Cleveland Elementary School shooting (San Diego)
| Cleveland Elementary School shooting | |
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 |
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| Location | San Diego, California |
| Coordinates | 32°47′48″N 117°00′41″W / 32.79673°N 117.01146°WCoordinates: 32°47′48″N 117°00′41″W / 32.79673°N 117.01146°W |
| Date | January 29, 1979 |
| Target | teachers and faculty at Cleveland Elementary School |
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Attack type
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School shooting, murder |
| Weapons | Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle |
| Deaths | 2 |
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Non-fatal injuries
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9 |
| Perpetrator | Brenda Spencer |
| Brenda Spencer | |
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Spencer in 1996
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| Born |
Brenda Ann Spencer April 3, 1962 San Diego, California |
| Residence | California Institution for Women, Chino, California |
| Parent(s) | Wallace Spencer Dot Spencer |
The Cleveland Elementary School shooting took place on January 29, 1979, in San Diego, California. Shots were fired at a public elementary school. The principal and a custodian were killed. Eight children and a police officer were injured. A 16-year-old girl, Brenda Spencer, who lived in a house across the street from the school, was convicted of the shootings. Tried as an adult, Spencer pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, and was given an indefinite sentence. As of February 2017[update], she remains in prison.
A reporter reached Spencer by phone while she was still in the house but had stopped shooting. The reporter asked Spencer why she carried out the shooting. She answered: "I don't like Mondays", which inspired Bob Geldof to write the Boomtown Rats' song by that name.
Brenda Spencer (born April 3, 1962) lived in the San Carlos neighborhood of San Diego, California, in a house across the street from Grover Cleveland Elementary School, San Diego Unified School District. Aged 16, she was 5'2" (157 cm) and had bright red hair. She is said to have self-identified as "having been gay from birth." After her parents separated, she lived with her father, Wallace Spencer, in virtual poverty; they slept on a single mattress on the living room floor, with empty alcohol bottles throughout the house.
Acquaintances said Spencer expressed hostility toward policemen, had talked about shooting one, and had talked of doing something big to get on TV. Although Spencer showed exceptional ability in photography, winning first prize in a Humane Society competition, she was generally uninterested in school; one teacher recalled frequently inquiring if she was awake in class. Later, during tests while she was in custody, it was discovered Spencer had an injury to the temporal lobe of her brain. It was attributed to an accident on her bicycle.
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Wikipedia