The arrest of school shooter Brenda Spencer, shortly after her infamous I dont like Mondays quote. As of 2015, there had been more than seven million copies sold. According to police reports and her classmates descriptions, Brenda was an introvert, often behaving strangely. Spencer fired at the school for about 20 minutes and famously told a reporter who reached her by phone that she was shooting because I just dont like Mondays I did this because its a way to cheer up the day.. Death would have been welcome. A week before she carried out the shooting that would make her infamous, she allegedly told her classmates that she was going to do something big to get on TV.. Aftermarket parts and accessories are so prolific that you can actually build a Ruger 10/22 nowadays that doesnt include a single Ruger part. A version of this article originally appeared in Good Housekeeping magazine. The community may eventually have a hard time remembering the 1979 shooting. [27] In 2018, the school was demolished to construct a housing development, and the plaque was relocated to the former school's southern edge, at the corner of Lake Atlin Avenue and Lake Angela Drive. Just a few months after the BB gun incident, Spencers probation officer had suggested that she spend some time in a mental hospital for depression. The last time Spencer came up for parole, the district attorney's office contacted the victims it was still able to locate and asked them to write impact statements. I recall one kid bringing a 1911 pistol to show off to his pals. The next victim was the schools custodian, who also attempted to bring the children to safety. The standard 10/22 rifle comes with quality iron sights. Kids in the comfortably middle-class neighborhood would later say Brenda was known to torture cats, and had dug a series of tunnels in her back yard; adults would describe her as a quiet loner. What on that day had been unimaginable -- that a school could become a killing field -- is grimly familiar. Why didn't you just pull the gun on yourself? One of those children was Miller, who believes Spencer targeted him that morning because he was wearing a down vest in her favorite color: blue. It's an incident that will never leave my mind. A year prior to the horrific crime, the school service which handled problematic students informed Brendas parents that her behavior and attitudes manifested serious suicidal tendencies. Her father rejected the claims and told the officials to leave his family alone. On the morning of January 29, 1979, children began to line up outside Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California. Author: Alfred Weidinger CC BY 2.0, When the shooting was finished, Spencer shut herself in her house and stayed there for hours. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Hi, Will. Head scans later revealed permanent damage to one of her temporal lobes that likely contributed to the aberrant behavior that was to follow. Major Dabbs eventually resigned his commission in favor of medical school where he delivered 60 babies and occasionally wrung human blood out of his socks. She said the school victims looked like a herd of cows for gathering around the wounded, making them easy pickings.. For Christmas 1978, he gave her a Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle with a telescopic sight and 500 rounds of ammunition. He died at age 87 in 2016. However, in 2005, Brenda claimed her father was to blame, stating he had drunkenly kicked her in the head when she was fourteen and that she was forced to make up the 'bicycle story.' Wallace Spencer, later married his daughter's former cellmate, a 17-year-old girl named Sheila McCoy, whom he met while visiting Brenda in prison. Born in 1962 in San Diego, California, and raised across the street from the Grover Cleveland Elementary School, by her sixteenth birthday Brenda stood all of 5'2" and sported bright red hair. Thanks again for the article, and please keep em coming! [dead link][5][7] [8], Acquaintances said Spencer expressed hostility toward policemen, had spoken about shooting one, and had talked of doing something big to get on television. She remembers that there was snow in the mountains on the morning of the shooting; her father, Norm (her mother died when she was 3), considered letting his kids play hooky so he could take them up to play in it. Based on the pen I was at. They have a child together who was enrolled in Cleveland Elementary. [25] In the ensuing decades, it was leased to several charter and private schools. She also wandered the neighborhood killing birds with a BB gun. It was attributed to an accident on her bicycle. We didnt understand why she was shooting at us, Rintoul said. Required fields are marked *. "I went over there father-to-father, hoping to talk to him," he recalls. First, on the television news from his hospital bed, which showed police leading away a petite freckled girl with long red hair and aviator glasses. Thats because at that time in that place it would have been literally unimaginable to shoot up a school. I stopped following Brendas parole hearings 25 years ago. He just said we'll deal with it as a family. "Six months after I got my jacket back, I found a hole in the hood," she recalls, surmising that a third bullet passed through it without striking her. CAPTION: Brenda Spencer said she opened fire at the school because "I hate Mondays.". The two victims were Principal Burton Wragg and custodian . Charged as an adult, she pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, and was sentenced to life in prison with a chance of parole after 25 years. . But Haley Wragg, who at age 26 wasnt alive when Spencer killed her grandfather, learned as a child to fear her release from prison. She grew up relatively poor and spent most of her early life with her father, Wallace Spencer, with whom she had a turbulent relationship. San Diego police officers Patty Bernathy and Ted Kasniak escort Brenda Spencer to homicide investigators after the shootings at Cleveland Elementary School in 1979. brenda spencer father, wallace. History, The principal and a custodian were killed; eight children and police officer Robert Robb were injured. Brenda and her father slept on a single mattress in their living room, empty alcohol bottles scattered around the floor. Sometimes Wallace Spencer would say hello when he came to pick his daughter up, and Buell is certain that he knew who she was, and she wonders now what he thought. Standing 52 tall and weighing 89 pounds, Brenda Spencer was once described as too small to be scary., true stories behind Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Eventually, Spencer surrendered peacefully. Now 30, Christy is a sunny preschool teacher who is reluctant to talk about the shooting, because she considers it just "part of my life," and has moved on. I know you, or whomever moderates the comments, cant be available 24-7. Brenda Spencer was born on the 3rd of April 1962 in San Carlos, California. He once returned after an outing around the county with both his students and a fresh wild turkey. Nine counts of attempted murder were dismissed. After killing the schools principal and custodian and wounding eight children and a first responder, Spencer barricaded herself in her home for more than six hours until she finally surrendered herself to the authorities. Soon after the police arrived on the scene, they realized that the shots had come from Spencers home. She keeps a scrapbook of newspaper articles and photos, and still has the jacket she wore that day stashed away somewhere. It took a few shots before students, parents, and school staff realized that someone on the opposite side of the road was using them as a target. The same year, Brenda carried out a burglary in the school and shot out the windows with a gun. brenda spencer father, wallacetraffic signal warrant analysis example. He was wearing his brand-new blue down vest that day, he recalls, and a matching shirt. Her cousin Valerie Stahl said she grew up not knowing much about Spencer until she hit college and Googled the incident. In addition to the capacity to carry a child to term, one of the two genders is just a bit more innately rotten than the other. The morning was unusually cold, they still remember. Another 9-year-old, Christy Buell, was pretending to ice-skate on the frosty grass before the final bell rang. According to acquaintances who knew Brenda Spencer, she also dabbled in drug use and petty theft as a teenager. According to History, they were waiting for their principal to open up the schools gates. I dont like Mondays, she said. A reporter reached Spencer by phone while she was still in the house after the shooting, and asked her why she committed the crime. Daryl Barnes retired from teaching in 2001 and died in 2016. From 2005 to 2017, it housed the Magnolia Science Academy,[26] a public charter middle school serving students in grades 68. "Oh, really?". Its quite unfortunate however, to let stand for 24+ hours the comment from LeRoy, without posting the rebuttals it inevitably generated from your more informed readers. Spencers former attorney, Michael McGlinn, who has represented juvenile offenders for decades, believes his former client didnt know what she was doing and no longer poses a threat to society. Her father went on to marry Spencers 17-year-old Juvenile Hall cellmate but they later divorced. The morning of the shooting, McGlinn said, Spencer drank alcohol and took her epilepsy medicine, Tegretol. Brenda Spencer was born April 3rd, 1962 to her mother and father, Dorothy and Wallace Spencer. I'm not traumatized for life or anything. He denied the allegations. cattaraugus county pistol permit office phone number; louisiana state penitentiary warden; rochelle park police blotter; phillips smith and dunn houses for sale in braunton Add or change photo on IMDbPro Add to list More at IMDbPro Contact info Agent info Known for I Don't Like Mondays 5.8 TV Movie Self 2006 Credits Edit IMDbPro Self Previous 1 I Don't Like Mondays Self TV Movie 2006 Personal details Spouse Dot Spencer? She attended Patrick Henry High School, where one teacher recalled frequently inquiring if she was awake in class. He said Spencer told him things like having shot a rabbit in the back of its head from 25 yards. In 2001 Brenda accused her father of having drunkenly subjected her to beatings and sexual abuse. Get our email alerts straight to your inbox. Our drivers ed teacher was a compulsive hunter. He died at age 87 in 2016. never went out of her way to be with the kids or to have a relationship with Brenda." He described Brenda's father as "a bitter man who hated the world" (Michael McGlinn, in Dower, 2006). For Christmas 1978 her father, Wallace, had given her a .22 rifle as a present. They slept on a single mattress on the living room floor. The number of young shooters whose first taste of a trigger was that of a 10/22 defies counting. Brenda Ann Spencer was born in San Diego, California, on April 3, 1962. Other children in down coats were targeted, too, and Spencer later was quoted as saying she enjoyed seeing feathers fly as she shot them. Miller decided to deliver his in person. The school offered counseling immediately after the shooting, but Cam never went. Bob Geldof in the Belvedere, Vienna -16 Sept. 2012. She actually said, It was a lot of fun seeing children shot. She also explained that it was her intent to leave the house guns ablazing. Brenda is the youngest child and has one older brother and one older sister. Brenda Ann Spencer is the first modern school shooter ever known. Brenda Spencer had a reputation for being a problem child who struggled with numerous health issues. Explaining the motive for her mass murder, Brenda said, Those I shot just made easy targets. Later, at parole hearings, Brenda was reminded of those statements and she said: Maybe I did. Police escorted them to buses to be united with parents at Pershing Middle School. [19] In 2005, a San Diego deputy district attorney cited an incident of self-harm from four years earlier when Spencer's girlfriend was released from jail, as showing that Spencer was psychotic and unfit to be released. Wragg and Suchar died; the others, including San Diego police Officer Robert Robb, survived their wounds. Hopefully these kids will get counseling." Somebody saw it in his locker and alerted the headmaster, himself a Naval officer who had served in the Pacific during World War 2. On January 29, 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer killed two people and wounded nine when she fired on San Diego's Grover Cleveland Elementary School with a .22-caliber rifle from her family's house across the street. The smallest victims are grown now, their lives changed in ways both subtle and searing. He bizarrely married Brendas 17-year-old prison cellmate after her release, and they had a daughter together. I lay in the cafeteria it seemed like forever, with a bullet entry wound in his back and a chest exit would, Miller said. "It was frightening. He was in the process of moving to a new house when the Colorado school massacre happened Tuesday. Reportedly, Brenda later said that she asked for a radio instead but he insisted on a gun as a present. Patrol Officer Ted Kasinak halted a garbage truck driver headed into the shooting scene and commandeered the truck. And Miller has never forgotten the horror he felt when he lay in an ambulance next to an inert Suchar and, as the ambulance rounded a curve, the custodian rolled on top of him, face to face. 104K views 3 years ago On January 29, 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer opened fired from her home across the street from Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. As the children lined up outside of the gates, Spencer took out the .22 semiautomatic rifle that shed received as a Christmas gift from her father. Geldof later said, [Spencer] wrote to me saying she was glad shed done it because Id made her famous, which is not a good thing to live with., With every school shooting, I feel Im partially responsible. "I don't like Mondays," 16-year-old Brenda Spencer calmly explained to a reporter who reached her by phone during a siege that would last six hours. TIL In January 1979, 16 year old Brenda Ann Spencer was arrested after killing a principal and a custodian at an elementary school in California. 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Turn-ons include vintage German machineguns, flying his sexy-cool RV6A airplane, Count Chocula cereal, and the movie Aliens., Previous post: Armed Customer In Philly Kills Would-Be Robber, Your email address will not be published. He said Suchar and the principal didnt get along all that well, but that day when Wragg was felled in the parking lot, Suchar didnt hesitate to run out and try to help. Since 1979, the United States and other nations have seen a dramatic rise in the frequency of mass shootings and the casualty list. Born in 1962 in San Diego, California, and raised across the street from the Grover Cleveland Elementary School, by her sixteenth birthday Brenda stood all of 52 and sported bright red hair. Her father went on to marry Spencer's 17-year-old Juvenile Hall cellmate but they later divorced. Now 56 years old, she remains in the California Institution for Women in Corona. And I dont today.. I dont really remember. She was tried as an adult and pleaded guilty. 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