two different campus locations on the evening of February 13. The suspect, a 43-year-old man, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. The shooting, which began at Berkey Hall and then went towards the MSU Union Building, had prompted an hours-long shelter-in-place order while police looked for the gunman, who was reportedly not affiliated with the university.
On Wednesday, Feb. 15, multiple 911 calls were made after gunfire was heard inside the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso. The incident broke out around 5 pm when shots were fired inside the mall, resulting in the death of one person and injuries to three others. An off-duty police officer working as a security guard at one of the mall's stores responded immediately and apprehended one suspect. The Cielo Vista Mall is located next to a Walmart which was the site of a devastating mass shooting in 2019. Many of the mall employees who sheltered during this shooting were also on-site during the 2019 massacre.
On Feb. 22, a gunman shot and killed a 38-year-old woman in her vehicle around 11 am. Later in the day, following the police responses and removal of the vehicle, journalists gathered at the site to report on the crime. The suspect then revisited the scene shot two journalists, killing one and injuring the other. He then entered a home on a nearby street where he shot a mother and child. The mother survived, but the nine-year-old girl sadly passed away from her injuries.
The suspect, 19-year-old Keith Melvin Moses, was apprehended by police. It's believed that the first victim was known to Moses, but the investigators have found no connection between the suspected killer and the rest of the victims. He faces three counts of first-degree murder in addition to other charges.
In the first week of March, the US surpassed 100 mass shootings in 2023 alone, which is a record time according to data from the Gun Violence Archive which defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people (excluding the shooter) are shot. We need only look at the increasing speed of this disturbing milestone to see the failures of the US government and state legislatures: in 2022, the US hit 100 mass shootings on March 19, the previous year was also a late March date, and from 2018-2020 there were 100 mass shootings only by May. Of course, 100 mass shootings is already 100 too many, but there have been more shootings at this point in 2023 than in any previous year since at least 2013, CNN reports, and the capacity of the country to make real change in gun laws and regulations is quite literally a life or death matter.
Three nine-year-old children and three adults were killed during a shooting on the morning of March 27 at a private elementary school in Nashville after a former student entered the building and opened fire. The shooter reportedly entered The Covenant School from a side entrance armed with two assault-type rifles and one pistol, says Nashville Police Department spokesman Don Aaron, and died on the scene after being caught on the second floor by two police officers, People reports. The shooter was identified as a 28-year-old woman from Nashville, according to a tweet from the Metro Nashville Police Department.
President Biden spoke out on the tragedy and said, "We have to do more to stop gun violence." He continued, "It's ripping our communities apart. Ripping the soul of this nation, and we have to do more to protect our schools so that they aren't turned into prisons." Biden added, "So I call on Congress again to pass my assault weapons ban. It's about time we make some more progress."
On Monday, April 10, a shooter entered the Old National Bank on Main Street in Louisville, Kentucky. The 25-year-old suspect, Connor Sturgeon, was reportedly an employee at the bank and showed up to work with a recently purchased AR-15-style rifle. He opened fire inside the bank killing five people and wounding eight more. All of the victims were his fellow employees. The police responded quickly to reports of gunshots inside the bank and arrived on the scene within minutes. They exchanged fire with Sturgeon, who shot and injured one of the officers before he was fatally shot himself. He live-streamed the entire event.
Police confirmed that Sturgeon left a note for his family explaining that he was going to carry out the shooting, and that he informed at least one friend that he was feeling suicidal before the incident.
A Sweet 16 birthday party in Dadeville, Alabama, descended into chaos and tragedy on the night of April 15. The festivities were cut short when gunshots were heard at the venue around 10:30 pm on Saturday night. Four people were killed including the birthday girl's brother, who was a high schooler, and another high school student named Keke Smith. A further 32 people were reportedly wounded in the shooting with some in critical condition. At least 15 teenagers received medical attention for gunshot wounds. A few days after the tragedy, a 16-year-old, 17-year-old, and 20-year-old were charged with the murders. All three will be tried as adults.
On May 6, 2023, a gunman opened fire at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, killing eight people and wounding at least seven others. The attacker, who was shot dead at the scene by a police officer, was identified as Mauricio Garcia, 33, and was soon investigated for right-wing extremist links, as during the attack he wore a clothing patch with the letters RWDS, which stands for "Right Wing Death Squad"—a popular phrase among right-wing extremists and white supremacy groups, reports the BBC. Garcia used an AR-15 style rifle and wore combat gear during the shooting, with multiple rounds of ammunition found on him and more weapons found in his car. President Joe Biden confirmed that there were children among those killed, and again made the plea for stricter gun control.
A Juneteenth celebration in a Chicago suburb went south as gunfire erupted in the crowd, killing one person and injuring at least 22 more. Around 12:25 am on June 18, 2023, police officers in Willowbrook, Illinois, responded to sounds of gunshots coming from the parking lot of a strip mall, NPR reports, with police saying there were multiple weapons firing multiple rounds. No suspects have been arrested. The attack was one of at least 11 mass shootings over that weekend, which raised the year's total to 309, according to the Gun Violence Archive for which a mass shooting is defined as four or more people being shot or killed.
Two people were killed and three others injured after police said a shooter began firing “randomly” into a crowd at a Washington state campground that was hosting the nearby Beyond Wonderland music festival at Gorge Amphitheater on June 17, reports OPB. The suspect was apparently among those injured after being shot in confrontation with law enforcement.
A mass shooting broke out at a block party in the Brooklyn neighborhood of South Baltimore in the early hours of Sunday, July 2. Local residents were enjoying the beloved annual event when at least two shooters opened fire shortly after midnight. Two people were killed and at least 28 more were injured, most of them in their teens. The two deceased were identified as 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzales and 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi. Of the 28 who were injured with gunshot wounds, 23 were aged between 13 and 19. The crime scene spans several blocks of the neighborhood and police are desperately trying to identify a motive and possible suspects.
On Monday, July 3, 2023, 40-year-old Kimbrady Carriker wrought havoc on Philadelphia. He took to the streets with a bulletproof vest, a police scanner, and an AR-15-style rifle, and seemingly fired shots at random throughout the city's Kingsessing neighborhood. He was arrested by police after being chased on foot. Five people were shot dead, including a 15-year-old boy, and two more children were hospitalized with injuries.
In the case of the Lewiston tragedy that occurred on October 25, police are struggling to apprehend the shooter. A 40-year-old man named Robert Card has been named as the prime suspect, and has so far eluded the authorities' grasp. The rampage began on Wednesday evening when the shooter entered the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley and opened fire, killing seven people (one female and six males). The next location that came under attack was Schemengees Bar and Grille, approximately four miles away. Eight more men were shot and killed and three more people later died of their wounds at a local hospital. Police responded immediately but did not apprehend the shooter at the scene. A shelter-in-place order was issued and a large-scale manhunt has been underway since Wednesday evening. Police have located a car and weapon in the nearby town of Lisbon which may be connected to the crimes.
The suspect, Robert Card, is reportedly a member of the Army Reserve, and law enforcement stated that he began hearing voices and talking about hurting his fellow soldiers during the summer of 2023.
Fifteen-year-old Natalie ‘Samantha’ Rupnow opened fire at her school on December 16, killing 42-year-old faculty member Erin West and 14-year-old student Rubi Vergara. She also harmed six other students before turning the gun on herself and taking her own life.
Following the incident, police investigated Rupnow's online activity and cell phone records and discovered she had been in contact with a man identified as 20-year-old Alexander Charles Paffendorf. Paffendorf was issued with a "gun violence emergency protective order" after it was found that he was planning a mass shooting. He admitted to FBI agents that he had shared plans to target a government building with Rupnow— although how the connection started is still unclear, and her motive remains unknown.
This was the 83rd school shooting of the year, making 2024 the year with the most school shootings in US history. Click through this gallery to learn more about the dark history of mass shootings in the US.
Wisconsin school shooting suspect linked to man planning separate attack
The mass school shooting took place on December 16
LIFESTYLE Violence
On Thursday, it was revealed that the teenage girl responsible for the mass shooting that took place at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison earlier this week was in contact with a man in California who was also planning a mass shooting.
Fifteen-year-old Natalie ‘Samantha’ Rupnow opened fire at her school on December 16, killing 42-year-old faculty member Erin West and 14-year-old student Rubi Vergara. She also harmed six other students before turning the gun on herself and taking her own life.
Following the incident, police investigated Rupnow's online activity and cell phone records and discovered she had been in contact with a man identified as 20-year-old Alexander Charles Paffendorf. Paffendorf was issued with a "gun violence emergency protective order" after it was found that he was planning a mass shooting. He admitted to FBI agents that he had shared plans to target a government building with Rupnow— although how the connection started is still unclear, and her motive remains unknown.
This was the 83rd school shooting of the year, making 2024 the year with the most school shootings in US history. Click through this gallery to learn more about the dark history of mass shootings in the US.