| Jan. 1, 1988 |
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Introduction |
A look back at some of the most notable mass shootings in recent U.S. history: from Killeen, Texas, in 1991 to recent rampages at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. and Sikh temple in Wisconsin. |
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| Jan. 17, 1989 |
5 killed, 29 injured; Stockton, Calif. |
School |
Patrick Edward Purdy turns a powerful assault rifle on a crowded school playground, killing five children and wounding 29 more. Purdy, who also killed himself, had been a student at the school from kindergarten through third grade.
Police officials described Purdy as a troubled drifter in his mid-20s with a history of relatively minor brushes with the law. The midday attack lasted only minutes. |
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| Oct. 16, 1991 |
22 killed, 20 wounded: Killeen, Texas |
Public place |
George Jo Hennard, 35, crashes his pickup truck into a Luby's cafeteria crowded with lunchtime patrons and begins firing indiscriminately with a semiautomatic pistol, killing 22 people. Hennard is later found dead of a gunshot wound in a restaurant restroom.
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 Rick McFarland / Associated Press Police officers gather outside Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas |
| Nov. 1, 1991 |
4 killed, 2 injured: Iowa City, Iowa |
School |
Gang Lu, a graduate student in physics from China, shoots four people to death at the University of Iowa. Lu, who took his own life in the incident, was upset about not getting an academic honor. The dead included faculty members and the student who had won the honor. Two others were critically wounded.
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 The Gazette / Associated Press A University of Iowa campus security officer checks the hallway outside the sealed Office of Academic Affairs in Jessup Hall. |
| July 1, 1993 |
8 killed, 6 injured: San Francisco |
Workplace |
Gian Luigi Ferri, 55, kills eight people in an office building in San Francisco's financial district. His rampage begins in the 34th-floor offices of Pettit & Martin, an international law firm, and ends in a stairwell between the 29th and 30th floors where he encounters police and shoots himself. |
 AP Photo/Marin Independent Journal |
| Dec. 7, 1993 |
6 killed, 19 injured: Garden City, N.Y. |
Public place |
Colin Ferguson shoots and kills six passengers and wounds 19 others on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train before being stopped by other riders. Ferguson is later sentenced to life in prison. |
 Sharon M. Beard / Associated Press |
| March 24, 1998 |
5 killed, 10 injured: Jonesboro, Ark. |
School |
Middle school students Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden pull a fire alarm at their school in a small rural Arkansas community and then open fire on students and teachers using an arsenal they had stashed in the nearby woods. Four students and a teacher who tried shield the children are killed and 10 others are injured. Because of their ages, Mitchell. 13, and Andrew, 11, are sentenced to confinement in a juvenile facility until they turn 21. |
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| April 20, 1999 |
13 killed, 24 injured: Columbine, Colo. |
School |
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, students at Columbine High, open fire at the school, killing a dozen students and a teacher and causing injury to two dozen others before taking their own lives. |
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| July 29, 1999 |
9 killed, 12 injured: Atlanta |
Workplace |
Mark Orrin Barton, a 44-year-old chemist-turned-day trader, strolls into two investment offices and opens fire on fellow investors and office workers. The shootings at All-Tech Investment and Momentum Securities Inc., across the street from each other, leave nine people dead and 12 wounded. Barton eludes a manhunt for six hours before killing himself.
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 Associated Press Mark O. Barton |
| Sept. 15, 1999 |
7 killed, 7 injured: Fort Worth |
Worship place |
Larry Gene Ashbrook opens fire inside the crowded chapel of the Wedgwood Baptist Church. Worshipers, thinking at first that it must be a prank, keep singing. But when they realize what is happening, they dive to the floor and scrunch under pews, terrified and silent as the gunfire continues. Seven people are killed before Ashbrook takes his own life. |
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| Dec. 26, 2000 |
7 killed: Wakefield, Mass. |
Workplace |
Michael McDermott, a 42-year-old software tester shoots and kills seven co-workers at the Internet consulting firm where he is employed. McDermott, who is arrested at the offices of Edgewater Technology Inc., apparently was enraged because his salary was about to be garnished to satisfy tax claims by the Internal Revenue Service. He uses three weapons in his attack. |
 John Blanding / Associated Press Photo Michael McDermott in Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge, Mass. |
| March 5, 2001 |
2 killed, 13 injured: Santee, Calif. |
School |
Santana High student Charles Andrew Williams, 15, fatally shoots two classmates and wounds 13 others on the campus. He is apprehended by police in the school bathroom, where his attack began. Williams is later sentenced to 50 years to life. |
 Associated Press Charles Andrew Williams in court during his arraignment in San Diego County Superior Court in March 2001 |
| July 8, 2003 |
5 killed, 9 injured: Meridian, Miss. |
Workplace |
Doug Williams, 48, a production assemblyman for 19 years at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., goes on a rampage at the defense plant, fatally shooting five and wounding nine before taking his own life with a shotgun. |
 Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office Doug Williams in an undated photo |
| March 21, 2005 |
9 killed, 7 injured: Red Lake Indian Reservation, Minn. |
School |
Jeffrey Weise, a 16-year-old student at Red Lake High School fatally shoots five students, a teacher, and a security guard and wounds seven others before taking his own life. Before his rampage at Red Lake, Weise kills his grandfather and his grandfather's companion at their home on the Red Lake Indian Reservation.
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| Oct. 2, 2006 |
5 killed, 5 injured: Nickel Mines, Pa. |
School |
Charles Carl Roberts IV, a milk truck driver armed with a small arsenal, bursts into a one-room schoolhouse and kills five Amish girls. He kills himself as police storm the building. |
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| Feb. 12, 2007 |
5 killed, 4 injured: Salt Lake City |
Public place |
Sulejman Talovic, 18, wearing a trenchcoat and carrying a shotgun, sprays a popular Salt Lake City shopping mall. Witnesses say he displays no emotion while killing five people and wounding four others. An off-duty police officer eating dinner with his wife exchanges gunfire with the Bosnian refugee before other officers arrive and fatally wound Talovic. |
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| April 16, 2007 |
32 killed, 17 injured: Blacksburg, Va. |
School |
Seung-hui Cho, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech senior, opens fire on campus, killing 32 people in a dorm and an academic building in attacks more than two hours apart. Cho takes his life after the second incident.
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 Associated Press Photo/NBC Image taken from a video aired by NBC News shows Virginia Tech gunman Seung-hui Cho |
| Dec. 5, 2007 |
8 killed, 4 injured: Omaha |
Public place |
Robert Hawkins, 19, sprays an Omaha shopping mall with gunfire as holiday shoppers scatter in terror. He kills eight people and wounds four others before taking his own life. Authorities report he left several suicide notes. |
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| Feb. 14, 2008 |
5 killed, 16 injured: Dekalb, Ill. |
School |
Steven Kazmierczak, dressed all in black, steps on stage in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opens fire on a geology class. Five students are killed and 16 wounded before Kazmierczak kills himself on the lecture hall stage. |
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| April 3, 2009 |
13 killed, 4 injured: Binghamton, N.Y. |
Public place |
Jiverly Voong, 41, shoots and kills 13 people and seriously wounds four others before apparently committing suicide at the American Civic Assn., an immigration services center, in Binghamton, N.Y. |
 AP Photo/Binghamton Police Department |
| Nov. 5, 2009 |
13 killed, 32 injured: Ft. Hood, Texas |
Workplace |
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, allegedly shoots and kills 13 people and injures 32 others in a rampage at Ft. Hood, where he is based. Authorities allege that Hasan was exchanging emails with Muslim extremists including American-born radical Anwar Awlaki. |
 Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan in a 2007 photo |
| Aug. 3, 2010 |
8 killed, 2 injured: Manchester, Conn. |
Workplace |
Omar S. Thornton, 34, a driver for Hartford Distributors, emerges from a disciplinary hearing and begins shooting, killing eight people at the family-owned distributorship and then himself. |
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| Jan. 8, 2011 |
6 killed, 11 injured: Tucson, Ariz. |
Public place |
Jared Lee Loughner, 22, allegedly shoots Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head during a meet-and-greet with constituents at a Tucson supermarket. Six people are killed and 11 others wounded. Loughner is identified by witnesses as the gunman who fired at close range with semiautomatic pistol before being tackled. |
 AP Photo Jared Lee Loughner in an undated MySpace photo |
| Oct. 12, 2011 |
8 killed, 1 injured: Seal Beach, Calif. |
Workplace |
Scott Dekraai, 41, apparently enraged over a custody dispute, allegedly walks into a crowded Seal Beach hair salon where his former wife works and opens fire. Eight people are killed, including a man sitting in a truck outside the salon. Another person is critically wounded. Dekraai has pleaded not guilty in the case. |
 Seal Beach Police Dept. Booking photo of Scott Dekraai |
| April 2, 2012 |
7 killed, 3 injured: Oakland |
School |
One L. Goh, 43, a former student at a Oikos University, a small Christian college, allegedly opens fire in the middle of a classroom leaving seven people dead and three wounded.
Goh was charged with seven counts of murder with special circumstances and three counts of attempted murder. In a jailhouse interview with a San Francisco TV station shortly after the shooting, Goh said he was "deeply sorry" for his actions. |
 Alameda County Sheriff's Office One L. Goh |
| July 20, 2012 |
12 killed, 58 injured: Aurora, Colo. |
Public place |
James Holmes, 24, is taken into custody in the parking lot outside the Century 16 movie theater after a post-midnight attack in Aurora, Colo. Holmes allegedly entered the theater through an exit door about half an hour into the local premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises." He faces charges of of killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.
Victims: Who they were |
 University of Colorado Denver/Zuma Press/MCT James Holmes |
| Aug. 5, 2012 |
6 killed, 3 injured: Oak Creek, Wis. |
Worship place |
Wade Michael Page fatally shoots six people at a Sikh temple before he is shot by a police officer. Page, an Army veteran who was a “psychological operations specialist,” committed suicide after he was wounded.
Page was a member of a white supremacist band called End Apathy and his views led federal officials to treat the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism. He had been administratively discharged from the Army in 1998 after being demoted in rank.
Victims: Who they were
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 Handout/ Getty Images Wade Michael Page |
| Sept. 28, 2012 |
6 killed, 2 injured: Minneapolis, Minn. |
Workplace |
Andrew Engeldinger, 36, breaks into a sign company's offices and opens fire, killing the owner and five others before turning the gun on himself. Engeldinger had been fired from Accent Signage Systems, a small company that specializes in making interior signs that comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, including signs in Braille for the blind. |
 Bill Klotz / Associated Press Engeldinger working at Accent Signage in Minneapolis |
| Oct. 21, 2012 |
3 dead, 4 injured: Brookfield, Wis. |
Public place |
Radcliffe Haughton, a 45-year-old former Marine, walks into the Azana Salon and Spa where his estranged wife works and shoots and kills her and two other women, wounding four others. Witnesses say Haughton's wife, Zina, calmly tried to protect coworkers and customers before she was killed. She had recently sought a restraining order saying her husband had threatened to throw acid in her face and set her on fire with gasoline. Haughton was found dead inside the salon of a self-inflicted gunshot. |
.jpg) Michael Sears / Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Rescue personnel arrive at the Azana Salon and Spa |
| Dec. 14, 2012 |
27 killed, one injured: Newtown, Conn. |
School |
A gunman forces his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. and shoots and kills 20 first graders and six adults. The shooter, identified by sources as Adam Lanza, 20, kills himself at the scene. Lanza is also believed to have killed his mother at the home they shared, prior to his shooting rampage. In emotional remarks from the White House, President Obama wiped away tears. "Our hearts are broken today," the president said.
Photos | Full coverage
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 Mario Tama / Getty Images Responders gather at scene of a mass school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. |
