The Columbine High School massacre, often simply referred to as Columbine, was a school shooting and a failed bombing that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered twelve students and one teacher. Ten of the twelve students killed were in the school library, where Harris and Klebold subsequently died by suicide. Twenty-one additional people were injured by gunshots, and gunfire was also exchanged with the police. Another three people were injured trying to escape. The Columbine massacre was the deadliest mass shooting at a K-12 school in U.S. history, until December 2012. Columbine is still considered one of the most infamous massacres in the U.S. for inspiring many other school shootings and bombings; the word "Columbine" has since become a byword for modern school shootings. As of 2024, Columbine is still the deadliest school shooting in Colorado and one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States.
Bethel is a city in the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the Kuskokwim River approximately 50 miles (80 km) from where the river flows into Kuskokwim Bay. It is the largest community in western Alaska and in the Unorganized Borough and the eighth-largest in the state. Bethel has a population of 6,325 as of the 2020 census, up from 6,080 in 2010.
Matricide is the act of killing one's own mother.
The Red Lake shootings were a spree killing that occurred on March 21, 2005, in two places on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, United States. That afternoon, 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend at their home. After taking his grandfather's police weapons and bulletproof vest, Weise drove his grandfather's police vehicle to Red Lake Senior High School, where he had been a student some months before.
Robert Christian Boes Hansen, popularly known as the Butcher Baker, was an American serial killer active in Anchorage, Alaska, between 1972 and 1983. Hansen abducted, raped and murdered at least seventeen women. Many of the women abducted were released by Hansen into the wilderness and hunted with a Ruger Mini-14 and hunting knives. Hansen was captured in 1983 and sentenced to 461 years' imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He died in 2014 of natural causes at age 75.
On March 5, 2001, a school shooting occurred at Santana High School in Santee, California, United States. The gunman, 15-year-old Charles Andrew Williams, opened fire with an eight-shot .22-caliber revolver, killing two students and wounding 13 others. Williams was then apprehended by responding police officers and convicted. He is currently serving 50 years to life in prison.
The James Parker Middle School dance shooting was an incident that occurred on April 24, 1998, at a banquet facility in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, United States. Andrew Jerome Wurst, 14, fatally shot 48-year-old John Gillette and wounded another teacher and two students at Nick's Place, a nearby banquet hall during an 8th-grade dinner dance.
Kayla Renee Rolland was an American six-year-old girl from Mount Morris Township, Michigan, United States, who was fatally shot on February 29, 2000, by a six-year-old male classmate at Buell Elementary School in the Beecher Community School District. The boy had found the gun while living at his uncle's house; the house was a crack house where guns were frequently traded for drugs.
Spring Creek Correctional Center is an Alaska Department of Corrections maximum security prison for men located in Seward, Alaska, United States. The prison is located approximately 125 miles (201 km) south of Anchorage. The prison is located on about 328 acres (1.33 km2) of land surrounded by national parks. The prison capacity consists of over 500 inmates and 97 correctional officers. Built as a decentralized campus, the prison construction was completed in 1988 at a cost of $44,678,000. A large portion of the prisoner population consists of "hard core" felons who committed violent crimes, such as murder. The Alaska DOC says that these prisoners "will probably spend the rest of their life in prison." Spring Creek also houses prisoners who committed less serious crimes like assault and burglary and usually have sentences from three years to ten years.
The Kauhajoki school shooting occurred on 23 September 2008 at the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences (SeAMK) in Kauhajoki, Finland. The gunman, 22-year-old student Matti Juhani Saari, shot and killed ten people with a Walther P22 Target semi-automatic pistol, before shooting himself in the head. He died a few hours later at Tampere University Hospital. One woman was injured but remained in stable condition.
The Lindhurst High School shooting was a school shooting and subsequent siege that occurred on May 1, 1992, at Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst, California, United States. The gunman, 20-year-old Eric Houston, was a former student at Lindhurst High School. Houston killed three students and one teacher and wounded nine students and a teacher before surrendering to police. Houston was sentenced to death for the murders, and he is currently on California's death row in San Quentin State Prison.
Since the 1994 film Natural Born Killers was released, several attacks suspected to be copycat crimes have been committed by fans of the film, mostly by high school students within the age range of 15 to 18. Though apparent links have been claimed between the film and most of the incidents described below, certain causality has not been proven.
Rufe Persful was an American criminal, convicted of murder, kidnapping and robbery. He was considered one of the most dangerous criminals of his era by the authorities.
Bethel Regional High School (BRHS) is a public high school in Bethel, Alaska, United States, and part of the Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD). As of August 2013 it had an enrollment of 500. As of 2018 it is the LKSD school with the highest enrollment.
Troy LaFerrara was a Port Trevorton, Pennsylvania man murdered on November 11, 2013. Miranda Barbour and her husband, Elytte Barbour, were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in September 2014. The murder is notable because of the unsubstantiated claim by one of the killers, Miranda Barbour, that she had murdered at least 22 other people, triggering worldwide news coverage of the case.
James Dale Ritchie was an American serial killer. Throughout 2016, Ritchie murdered upwards of five individuals in and around Anchorage, Alaska, most of whom were in parks or along bike paths. He always committed his murders at night, often around midnight or a short time after. Ritchie was killed during a shootout with police officers in downtown Anchorage on November 12, 2016. Following his death, a Colt Python handgun on his person connected him to the string of murders he committed over the course of two months.
On January 6, 2017, a mass shooting occurred at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida, United States, near the baggage claim in Terminal 2. Five people were killed while six others were injured in the shooting. About 36 people sustained injuries in the ensuing panic. Esteban Santiago-Ruiz, who flew in to the airport from Alaska and committed the shooting with a Walther PPS 9mm semi-automatic pistol, was taken into custody by a Broward County Sheriff's Office (BSO) deputy within 85 seconds after he started shooting. The shooting from start to finish lasted 70–80 seconds. Santiago was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and pleaded guilty to avoid possible execution. On August 17, 2018, Santiago was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences plus 120 years in prison.
Ronald Keith Allridge and James Vernon Allridge III were American brothers and serial killers who killed three people and committed numerous armed robberies in Fort Worth, Texas, during a crime spree in early 1985. For their crimes, the Allridge brothers were sentenced to death and subsequently executed by lethal injection; Ronald in 1995 and James in 2004.
Joshua Alan Wade was an American serial killer who was convicted of two separate murders committed in Alaska in 2000 and 2007 respectively, and sentenced to 99 years imprisonment. Wade pled guilty to one of the murders in federal court to avoid execution. Seven years later, as part of a plea deal, he confessed to three additional murders dating back to 1994, including one for which he had previously been acquitted, in exchange for a transfer to a federal prison.
Edward Lewis Lagrone was an American serial killer and rapist. He was convicted of fatally shooting three members of the Lloyd family in Fort Worth, Texas in May 1991, including a 10-year-old girl he had impregnated, approximately seven years after being released from prison for a previous murder. Lagrone was subsequently convicted, sentenced to death and executed for the latter crimes in 2004.
