[1][10], In December, a psychiatric evaluation arranged by her probation officer recommended that Spencer be admitted to a mental hospital for depression, but her father refused to give permission. brenda spencer father, wallaceristorante sardo santa teresa di gallura MANHALNET COMPANY cerco lavoro taranto lama passi e trafori delle alpi scuola primaria CAPTION: (Photo ran in an earlier edition) Police rush to the scene of a sniper attack on Grover Cleveland Elementary School in a San Diego suburb 20 years ago. "Oh, really?". Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Get our email alerts straight to your inbox. The arrest of school shooter Brenda Spencer, shortly after her infamous I dont like Mondays quote. At age fifteen she was arrested for shooting out the windows in the school with her air rifle as well as burglary. He noted that Spencer shot people 150 feet away with deadly accuracy, not as one under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He felt cheated. I did however spend a couple of years working in a Federal maximum security Penitentiary (USP). For 20 minutes, Spencer continued to fire about 30 rounds into the crowd. "When I saw her, the look she gave me -- her whole appearance was very evil and scary. On the morning of January 29, 1979, children began to line up outside Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California. SWAT Officer Jim McGinley said he took up a sniper position on a neighbors roof, his rifle trained on the Spencer back door. A 16-year-old girl, Brenda Ann Spencer (born April 3, 1962), who lived in a house across the street from the school, was convicted of the shootings. Bob Geldof, lead singer for the rock group theBoomtown Rats,read about the incident and wrote a song titledI Dont Like Mondaysthat was released in July of 1979. One day the little girl announced to her: "My sister's in jail. Twenty-two years later, his son, Dan Barnes, also a teacher, found himself a target of Granite Hills High School shooter Jason Hoffman. Brenda Spencer was born April 3rd, 1962 to her mother and father, Dorothy and Wallace Spencer. Norm Buell found himself on the Spencers' doorstep a couple of months after the shooting. Her next opportunity for a parole hearing will be in 2025.[21][22][23][24]. House where Brenda Ann Spencer fired the shots at the Cleveland Elementary shooting. According to police reports and her classmates descriptions, Brenda was an introvert, often behaving strangely. As with any mass shooting, Spencers sniper assault on the elementary school changed the lives of the widows, the wounded, their families and a community. Across the street, Brenda Ann Spencer was watching them from her house, which was filled with empty whiskey bottles and a single mattress that she shared with her father. Cam would insist on touching each pane of glass, to assure himself that none was broken, that "she" hadn't slipped inside. Thats because at that time in that place it would have been literally unimaginable to shoot up a school. The principal of the school, Burton Wragg, was killed during the attack. 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. Spencer pled guilty to two counts of 1st-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon. In 16-year-old Brenda Spencer, we find the genesis monster. 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.. 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What she did was so awful, shooting at children. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He could hear the gunfire while he was taking his morning shower, and raced down to the school to see what was happening, crying out his daughter's name from behind the SWAT team cordon. A quick pain subsided as she was rushed into the cafeteria, to safety. ", Buell was jolted by the casual reference, but managed to muster a benign response. Brenda and her father slept on a single mattress in their living room, empty alcohol bottles scattered around the floor. First introduced in 1964, the Ruger 10/22 is likely the most successful .22 rifle ever devised. He always remembered that day, Barnes said. The school offered counseling immediately after the shooting, but Cam never went. Because there was no trial, few details about her family or her past ever came to public light. 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. Now the incident is under review. [14], After firing thirty-six times,[12] Spencer barricaded herself inside her home for several hours. While at the California Institution for Women in Chino, she worked repairing electronic equipment.[7][18]. In 2005 Brendas prison girlfriend was released and she was reported for an incident of self-harm. Hopefully these kids will get counseling." 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 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. The bullet struck Cam in the back and exited his chest, missing any internal organs. ". The standard .22LR rifle feeds from a flush-mounted 10-round helical-feed magazine, though aftermarket magazines and drums carry fifty rounds or more. Your email address will not be published. The 10/22 has been offered in .22LR, .17HMR, and .22 Win Mag variants. Brenda Spencer began shooting at 8:30. Wallace Spencer was previously married to Dot Spencer. She has been formally inducted into the Golden Girls Club, an organization of female inmates aged older than 55. Though she recovered physically she was never quite right after that. In her 2001 hearing, Spencer claimed that her father had been subjecting her to beatings and sexual abuse, but he said the allegations were not true. "I went over there father-to-father, hoping to talk to him," he recalls. But Officer Paul Olson, primary negotiator, talked to Spencer on and off by phone for hours, urging her to throw out her gun and surrender. We will see next year, I believe, that even a super-majority in Congress cannot force a rogue administration to obey and enforce duly enacted laws (as at the border, the Hillary debacle, the Russian hoax, Hunter-Joe, habeus corpus for 1/6 trespassers and on and on and on. Brenda Ann Spencer is the first modern school shooter ever known. Christy Buell never left the old neighborhood, still living in her childhood home just a few blocks from the school, and from the ranch-style house where Brenda Spencer's father still lives. This is the true story of Brenda Spencer and her deadly attack. When asked why she did it, her reply was "I just don't like Mondays." . The morning of the shooting, McGlinn said, Spencer drank alcohol. It's an incident that will never leave my mind. A responding police officer was also wounded. Unfortunately, thats exactly what happened. Her teachers said that she barely talked to anyone in class but was excellent in the arts, especially photography, winning the first prize in a competition run by the Humane Society. . It seems the woke western world cares more about the rights of criminals than the rights of victims and society. It might have even changed the nation. Under the terms of her sentencing, Spencer became eligible for hearings to consider her suitability for parole in 1993. 5 Jun. When someone posts an ill advised accusation against you or your weekly audience, please allow us to respond in a timely manner. This livens up the day",[1][2] which inspired Bob Geldof and Johnnie Fingers to write the Boomtown Rats song "I Don't Like Mondays". By the time the country's first high-profile school shooting was over that morning, the principal and a custodian were dead, and eight children were wounded. Wallace Spencer was an enthusiastic gun collector, and his daughter appeared to share his interest in this hobby early on. The parole board chairman said that as she had not previously told anyone about the allegations, he doubted whether they were true. Brenda Ann Spencer. The headmaster confiscated the gun and put it in his desk drawer, directing the kid to pick it up after school and not to bring it back again. The principals widow, Kathe Wragg, and daughter Penny made sure the parole board heard their opposition to releasing Spencer from prison. Then, she put the rifle down, barricaded herself inside her home, and waited. 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. Still, she finds herself thinking about it in the abstract at the preschool where she teaches, especially when she's outside with the children. [17] In prison, Spencer was diagnosed with epilepsy and received medication to treat epilepsy and depression. I remember feeling weird, but no pain. On January 29, 1979, in San Diego, California, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who lived just across the road from the Cleveland Elementary School, opened fire on the students and school personnel with a .22-caliber rifle. Her Dad, Wallace Spencer, gave her a semi-automatic .22 calibre rifle for Christmas in 1978. He still has occasional nightmares about Spencer. The MSRP for the base model 10/22 today is $309. My question to all of you is, If you are religious at all and believe it is a sin to kill a living person, how in the world can you believe that its OK to kill someone under the premise that it was the law that sanctioned it! Now 72, Olson has kept his report notes from that day. On April 4, 1980, a day after her 18th birthday, she was sentenced to 25 years to life. Her cousin Valerie Stahl said she grew up not knowing much about Spencer until she hit college and Googled the incident. Like most true psychopaths Brendas origin story is sordid and broken. He and other wounded children were hustled to the auditorium to await an ambulance. In the aftermath of the attack, it was revealed that Brenda Spencer had shot at the school one year earlier with a BB gun. Spencer, then 16, armed with the rifle and scope her father gave her for Christmas, started picking off students heading to the elementary school directly across the street from her Lake Atlin Avenue home. I can still hear it. He is married to his high school sweetheart, has three awesome adult children, and teaches Sunday School. Spencer shot and killed Wragg as he and teacher Daryl Barnes tried to help children. "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." Christy Buell was shot. In 2009, the board again refused her application for parole, and ruled it would be ten years before she would be considered again. Based on the pen I was at. The report stated that she had clawed the words Pride and Courage into her flesh. To this day, Cam Miller hesitates before dressing in blue. That all changed on January 29, 1979. When out of earshot we called him Poach Smith. Head scans later revealed permanent damage to one of her temporal lobes that likely contributed to the aberrant behavior that was to follow. He bizarrely married Brendas 17-year-old prison cellmate after her release, and they had a daughter together. What on that day had been unimaginable -- that a school could become a killing field -- is grimly familiar. Miller was one of her victims. . "My wife saw her through the window and said, `There she is.' He wore T-shirts when swimming to cover his scar. I have always hoped that at least us Americans would have the wisdom to forgo our partisan prejudices and vote-in officials that value the rule of law and do their duty to protect law abiding citizens. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Brenda Ann Spencer was born in San Diego, California, on April 3, 1962. The same year, Brenda carried out a burglary in the school and shot out the windows with a gun. [8], Spencer was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon. 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. [5][7] Spencer later said, "I asked for a radio and got a rifle." . I dont like Mondays, she said. She hurt so many people and had so much to do with starting a deadly trend in America, said Richard Sachs, a San Diego County deputy district attorney tasked with formally opposing parole for Spencer on several occasions. 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. Brenda's attorney described how Wallace began drinking heavily. Dan Barnes is now principal at Grossmont High School. In all, the standoff lasted over six hours. by Michael Thomas Barry. She was sentenced to 25 years to life on the day after her 18thbirthday. It is actually a prison within a prison, within a prison. The principal and a custodian were killed; eight children and police officer Robert Robb were injured. Perhaps you should check out the first several verses in Romans, chapter 13. Age 16, she was 5'2" (157 cm) and had bright red hair. [5] A 28-year-old police officer, Robert Robb, had responded to a call for assistance during the incident, where he was wounded in the neck as he arrived. State prisons are even worse. She was the most seriously hurt of the children shot, hit in the abdomen and buttocks; part of her intestine was removed and she had a colostomy bag for four months. Why do you think you should deserve a second chance when the principal and the custodian had none? [31], The 1982 JapaneseAmerican documentary film The Killing of America depicts the incident. "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. 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. The 2006 British documentary I Don't Like Mondays also revisits the case. 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. I may not have grown up with a grandpa, but many children grew up to have their own families.. [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. A 16-year-old girl, Brenda Spencer, who lived in a house across the street from the school, was convicted of the shootings. The morning was unusually cold, they still remember. "I didn't talk about it. On Monday morning, January 29, 1979, a herd of children had gathered outside the gates of the elementary school. Blue made him a target. He famously kept a shotgun and a garbage bag in the trunk of the drivers ed car in case he came across something that needed shooting. She hurt so many people and had so much to do with starting a deadly trend in America, said Richard Sachs, a San Diego County deputy district attorney, in an interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune. The settlements come after a 2020 audit found the city could significantly reduce the nearly $25 million a year it spends on lawsuit payouts with better employee training and deeper analyses of risks. As of 2015, there had been more than seven million copies sold. Asked why he had done that, she answered, "He bought the rifle so I would kill myself. Aftermarket dress-up kits span the spectrum. 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. The janitor used to give me erasers. Miraculously, none of the children were killed, though eight of them were injured. Mentally she plots an escape route, how she will get the children to safety. The Baffling Disappearance Of Jodi Huisentruit, The News Anchor Who Vanished Forever Just Before A Broadcast, The Disappearance Of Kristal Reisinger, The Colorado Mother Who Went Missing From A Drum Circle, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. I came to the conclusion that it all depends on how much you want the convicted to suffer. He had wanted to confront her, finally. During this time, Spencer gave her infamous interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune over the phone. Privacy PolicyTerms of ServiceSign Up For Our NewslettersSite Map, Copyright 2023, The San Diego Union-Tribune |, KB homes were built on the former site of Cleveland Elementary School in San Carlos. 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. Principal Wragg rushed into the line of fire to drag children to safety and was shot down as well. When I was growing up kids brought guns to school all the time. He blacked out briefly. In the 19th century, shed have been hanged and buried in an unmarked grave!! The Grover Cleveland Elementary School was demolished in 2018. Charles "Cam" Miller, age 9 was shot. 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. She was Mary Clark then, aged 9, when she was shot through her lower torso and didnt know it. The reason murder rises to the level of a capital crime is because you cant restore what you have stolenanothers life. 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. She was sentenced to concurrent terms of 25 years to life in prison. Thats right, 3 heavily armed gates you have to pass through to get to the 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 52 and sported bright red hair. In junior high, a neighbor went around telling people, `There's Cam, he's shot,' and I'd deny it." 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. Instead, he purchased the weapon that his daughter would later use to target the school. He once returned after an outing around the county with both his students and a fresh wild turkey. Brenda Spencer, aged 16, fired rifle shots into a school playground in California in January 1979, . Testosterone is the most potent poison known to man. He was only sentenced to the maximum of 21 years (with the possibility of 5 years at a time being added in the future). Feature Articles, 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. But this argument has never swayed the parole board. Aged 16 at the time of the shooting, she was 5'2" (157cm) and had bright red hair. The song was number 1 for four weeks in the UK, though it did not break the top 40 in the US. brenda spencer father, wallace. Even though Id be just as sad for her death as for those two men she killed and the many youngns she wounded, it would be justice served and not delayed. Official website of the comedian, television host, talking head, commentator, speaker, and word-haver. Warning: file_get_contents(index.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /nfs/c05/h03/mnt/79130/domains/spitfirevsbf109.com/html/wp-includes/plugin . Her former defense attorney said the Patrick Henry High School student suffered from a broken home, an abusive father, drug use and hostility toward authorities and society in general. SWAT Officer Marty Duitz aimed his rifle at the front door, from the safety of a school room. At Christmas of that year, he gave Brenda a Ruger 10/22 semiautomatic .22 rifle, a riflescope, and a 500-round brick of ammunition. A San Diego judge had a defendants 13-year-old daughter handcuffed. She remembers how her dad used to walk her slowly through the hospital corridors, and how they would stand in a breezeway and watch the lights of passing cars on the freeway below. I agree. She had been arrested for that crime, as well as burglary, but ultimately received probation. Victoria Frances Fox pleaded guilty to murder in the August 2021 death of 4-week-old Phoenix Grove in San Diego. Her probation officer recommended that she be hospitalized for depression, but her rocket scientist dad refused to give permission. brenda spencer father, wallacehavelock wool australia. When another neighborhood is on the evening news, and Buell's father sees the stunned faces of parents in Jonesboro or Paducah or Littleton, he finds himself hungry for any scrap of information about the families of these children who kill, hoping, as he still does with Brenda Spencer these 20 long years later, to put all the pieces together and finally make sense of it. 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.