History of School Shootings in the United States: 2018
History of School Shootings in the United States: 2018
On January 10, 2018
in Denison, Texas a criminal justice club student picked up a loaded gun belonging to an advisor which the student believed was an unloaded training weapon. She then shot at a wall target, unintentionally firing a bullet, which went through the wall and broke a window. The advisor was a licensed peace officer permitted to carry a firearm on campus.
On January 20, 2018
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina a student was fatally shot at a party at 1 a.m. on the campus of Wake Forest University.
On January 22, 2018
in Italy, Texas a 16-year-old male student shot at a 15-year-old female classmate that he had briefly dated. The shooting took place in the cafeteria of Italy High School and the gunman left the school immediately after the shooting and was arrested nearby.
On January 22, 2018
in New Orleans, Louisiana shots were fired from a truck in the parking lot of NET Charter High School, targeting a crowd of students during lunch time. One student was slightly injured, apparently from injuries unrelated to gunfire. One person was arrested in connection with the shooting.
On January 23, 2018
in Marshall County, Kentucky at Marshall County High School Gabriel Ross Parker, a 15-year-old male student shot 16 people in the lobby at Marshall County High School and caused non-gunshot injuries to four others. Two 15-year-old students died: one killed at the scene, another died of wounds at Vanderbilt Medical Center.
At 7:57 AM, as students were gathering in the commons, prior to the start of classes, 15-year-old student Gabriel Ross Parker, opened fire with a Ruger handgun, murdering two 15-year-olds at the scene.
Gabriel Ross Parker reportedly went to the school's band room to check on his friends before the shooting and make sure they were not in the area before returning to the commons area to begin the attack. Witnesses stated that his eyes were "lifeless" and that he said nothing while he fired indiscriminately at students.
After the shooting, Gabriel Ross Parker discarded the weapon and ran to the weight room and hid with other students. Students, unaware he was the shooter, motioned for him to join them in hiding. Another student who was hiding in the location recognized Gabriel Ross Parker as the shooter and alerted a teacher in the room about the shooter's identity, and the teacher then called law enforcement.
A large number of students fled the school's campus to seek safety with local business owners attempting to aid the students. Students running from the incident heard screams of "Get down!" but many fled anyway, or attempted to evacuate the wounded from the school and drive them to the hospital. This created chaos as many dropped what they were carrying such as phones and bags and jumped fences or ran into the woods. Many students also ran to the school's technical building on campus.
Gabriel Ross Parker was taken into custody by the Marshall County Sheriff at 8:06 AM. His mother reportedly received a phone call from her son that there had been a shooting and that he was scared. When she found out that her son was the shooter she reportedly became physically ill.
Bailey Nicole Holt and Preston Ryan Cope, both 15 years old, were killed. Holt died at the scene after reportedly calling her mother by cell phone but "couldn't say anything". Cope died later at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center due to gunshot wound. Cope's parents reached the school before he died and bypassed first responders to be by his side.
Eighteen other students were injured, four by trying to escape, injuries sustained ranged from head wounds, to injuries to arms, the chest and abdomen from either the bullets or the chaos. Authorities reported that the wounded were five females and thirteen male students between the ages of 14 to 18 years old. Some of the victims were pulled from the scene, by students and faculty and transported to the hospital for medical treatment.
Gabriel Ross Parker was a 15-year-old sophomore at the school. The Marshall County Sheriff from the Marshall County Sheriff's Department located him and arrested him after the shooting. After his arrest a bag on his person was searched by police, and held a copy of the Communist Manifesto and a large Winchester sheath knife. At his home he had a copy of Mein Kampf.
Once arrested Parker was Mirandized and interviewed for almost two hours before Gabriel Ross Parker requested a lawyer. In the interview Parker reportedly told the investigating officers he planned the night before to take his step-father's pistol and the pros and cons of carrying out the act. School surveillance video documented the incident, and shows the progression of the incident. Police did not immediately offer a motive. According to the testimony of Marshall County Sheriff's Captain Matt Hilbrecht, during the interrogation, Parker expressed that "he was an atheist and that his life had no purpose and other people’s lives also had no purpose." Officers also stated that Parker indicated the shooting was an "experiment" to see how students and society would respond.
In April 2020, Gabriel Ross Parker pled guilty to murder and his mother apologized to Holt's and Cope's families for her son’s actions. On June 12, he was sentenced to two life terms plus 70 years and will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years.
Less than a week after the shooting the school implemented new safety measures; students that arrived late would have to check in with the front office, and staff members began to screen students with metal detector wands before allowing them to enter the building. The school has also hired a second officer on full-time at the location, with grant proposals for more school resource officers. In June 2018 it was reported that the Marshall County School District had banned students carrying backpacks at the high school, and two middle schools.
On January 31, 2018
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania a fight began in the school parking lot outside a basketball game at Lincoln High School, and the school went into lockdown after shots were fired. A 32-year-old male was transported by private vehicle to Nazareth Hospital with two gunshot wounds in his leg. He was transferred by helicopter to another hospital, but died from his injuries. Police announced that they are searching for an adult male suspect.
On February 1, 2018
in Los Angeles, California two 15-year-old students, a boy and a girl, were shot and injured inside a classroom at Sal Castro Middle School, which shares a campus with Belmont High School. Three other people suffered injuries unrelated to gunfire. A 12-year-old girl was arrested and charged with negligent discharge of a firearm.
On February 5, 2018
in Oxon Hill, Maryland a student was taken to the hospital after exiting Oxon Hill High School and going to speak to individuals in a vehicle who then attempted to rob, and subsequently shot and wounded him in the school's parking lot. Two other students were arrested and charged with attempted murder and robbery.
On February 9, 2018
in Nashville, Tennessee at Pearl-Cohn High School a student was shot five times in the parking lot.
On February 14, 2018
in Parkland, Florida at at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz killed Seventeen people and injured 17 others. Cruz shot students in hallways and classrooms on the first and third floor of the complex, then blended in with the crowd of fleeing students and was arrested in a residential area of neighboring Coral Springs after walking away from the school, and had sat down at a McDonald's. A longer write up on the Parkland shooting will follow this article.
On February 24, 2018
in Savannah, Georgia at Savannah State University a non-student was shot on campus and later died.
On February 27, 2018
in Itta Bena, Mississippi at Mississippi Valley State University a person was shot in a recreation center. The injury was not life-threatening.
On February 27, 2018
in Norfolk, Virginia at Norfolk State University a student was shot from an adjacent dorm room while doing homework. He was not seriously injured.
On March 2, 2018
in Mount Pleasant, Michigan at Central Michigan University 19-year-old student James Eric Davis Jr. shot and killed his mother and father when they came to campus to take him home for spring break. After the shooting Davis fled and the campus was placed on lockdown. Around 15 hours later police arrested him and took him to a local hospital. Davis was charged with two counts of murder and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm used to commit murder however the judge found Davis insane and was put in a Psychiatric facility.
On March 7, 2018
in Birmingham, Alabama at Huffman High School one student was killed and another injured when shots were fired in the school building, prompting the school to go into lockdown shortly after the bell rang for school dismissal. Law enforcement originally labeled the shooting as "accidental". Subsequently, 17-year-old male student Michael Barber was charged with manslaughter and was charged as "being a certain person forbidden to possess a pistol". Although the school has metal detectors, they were not being used that day. School resource officers were onsite at the time of the shooting. Barber was sentenced to 12 months in jail.
On March 7, 2018
in Jackson, Mississippi at Jackson State University a student was wounded after being shot inside a dormitory.
On March 8, 2018
in Mobile, Alabama at University of South Alabama one person was hospitalized after a shooting on campus.
On March 9, 2018
in Lexington, Kentucky at Frederick Douglass High School a 16-year-old male student unintentionally shot himself with a gun he had smuggled intothe classroom, injuring his left thumb. Police announced they were charging him with wanton endangerment and possession of a weapon on school property. After the shooting, the school superintendent announced that stationary metal detectors would be installed and all students would be required to enter through them.
On March 13, 2018
in Seaside, California at Seaside High School a teacher and Sand City reserve police officer Dennis Alexander, accidentally discharged a firearm while teaching a public safety class, injuring one student. Alexander was also a member of Seaside City Council, but did not seek re-election when his term ended in 2018. He was reportedly demonstrating the difficulties of disarming an officer and how to disarm a suspect at the time of the negligent discharge, neither of which were on the curriculum of the public safety class he was teaching.
On March 20, 2018
in Great Mills, Maryland at Great Mills High School the school was placed on lockdown after a shooting occurred in the morning. A 17-year-old male student, armed with a handgun, shot and fatally injured a female student, 16-year-old Jaelynn Willey, with whom he had a prior relationship, and wounded a male student. The student shot himself in the head while the school resource officer simultaneously shot at him.
On April 12, 2018
in Raytown, Missouri at South Middle School a man was shot in the stomach in the parking lot during a track meet.
On April 20, 2018
in Ocala, Florida at Forest High School a student shot through the door of the school with a sawed-off shotgun shortly before a national school walkout for gun control measures. The student had recently dropped out and had planned a much more serious school shooting. His injuries were not life-threatening. Sky Bouche, the 19-year-old former student was arrested.
Bouche said he felt disgusted with himself after the first shots went off, and told WESH 2 News he did it “To let people know there’s something wrong with me”
Bouche said sickness drove him to take “…a sawed off shotgun, I put it in a guitar case. I also had a tactical vest filled with shotgun slugs and rounds,” Bouche said, and claimed that while he’s been treated for his mental health before, he wanted more serious attention paid to his problems. He said “I want to (be) put away where I can’t hurt anybody.”
“Do you feel sorry? Do you feel remorseful?” WESH 2 News asked him.
“Yeah. That’s why I put down the gun. I could’ve kept going,” he said.
On May 11, 2018
in Palmdale, California at Highland High School a 14-year-old former student allegedly fired a semi-automatic rifle shortly before classes were to begin. A 15-year-old was struck in the shoulder. The suspect ditched the gun in a field and was arrested nearby, and faces a charge of attempted murder.
On May 16, 2018
in Dixon, Illinois at Dixon High School a 19-year-old student recently kicked off the football team allegedly fired shots prior to graduation rehearsal. A school resource officer shot the suspect, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
On May 18, 2018
in Santa Fe, Texas at Santa Fe High School, the school was evacuated when fire alarms were pulled at 7:45 am after a gunman opened fire with a Remington 870 shotgun and a .38 caliber revolver, killing ten people. The shooter, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis, started shooting in the art room, then went through the art hallway.
Responding police officers engaged Pagourtzis in a gunfight which lasted for 25 minutes before Pagourtzis was wounded and taken into custody. Multiple IEDs, pressure cookers, Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, propane tanks, and other homemade explosives were found around the school. Pagourtzis is in state custody and considered incompetent for trial, but faces a potential sentence of up to 40 years to life in prison. His family stated they were cooperating with authorities and requested the media and others to respect their privacy and that of the victims. Pagourtzis's father, an immigrant from Greece, claimed that his son's history of being bullied was the reason for the shooting
According to at least one witness, Pagourtzis was bullied by multiple students and coaches. The school denied the allegations of bullying by coaches. One of his former teachers described him as "quiet, but he wasn't quiet in a creepy way", and said that he had never seen him draw or write anything in his class journal that she found suspicious or unusual. Pagourtzis was on the honor roll, and he played on the school football team.
The mother of Shana Fisher, one of the students killed in the shooting, said that Dimitrios Pagourtzis pursued her daughter romantically for months despite Fisher's refusal to date him.
Sadie Rodriguez told Houston ABC station KTRK her daughter's best friend had previously dated Pagourtzis before pursuing Shana. "Shana knew him," Rodriguez told KTRK. "It was her best friend's ex-boyfriend, and he had been coming on to her and making advances. She kept telling him 'no' over the past four months. She finally stood up to him because he kept getting more aggressive and aggressive. She stood up to him for my younger daughter because she was being bullied in school," Rodriguez said through tears. "And not even a week later he just shoots everyone. And she was the first one."
Pagourtzis's journals on his computer and cell phone, found by police after the shooting, suggested to Governor Greg Abbott "not only did he want to commit the shooting, but he wanted to commit suicide after the shooting, planned on doing this for some time. He advertised his intentions but somehow slipped through the cracks."
Classmates recounted how at a water park the day before the shooting Pagourtzis did not show any signs of his plans, and seemed friendly and funny, though other classmates called him a "weird loner" who "never seemed right".
The New York Times and Los Angeles Times highlighted Pagourtzis's social media where on April 30, Pagourtzis posted a photo of a shirt with the words "Born to Kill" on his Facebook page. It also included photos of his black duster coat with several buttons on it, with an accompanying caption: "Hammer and Sickle=Rebellion. Rising Sun=Kamikaze Tactics. Iron Cross=Bravery. Baphomet=Evil. Cthulu=Power." It has since been taken down.
On May 18, 2018
in Jonesboro, Georgia at Mount Zion High School an argument led to a shooting in a parking lot after a high school graduation ceremony for graduates of Perry Learning Center. Mount Zion High School provided overflow parking for people attending the ceremony.
On May 25, 2018
in Noblesville, Indiana at Noblesville West Middle School two people were shot and injured in a shooting at Noblesville West Middle School in Noblesville, Indiana. The shooter was an unnamed middle school student, now identified as David Moore, who exited his science classroom and re-entered with a gun. When he returned, he shot a female student and the science teacher, identified as Jason Seaman. Seaman was shot in the abdomen, hip, and forearm. The gun was wrestled away by Seaman after both he and the female student were shot.
Moore filmed a nearly two-minute video in his basement the day before the shooting, showing off a .45-caliber handgun and a .22-caliber handgun with a silencer attached, according to prosecutors. The boy said on the video: "Tomorrow's Friday, you know what that means. I’m not killing myself, I have to take other people's lives before I take my own." Prosecutors said Moore warned three classmates with text messages saying, "Don't come to school tomorrow."
Moore's mother testified that there are guns in the home, including the two handguns that the boy brought to school, and that the gun safe is in the basement, near where the boy plays his first-person shooter games. The boy's mother said his father taught him about gun safety, and said they are responsible gun owners. Prosecutors showed photos of the safe with keys hanging from the lock, and an investigator testified that the boy's internet search history included the terms "Columbine," "Sandy Hook," "school shooting memes," "what was the largest mass shooting in America," and "Noblesville West Middle School blueprint".
“You calculated it, planned it, down to trying to find the blueprint to (the school),” Hamilton County Circuit Court Judge Paul Felix said. “You wanted devastation. Where, David, do you get these ideas? That’s the thing, I don’t know what motivated you. I know from the psychological evaluation that you have deep-seeded, severe (issues).”
Felix said Moore’s psychological evaluation concluded Moore had a desire to provoke fear, got pleasure in violating the rights of others, that he has an empathic disorder that makes him enjoy humiliation, and that the safety of others would be jeopardized if there was failure to provide residential treatment. Moore will remain under the jurisdiction of the DOC until he is 18 years old, but could be released sooner, depending on his behavior and completion of juvenile DOC programs.
On August 4, 2018
in Edgewood, Maryland a 19-year-old named Thailek Jacob Willis was found in a car in the parking lot of Edgewood High School suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper torso and later died at a local hospital. 15-year-old Jaylin Jerome Brown and 16-year-old Yasin Wallace Powell were later charged with murder and armed robbery as they each were accused of shooting the victim in after attempting to rob him during a drug deal. Brown was sentenced to 65 years in prison with all but 20 years suspended and Powell was sentenced to 20 years in prison with all but five years suspended.
On August 17, 2018
in Wellington, Florida two people were shot and injured at a football game in Palm Beach Central High School in Wellington, Florida.
On August 20, 2018
in Atlanta, Georgia a shootout erupted on the campus of Georgia State University the night before classes started.
On August 30, 2018
in San Francisco, California one student was injured when two students were joking around about guns, and one student discharged a firearm at Balboa High School in San Francisco, California. 4 students were arrested in this incident, and 2 were allowed to go back to school. The school was on lockdown along with three other schools in the area for two hours.
On September 5, 2018
in Providence, Rhode Island William Parsons, a 15-year-old student at Central High School, was shot and killed outside Providence Career and Technical Academy. Police said that two young men got into an argument and shots were fired, hitting the uninvolved victim. 16-year-old shooter Joel Leocra accidentally shot himself trying to get away, less than a mile from the scene. Leocra was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years and must serve at least 25 years before being eligible for parole.
On September 10, 2018
in Memphis, Tennessee a teen girl was injured after shots were fired into school bus full of students attending Fairley High School.
On September 11, 2018
in North Las Vegas, Nevada 18-year-old student Dalvin Brown was shot at Canyon Springs High School near the baseball field and later died of his injuries at a hospital. 16-year-old Kayin French was arrested in connection to Brown's death shortly after the incident.
On October 29, 2018
in Matthews, North Carolina at David W. Butler High School freshman, 16-year-old Jatwan Craig Cuffie, fatally shot sophomore Bobby McKeithen. Cuffie was sentenced to 80 to 108 months in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
On December 13, 2018
in Richmond, Indiana 14-year-old Brandon Clegg attempted a shooting at Dennis Intermediate School. He took two guns and threatened to kill his mother's ex-boyfriend if he did not drive him to the school. His mother called 911, and police arrived just before he was able to begin his attack. After exchanging shots with officers, Clegg shot his way through a locked glass door and entered the school, where he continued to shoot at officers. After he was cornered in one of the school's stairwell, Clegg committed suicide by shooting himself.
