An active shooter is the perpetrator of an ongoing mass shooting. The term is primarily used to characterize shooters who are targeting victims indiscriminately and at a large scale, who oftentimes, will either commit suicide or intend to be killed by police. More generally, an active perpetrator of a mass murder may be referred to as an active killer.
A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers kill or injure multiple individuals simultaneously using a firearm. There is no widely accepted definition, and different organizations tracking such incidents use different criteria. Mass shootings are often characterized by the indiscriminate targeting of victims in a non-combat setting, and thus the term generally excludes gang violence, shootouts and warfare. Mass shootings may be done for personal or psychological reasons, but have also been used as a terrorist tactic. The perpetrator of an ongoing mass shooting may be referred to as an active shooter.
On June 7, 2013, a spree shooting occurred in Santa Monica, California. Its catalyst was a domestic dispute and subsequent fire at a home, followed by a series of shootings near and on the Santa Monica College campus. Six people were killed, including the suspect, and four injured. The shooter — 23-year-old John Zawahri — was killed by police officers when he exchanged gunfire with them at the Santa Monica College library.
On July 19, 2015, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Samuel DuBose, an unarmed man, was fatally shot by Ray Tensing, a University of Cincinnati police officer, during an off-campus traffic stop for not having the front license plate on the vehicle.
On March 9, 2016, six people were killed and three others injured in a mass shooting at a suburban house in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, United States, near Pittsburgh. One of the victims was a pregnant woman, whose unborn baby was added to the number of fatalities on the day after the shooting. Two men, Cheron Shelton and Robert Thomas, were charged in connection with the shooting, but charges against Thomas were later dropped and Shelton was acquitted at trial in 2020.
The Pike County Shootings, also known as the Pike County Massacre, occurred on the night of April 21–22, 2016, when eight people – all belonging to the Rhoden family – were shot and killed in four homes in Pike County, Ohio, near the village of Peebles, 50 miles (80 km) from Columbus and 60 miles (97 km) from Cincinnati. Their bodies were found later on April 22. Seven of the victims – six adults and a 16-year-old boy – were discovered to have been shot execution-style in three adjacent houses, while the eighth victim, an adult, was found shot to death in his camper in nearby Piketon. Three young children, including two infants, were unharmed. At least two shooters were initially believed to be responsible.
A mass stabbing is a single incident in which multiple victims are injured or killed with a sharp object thrusted at the victims, piercing through the skin and injuring the victims. Examples of sharp instruments used in mass stabbings may include kitchen knives, utility knives, sheath knives, scissors, katanas, icepicks, bayonets, axes, machetes and glass bottles. Knife crime poses security threats to many countries around the world.
On August 4, 2019, 24-year-old Connor Betts shot and killed nine people, including his brother, and wounded 17 others near the entrance of the Ned Peppers Bar in the Oregon District of Dayton, Ohio. Betts was fatally shot by responding police officers 32 seconds after the first shots were fired. A total of 27 people were taken to area hospitals. It is the deadliest mass shooting to occur in Ohio since the 1975 Easter Sunday Massacre.
On November 17, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at a Fresno, California football watch party with 35 to 40 attendees where four people were fatally shot and six others were injured.
On April 18 and 19, 2020, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at sixteen locations in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, killing twenty-two people and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the community of Enfield. The attacks are the deadliest shooting rampage in Canadian history, exceeding the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, where fourteen women were killed.
On March 22, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Ten people were killed, including a local on-duty police officer. The alleged shooter, 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Al-Issa, was arrested after being shot in the right leg. He was temporarily hospitalized before being moved to the county jail. After undergoing mental evaluations during the legal proceedings, Al-Issa was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in December 2021 and in April 2022. On August 23, 2023, prosecutors announced that Al-Issa was mentally competent to stand trial; a judge ruled as such on October 6 of that same year.
On 12 August 2021, a mass shooting occurred in Keyham, Plymouth, England. The gunman, 22-year-old Jake Davison from Plymouth, shot and killed five people, including his mother and a 3-year-old girl. Davison also injured two others before fatally shooting himself. The inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing of all of the victims.
The Stockton serial shootings were a series of fatal shootings that occurred in Stockton and Oakland, California, between April 2021 and September 2022. The shootings have been linked together by ballistic tests, but police have not revealed if the same gun was used in every shooting. On October 15, 2022, a Stockton man, Wesley Brownlee, was arrested in connection to the shootings. On December 27, Brownlee was charged with an additional five charges.
On April 10, 2023, a mass shooting occurred at the Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Five people were killed, and eight others were injured, including two responding police officers. The shooter, 25-year-old former employee Connor James Sturgeon, was fatally shot by police.
On April 15, 2023, a mass shooting occurred in Dadeville, Alabama, United States. The victims were mostly teenagers, with four fatalities and thirty-two injuries. The shooting took place at a 16th birthday celebration at the former Dadeville Bank, at 220 N. Broadnax St, which had been converted into the Mahogany Masterpiece Dance Studio in 2021.
On July 14, 2023, 37-year-old Mohamad Barakat opened fire on a group of police officers who were responding to an unrelated traffic collision in Fargo, North Dakota. One officer was killed, and two others and a civilian bystander were injured, before Barakat was killed by another officer on the scene who was uninjured.
On June 21, 2024, four people were killed and nine others injured in a mass shooting at the Mad Butcher supermarket in Fordyce, Arkansas, United States.
On September 7, 2024, five people were wounded during a mass shooting on Kentucky's Interstate 75. A gunman, subsequently identified as Joseph A. Couch, fired at least 20 rounds at passing cars from the overpass at exit 49. He escaped from the scene and was the subject of a manhunt. Couch's body was found 11 days later, having died from a self-inflicted gunshot.
