I dont like Mondays, she said. And although nine counts of attempted murder were ultimately dismissed from the case, Spencer was sentenced to concurrent terms of 25 years to life in prison for her crimes. Hart was a private investigator involved in the case and interviewed Spencer's mother, father, brother, sister, friends, and neighbors within months of the attack. Both have since died, and two surviving sons dont like to speak publicly about it, family members said. I felt really scared like shed come after me. Bob Geldof in the Belvedere, Vienna -16 Sept. 2012. Neighbors claimed Spencer had . McGlinn believes Spencer's accounts that her divorced father, Wallace Spencer, sexually abused her and that under his influence she began dressing as a boy and learned to hunt and shoot with him. Her cousin Valerie Stahl said she grew up not knowing much about Spencer until she hit college and Googled the incident. From 2005 to 2017, it housed the Magnolia Science Academy,[26] a public charter middle school serving students in grades 68. From NE Ohio to North Central Mississippi, everyone has their own ideas and preferences for what they will plant this year. Soon after the police arrived on the scene, they realized that the shots had come from Spencers home. He took a month-long training course to learn how to handle a weapon himself with more confidence. Brenda Spencer was born in 1962 and lived in San Diego; well, San Carlos more specifically. By this, she was referring to the fact that she had just fired 30 rounds of ammunition into a San Diego elementary school, using a semiautomatic rifle. She had skipped class that day and later claimed that she had washed her epilepsy medicine down with alcohol. Not long after Brenda Spencer went to jail, her father married his daughter's teenage cellmate. What if they got the idea from what I did?. A quick pain subsided as she was rushed into the cafeteria, to safety. Meanwhile, San Diego police had raced to the school on reports of gunfire, children shot, then an officer wounded. Asked why he had done that, she answered, "He bought the rifle so I would kill myself. [1][5] Although Spencer showed exceptional ability as a photographer, winning first prize in a Humane Society competition, she was generally uninterested in school. Brenda and her father slept on a single mattress in their living room, empty alcohol bottles scattered around the floor. And despite her efforts to downplay her own crime, Spencer herself has admitted that her actions may have indeed led to other similar attacks. The arrest of school shooter Brenda Spencer, shortly after her infamous I dont like Mondays quote. Brenda is the youngest child and has one older brother and one older sister. She injured eight children and a police officer, and killed the principal and a custodian. He always remembered that day, Barnes said. Then, read about the Dunblane Massacre, the deadliest school shooting in the U.K. Before The Columbine Massacre Or Parkland Shooting, There Was Brenda Ann Spencer. My parents split up when I was 8 and they still argue 20 years later, but I never shot anyone or took it out on anyone else. What he found instead were children screaming, crying and bleeding on the ground as a teenage girl who lived across the street raked the schoolyard with bullets from her .22-caliber rifle. An Excerpt From The Culture Code Answer Key, The sandbox, she thinks -- she will push them to the ground in the sandbox and shield them with her own scarred body. This is standard practice when ordering from Ukraine, according to customers wh, Discover Tomato Varieties: While Galactic Magic Seeds is No Longer Available, There's Still Plenty of Variety for Your Garden, Galactic Magic Seeds was a website that offered tomato seeds from various breeders, including Rebel Starfighter Prime. Her memories of that morning form a terrible collage: the principal dying; doctors cutting off her bloody Winnie-the-Pooh shirt; nurses calling her name but Christy finding it impossible to open her eyes until she hears her father's voice. Google searches can provide inform. Once there, Spencer decided to withdraw her bid for parole. Its in the air. For Christmas in 1978, her father, Wallace Spencer, gave her a semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle. [25] In the ensuing decades, it was leased to several charter and private schools. The. The Union-Tribune regrets the error. SWAT Officer Jim McGinley said he took up a sniper position on a neighbors roof, his rifle trained on the Spencer back door. Wallace Spencer got married to a woman younger than Spencer and had a daughter. On the morning of Monday, January 29, 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer took a .22 caliber rifle and opened fire on the Grover Cleveland Elementary School across from her house in San Carlos . Her attorneys continued to argue that the treatment she received from her father which allegedly included sexual abuse was the real reason for her act of senseless violence. The parole board chairman said that as she had not previously told anyone about the allegations, he doubted whether they were true. She spent her most vulnerable years with her single father, Wallace Spencer, and rarely saw her mother. Brenda Ann 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. I lay in the cafeteria it seemed like forever, with a bullet entry wound in his back and a chest exit would, Miller said. Brenda's attorney said that the mother "became like a stone . On January 17, 1989, almost ten years after the events at San Diego's Grover Cleveland Elementary, there was another shooting at a school coincidentally named Grover Cleveland Elementary, this one in Stockton, California. She was frequently absent from school. While there, she spoke by telephone to a reporter from The San Diego Union-Tribune, who had been randomly calling telephone numbers in the neighborhood. He noted that Suchar had been in the Seabees, a Navy construction battalion, during World War II and emerged with no battle wounds. This unfortunate incident was the first school shooting ever to be documented. She resembled Brenda. McGlinn believes Spencers accounts that her divorced father, Wallace Spencer, sexually abused her and that under his influence she began dressing as a boy and learned to hunt and shoot with him. An Excerpt From The Culture Code Answer Key, Call Us Today! 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 in the San Diego Unified School District. Officers found around 200 rounds of unspent ammunition in the house. Cam is 29 now, a strapping, dark-eyed man with scant resemblance to the fourth-grader with a bowl haircut whose picture appeared in the newspapers above the word "victim" so long ago. [32], The Lifetime Movies series Killer Kids released an episode "Deadly Compulsion" depicting Spencer's crimes which first aired date in September 3, 2014. Cam saw the principal and the custodian both lying on the ground, and thought, with childlike logic, that if he could just make it out of that square of sidewalk, "it will all go away.". 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.' Brenda Spencer, aged 16, fired rifle shots into a school playground in California in January 1979, . Thus, he had first- The Brenda Spencer Murder Case, which was published in 2012, and is the single best source I am aware of regarding Spencer. Norm Buell found himself on the Spencers' doorstep a couple of months after the shooting. 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. Brenda Spencer was 16 when she opened fire at a San Diego elementary school from a window in . On April 4, 1980, a day after her 18th birthday, she was sentenced to 25 years to life. 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.. 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. When it comes to yellow tomatoes, Carolina Gold is a popular determinate variety. Not long after Brenda Spencer went to jail, her father married his daughter's teenage cellmate. He took cover behind the truck as SWAT officers surrounded the Spencer house. Father and daughter shared a single mattress on the floor for a bed and the place was littered with . The next victim was the schools custodian, who also attempted to bring the children to safety. B renda Ann Spencer was born on April 3, 1962. Police later found half empty alcohol bottles throughout the house. A KB developer sign notes homes available starting at $700,000. Mary Rintoul remembers, too. We talk about it all the time. Samantha Wallace. It was Jan. 29, 1979, and in a tranquil San Diego suburb, Grover Cleveland Elementary School had just become ground zero in an undeclared war. At her 2016 parole eligibility hearing, she cried frequently demonstrating emotional instability, Sachs said. $50. Just seen a documentary on her.cold hearted freak, Could they not release her into semi open prison first then into real life society with a life time tag on her - I would also like to see a change in this 3 rule strike and your out - some people are in prison for stealing a packet of biscuits and there given Life - This cannot be right. They had one mattress that both Brenda and her Father would sleep on and the house was trashed with beer cans. Brenda Ann Spencer, now 56, has spent the last 40 years in prison at the California Institution for Women. Haley Wragg said she decided to break the family silence by telling her grandfathers story on a video for Safe Kids, Inc., which develops school safety curricula and guides for parents. (Barry Fitsimmons/San Diego Union-Tribune). $100. I may not have grown up with a grandpa, but many children grew up to have their own families.. Patrol Officer Ted Kasinak halted a garbage truck driver headed into the shooting scene and commandeered the truck. When Brenda's parents divorced, she and her siblings stayed with their father. The school offered counseling immediately after the shooting, but Cam never went. Even The Sun Sets In Paradise Meaning, The Brenda Spencer Murder Case, which was published in 2012, and is the single best source I am aware of regarding Spencer. In 2001 Brenda accused her father of having drunkenly subjected her to beatings and sexual abuse. After her parents separated, she lived with her father, Wallace Spencer, in poverty. He was wearing his brand-new blue down vest that day, he recalls, and a matching shirt. A 16-year-old girl, Brenda Spencer, who lived in a house across the street from the school, was convicted of the shootings. Donate now. When asked why she did it, Brenda Spencer said "I just don't like Mondays." Spencer remains in prison despite parole hearings. Spencer, who was charged in court as an adult, pleaded guilty in 1980 to two counts of murder. 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. She remains imprisoned at the California Institution for Women in Chino. She lived in perpetual squalor in a house in San Carlos, California, with her alcoholic father, Wallace, after her parents separated. Funeral Expenses for Frances. Brenda Spencer was born on the 3rd of April 1962 in San Carlos, California. CAPTION: Police help children after a sniper attack on an elementary school in California 20 years ago; for Cam Miller, shot in the back, the nightmares never stopped. It was 26 years ago today, but those horrific events are . She injured eight children and a police officer, and killed the principal and a custodian. After she came out of her zombie state (in prison) I didnt perceive her as a danger. Brenda Ann SPENCER Homicide Juvenile - School shooting 2 January 29, 1979 Same day April 3, 1962 Principal Burton Wragg, 53 and Michael Suchar, 56 Shooting San Diego, California, USA photo gallery The two victims were Principal Burton Wragg and custodian Mike Suchar. I just wish that all criminals that are given a LIFE sentence serve LIFEher sentence was 25yrs to life, the parole board are only doing what is in their remit to do by extending her timeyou know between the 25yrs and lifemeaning until she dies.also because she has learnt to drive a forklift doesn't mean she is rehabilitated!! The Union-Tribune regrets the error. Later, Cam went with his parents to court. One ripple outward from the shootings sent fear through a third generation in the Wragg family. Other children in down coats were targeted, too, and Spencer later was quoted as saying she enjoyed seeing feathers fly as she shot them. For 20 minutes, Spencer continued to fire about 30 rounds into the crowd. Wallace Spencer "We used to target shoot in the mountains." Brenda brags to her friends that she's "going to do something that will be on tv." They used to sleep on a single mattress on the living room floor. 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. Another 9-year-old, Christy Buell, was pretending to ice-skate on the frosty grass before the final bell rang. Her statement inspired the musician Bob Geldof to compose the song I Dont Like Mondays for his band, Boomtown Rats. She said that it was from her own home and added Yeah, who do you thinks doing the shooting? When asked why she did it, she gave an answer that completely shocked the public and was highly publicized:I just dont like Mondays. He was particularly struck by Spencer's claim that she did it because she did not like Mondays, and began writing a song about it, called "I Don't Like Mondays". On the morning of January 29, 1979, children began to line up outside Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California. Now 56 years old, she remains in the California Institution for Women in Corona. Unfortunately, the website appears to be down and it is unclear if this is temporary or permanent. "I wanted to tell him that I was a single father, too, raising four kids alone, and I know it's a hard job and a thankless job and I know you probably did the best you could, that Christy was going to be okay." Wallace Spencer, her father, married her 17-year-old cellmate. The principal was enjoying a cup of coffee in the front office when he heard a popping noise and charged outside, assuming he would find little boys setting off firecrackers. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. It is not known what happened to the breeder of Rebel Starfighter Prime or why Galactic Magic Seeds is no longer available. 1978- December 25-Brenda Spencer's father, Wallace Spencer, gave Brenda a .22 caliber rifle as a Christmas present. [33][34][35], The Investigation Discovery network portrayed Spencer's crimes in one of the three cases presented in the premiere episode of season 2 on the crime documentary series Deadly Women, titled "Thrill Killers", first air date: October 9, 2008.[36][37][38]. [13] She injured eight children; she began with nine-year-old Cam Miller, since he was wearing Spencer's favorite color blue. [16] Crime-scene photos contradict these accounts. In junior high, a neighbor went around telling people, `There's Cam, he's shot,' and I'd deny it." Two of the worst before the Spencer shootings in 1966 at the University of Texas, where a gunman killed 17 people and wounded 31, and in 1976 at Cal State Fullerton, where seven were killed and two were wounded involved adult male shooters. A month later, on January 29, 1979, she achieved infamy when she began shooting at her school, Grover Cleveland Elementary in San Diego from her home, located across the street. A previous version of this story failed to mention that custodian Michael Suchar, who was fatally shot, was survived by a son in addition to a wife, who was mentioned in the article. Under the terms of her sentencing, Spencer became eligible for hearings to consider her suitability for parole in 1993. ">. Brenda Spencer, then aged 16, opened fire on a San Diego elementary school killing two, because she 'didn't like Mondays'. Can I Get A Tattoo After Rhinoplasty, He died at age 87 in 2016. The shooter, a 16-year-old high school student named Brenda Spencer, a relative loner with few friends who had a long-standing fascination with guns and television violence, began firing at the school grounds from her father's home across . Katie Serena is a New York City-based writer and a staff writer at All That's Interesting. Head Custodian Mike Suchar. Connie DeVaul. Get Ready for a New Season of Gardening -Choose from Tomatoes, Peaches, Corn, Zinnias & More! "Dad didn't want me to see a psychologist. San Diego Union-Tribune/Wikimedia Commons (cropped)The arrest of school shooter Brenda Spencer, shortly after her infamous I dont like Mondays quote. Another gardener is pla, This website uses cookies for functionality, analytics and advertising purposes as described in our, VICTIMS & SURVIVORS - SCHOOL SHOOTERS - STABBINGS - BOMBERS, Police drove a garbage truck between her house and the school to block her, EXCUSES & INABILITY TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, THE SHOOTING AT GROVER CLEVELAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. The principal of the school, Burton Wragg, was killed during the attack. When 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire on Cleveland Elementary School in the San Diego bedroom community of San Carlos, the incident marked the first high profile mass school shooting in the United States. The blaze in the homes on Fairlie Road near Bernardo Center Drive broke out shortly before 8:30 a.m., according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, Police found the suspected assailant on the trolley and arrested him on suspicion of attempted murder, The crash happened just after 11:20 a.m. Thursday on Camino Del Rio North just west of Fairmount, according to San Diego police, Officers are looking for a sedan with front windshield damage that was involved in a fatal hit-and-run crash on Feb. 5 in Fallbrook that killed a 21-year-old man. . Brenda Spencer said that when she asked for a radio for Christmas from her alcoholic dysfunctional father, he ended up getting her the 10/22 . I felt like letting this person out of her cage would harm my family members even more.. He blacked out briefly. Charles "Cam" Miller, age 9 was shot. Though the cops sent negotiators to speak with her, she refused to cooperate with them. . [4][5][6][7] After her parents separated, she allegedly lived in poverty with her father, Wallace Spencer. "We just kind of went on with life," she says. $175 raised of $7,000 goal. After her parents separated, she lived with her father, Wallace Spencer, in virtual poverty. During the later interrogation, she was asked why she did it and responded: I just dont like Mondays.. "It brings back memories," he acknowledges, "but as time goes on, you heal. Geldof said in the same interview, She wrote to me saying she was glad shed done it because I made her famous, which is not a good thing to live with., Related story from us:The 1972 Olympic Games were called The Peaceful Games until they turned into the Munich massacre. He wore T-shirts when swimming to cover his scar. A responding police officer was also wounded. Spencers deadly plot was far from the earliest attack on an American school, but it was one of the first modern school shootings that led to multiple deaths and injuries.