Background: Major school shootings in US in ten years
( 2002-01-17 10:29 ) (7 )

1) Olivehurst, CA

May 1, 1992

Eric Houston, 20, kills four people and wounds 10 in an armed siege at his former high school in Olivehurst, California. Prosecutors said the attack was in retribution for a failing grade. Houston was convicted and was given a death sentence.

2) Grayson, KY

January 18, 1993

Scott Pennington, 17, walked into Deanna McDavid's seventh-period English class at East Carter High School in Grayson, Kentucky, and shot her in the head. He then shot janitor Marvin Hicks in the abdomen. Pennington was sentenced to life without parole for 25 years.

3) Moses Lake, WA

February 2, 1996

A 14-year-old student turns an assault rifle on his algebra class, killing two classmates and a teacher, in the central Washington city of Moses Lake. Barry Loukaitis was sentenced to two mandatory life terms for the attack at Frontier Junior High School.

4) Bethel, AK

February 19, 1997

A 16-year-old student opens fire with a shotgun in a common area at the Bethel, Alaska, high school. Killed are school principal Ron Edwards and classmate Josh Palacious. Two other students are wounded. Authorities later accuse two other students of knowing the shootings would take place. Evan Ramsey was sentenced to two 99-year terms.

5) Pearl, MS

October 1, 1997

Luke Woodham, a 16-year-old outcast in Pearl, Mississippi, is accused of killing his mother, then going to school and shooting nine students. Two of them died, including the boy's ex-girlfriend. Woodham is now serving three life sentences.

6) Jonesboro, AR

March 24, 1998

Two boys, Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, open fire with rifles on classmates and teachers when they come out during a false fire alarm at the Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Four girls and a teacher are killed and 10 people are wounded. Both boys are later convicted of murder and can be held until age 21.

7) Edinboro, PA

April 24, 1998

An eighth-grader at J.W. Parker Middle School in Edinboro, Pennsylvania, opens fire at a school dance, killing a teacher and wounding two students. Andrew Wurst, 15, pleads guilty to third-degree murder and other charges and is sentenced to 30-60 years in prison.

8) Fayetteville, TN

May 19, 1998

Three days before his graduation from Lincoln County High School in Fayetteville, Tennessee, 18-year-old honor student Jacob Davis pulls a gun in the school parking lot and fatally shoots 18-year-old classmate Nick Creson. The killing was apparently sparked by an argument over a girl. Davis is later sentenced to life in prison.

9) Springfield, OR

May 21, 1998

A day after being expelled for bringing a gun to school, a freshman boy opens fire with a semi-automatic rifle in a high school cafeteria, killing two students and wounding 22 others. The teen-ager's parents are later found shot to death in their home. Kip Kinkel, 17, was later sentenced to nearly 112 years in prison.

10) Littleton, CO

April 20, 1999

In America's worst instance of school violence yet, two teen-agers, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, open fire on classmates and teachers in their suburban Denver school, killing 15 people including themselves. The shooters were apparently members of a small group of outcasts at the school known as the "Trench Coat Mafia." A student gives his eyewitness account.

11) Conyers, GA

May 20, 1999

Six students are wounded when a fellow student opens fire at Heritage High School in suburban Atlanta with a .357-caliber Magnum and a rifle. An assistant principal disarms 15-year-old T.J. Soloman, who later pleads guilty but mentally ill. He is sentenced to 40 years in prison.

12) Deming, NM

November 19, 1999

A 12-year-old student at Deming Middle School shoots a 12-year-old classmate in the head. She dies the next day. The boy later pleads guilty and is sentenced to two to 8 years in a juvenile prison.

13) Fort Gibson, OK

December 6, 1999

Seth Trickey, 13, opens fire with a 9-mm semiautomatic pistol outside Fort Gibson Middle School. Five of his classmates were wounded. Trickey is convicted on seven assault charges but will not remain in jail past age 19.

14) Mt. Morris Township, MI

February 29, 2000

A 6-year-old boy brings a handgun to Buell Elementary School where, police say, he shoots to death fellow first-grader Kayla Rolland. The boy is too young to be charged but a 19-year-old man is sentenced to two to 15 years in prison for allowing the boy access to the gun in the flophouse where the youngster lived. The boy's uncle pleaded guilty to possessing the stolen gun.

15) Lake Worth, FL

May 26, 2000

A 13-year-old honor student at Lake Worth Middle School in Florida's Palm Beach County allegedly shoots to death his English teacher, Barry Grunow. Nathaniel Brazill is charged with first-degree murder.

16) Oxnard, CA

January 10, 2001

Richard Lopez, a 17-year-old student at Hueneme High School near Los Angeles, takes another student hostage. Police fatally shoot Lopez. No one else is injured.

17) El Cajon, CA

March 22, 2001

Police say 18-year-old Jason Hoffman went gunning for the vice principal at Granite Hills High School, a few miles from another shooting rampage a few weeks earlier. Hoffman missed the school official, but shotgun blasts wounded three students and two teachers before the gunman was hit twice by a policeman posted at the school, authorities said.

18) Santee, CA

March 5, 2001

According to police, a 15-year-old student killed two classmates and wounded another 13 people during a shooting spree at Santana High School in Santee, California, about 10 miles northeast of San Diego. Charles Andy Williams, a freshman, is set to be charged as an adult on murder, assault and weapons charges. Three friends and at least one adult said they had heard Williams threatening to shoot someone at the school in the days before the attack but said the boy told them he was joking.