Timeline of School Shootings

Timeline of School Shootings
Posted February 15, 2008
 
Clarification: An earlier version of this timeline omitted several significant shootings that have taken place at colleges and other schools since the 1960s.

Feb. 14, 2008: A 27-year-old man goes on a rampage at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, shooting 21 people, killing five and later himself. University police report that the suspect, a former student, had stopped taking medication and had been acting “somewhat erratic.”

Feb. 12, 2008: In Oxnard, Calif., a 14-year-old shoots a 15-year-old classmate, who later dies of his injuries. Law enforcement cites “bad blood” between the teens.

Feb. 11, 2008: In Memphis, a 19-year-old senior is shot in his school’s gym by a 17-year-old sophomore, following a feud that started off campus earlier in the week; after the shooting, the suspect hands his gun to a coach, saying, “It’s over now.”

Feb. 8, 2008: A nursing student shoots two women and then herself in a classroom at Louisiana Technical College, outside Baton Rouge.

Feb. 7, 2008: In Portsmouth, Ohio, a small community near the Kentucky border, a man shoots his estranged wife at the Notre Dame Elementary School.

Feb. 4, 2008: In Memphis’s Hamilton High School, a 16-year-old student is shot in the leg during an argument with another student over music.

Jan. 16, 2008: As students are being dismissed early from school, one is wounded in the shoulder after being shot in the parking lot of Crossroads Charter High School in Charlotte, N.C.

Dec. 13, 2007: Two doctoral students from India are shot and killed in student apartments on the Louisiana State University campus.

Dec. 12, 2007: After taking his father’s pistol to school, a student shoots a 14-year-old classmate at a private school outside New Delhi; gun violence is very rare in India.

Dec. 10, 2007: A 24-year-old goes on a shooting spree at a megachurch in Colorado Springs and a Denver-area missionary training school, killing four and wounding four others; the gunman, who law enforcement sources said “hated Christians,” kills himself.

Nov. 7, 2007: An 18-year-old man, a former student, shoots seven people and wounds 11 others before taking his own life at a high school in southern Finland; this is the first known school shooting in Finland, where gun ownership is fairly common by European standards but shootings are rare.

Oct. 24, 2007: In Saginaw, Mich., four South Middle School students are shot by a high school student at a middle school football game; the victims’ injuries are not life threatening.

Oct. 10, 2007: A 14-year-old gunman opens fire at Success Tech Academy, a nontraditional high school in Cleveland, wounding two students and two teachers before killing himself.

Sept. 30, 2007: A University of Memphis football player dies after being shot and then crashing his car into a tree, following a botched robbery attempt outside a university housing complex.

Sept. 21, 2007: Two Delaware State University students are shot and wounded at the Campus Mall while returning from an on-campus cafe.

Aug. 5, 2007: Four young people are shot in the head at close range, three fatally, in the parking lot of the K-8 Mount Vernon School in Newark, N.J.; all of the victims had been planning to attend Delaware State in the fall.

April 16, 2007: Before killing himself, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech student, Seung Hui Cho, kills two students in a dorm; then two hours later across campus in Norris Hall, he kills 25 more students and five faculty members. Fifteen others are wounded in the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history.

April 2, 2007: A program coordinator for the University of Washington’s College of Architecture is shot and killed by a man in an apparent murder-suicide.

Oct. 2, 2006: A gunman kills six people, including himself, and wounds more at a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pa.

Sept. 29, 2006: A 15-year-old student brings two guns to Weston Schools in rural Cazenovia, Wis., and fatally shoots his principal after the principal had given him a disciplinary warning for having tobacco on school grounds.

Sept. 27, 2006: A 53-year-old gunman takes six girls hostage at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colo. The gunman uses the girls as human shields for hours before fatally wounding a 16-year-old and then killing himself.

Sept. 17, 2006: Five Duquesne University basketball players are injured in a campus shooting by two men after a dance.

Sept. 2, 2006: Douglas Pennington, 49, kills his two sons and himself while visiting Shepherd University in West Virginia.

Nov. 8, 2005: A high school freshman is arrested in the fatal shooting of an assistant principal and wounding of two other school administrators at Campbell County High School in eastern Tennessee.

March 21, 2005: A 16-year-old student shoots and kills five schoolmates, a teacher, and an unarmed guard at Red Lake High School on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota before taking his own life.

Sept. 24, 2003: A 15-year-old student fatally shoots two fellow students at Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minn.

April 24, 2003: A 14-year-old student shoots and kills the principal of Red Lion Area Junior High School in south-central Pennsylvania before killing himself.

Oct. 28, 2002: A student at the University of Arizona Nursing College kills three of his instructors before killing himself.

Jan. 16, 2002: A graduate student at the Appalachian School of Law shoots and kills the dean, a professor, and a student and wounds three other students.

March 5, 2001: A 15-year-old student kills two fellow students and wounds 13 others at Santana High School in Santee, Calif., in San Diego County.

Aug. 28, 2000: A graduate student at the University of Arkansas is found dead with his English professor in an apparent murder-suicide.

May 26, 2000: A 13-year-old student kills his English teacher on the last day of classes in Lake Worth, Fla., after the teacher refused to let him talk with two girls in his classroom.

March 10, 2000: Two students in Savannah, Ga., are killed by a 19-year-old student while leaving a dance sponsored by Beach High School.

Feb. 29, 2000: A 6-year-old boy shoots and kills a 6-year-old classmate at Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township, Mich.

Nov. 19, 1999: A 13-year-old girl is shot in the head by a 12-year-old boy in school at Deming, N.M.

April 20, 1999: Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, kill 12 students and a teacher and wound 23 others before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

June 15, 1998: One teacher and one guidance counselor are wounded by a 14-year-old boy in a Richmond, Va., school hallway.

May 21, 1998: Two teenagers are killed and more than 20 people hurt when a teenage boy opens fire at a high school in Springfield, Ore., after killing his parents.

May 19, 1998: Three days before his graduation, an 18-year-old honor student opens fire at a high school in Fayetteville, Tenn., killing a classmate who was dating his ex-girlfriend.

April 24, 1998: A 15-year-old student opens fire at an eighth-grade dance in Edinboro, Pa., killing a science teacher.

March 24, 1998: Two boys, 11 and 13, fire on their Jonesboro, Ark., middle school from nearby woods, killing four girls and a teacher and wounding 10 others.

Dec. 15, 1997: Two students in Stamps, Ark., are wounded by a 14-year-old boy who was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot.

Dec. 1, 1997: Three students are killed and five wounded by a 14-year-old student at Heath High School in West Paducah, Ky.

Oct. 1, 1997: A 16-year-old in Pearl, Miss., fatally shoots two students to death and wounds seven others after stabbing his mother to death.

Feb. 19, 1997: A 16-year-old boy takes a shotgun and a bag of shells to school in Bethel, Alaska, and kills the principal and a student and injures two others.

Aug. 15, 1996: A graduate student studying engineering at San Diego State University shoots and kills three professors while he defends his thesis.

Feb. 2, 1996: Two students and one teacher are killed and another is wounded when a 14-year-old student in Moses Lake, Wash., opens fire on his algebra class.

March 23, 1994: A 16-year-old student in Seattle is killed in a gang-related drive-by shooting at the school.

Nov. 1, 1991: A physics graduate student kills five University of Iowa officials and wounds two others. The student then fatally shoots himself.

Aug. 12, 1986: Five people are shot and one killed by a student at New York Technical College in Brooklyn.

Nov. 26, 1985: A high school student in Washington State dies after shooting herself the previous day. Police say the female student earlier shot and killed two 14-year-old boys, one of them her former boyfriend.

Oct. 23, 1985: The dean of Bates College in Maine is shot in the back by a sniper while standing in his kitchen in a house just off campus. The dean survives the shooting, and the captain of the school’s swim team is arrested in connection with the incident.

Feb. 22, 1978: After being taunted for his beliefs, a 15-year-old self-proclaimed Nazi, kills one student and wounds a second with a Luger-style pistol in Lansing, Mich.

Dec. 30, 1974: In Olean, N.Y., Anthony Barbaro, a 17-year-old Regents scholar armed with a rifle and shotgun, kills three adults and wounds 11 others at his high school, which was closed for the Christmas holiday. Barbaro was reportedly a loner who kept a diary describing several “battle plans” for his attack on the school.

May 4, 1970: Four students are killed and nine wounded when National Guard soldiers attempt to control an antiwar demonstration at Ohio’s Kent State University.

Jan. 17, 1969: Two students are shot and killed at the University of California-Los Angeles during a student meeting.

Aug. 1, 1966: Charles Whitman climbs atop the observation deck at the University of Texas-Austin, killing 16 people and wounding 31 during a 96-minute rampage.