first school shooting in america 1764 first school shooting in america 1764

The attack was broadcast over the PA system, prompting teachers to take action in accordance with the lockdown protocol. February 19, 1997 Bethel, Alaska Principal and one student killed, two others wounded by Evan Ramsey, 16. Their demand for $300 million dollars came to an abrupt end when Doris accidentally set off a bomb, killing herself and injuring 78 students and teachers. List of school shootings in the United States (2000-present) See also List of school shootings in the United States by death toll This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title List of school shootings in the United States. In a 2001 parole hearing, Spencer also revealed that her father subjected her to regular sexual assault. Doctors prescribed him all sorts of medication. Earlier that day, he killed his mother at the home they shared. September 3, 1952 in Lawrenceville, Illinois After 25-year-old Georgine Lyon ended her engagement with Charles Petrach, Petrach shot and killed Lyon in a classroom at Lawrenceville High School where she worked as a librarian. What Is The Difference Between Catholic And Christian? 16 School Shootings That Took Place Before Columbine. Dixon calls it the "Enoch Brown Schoolhouse Massacre" (p. 223). Most of the bloodshed occurred in the schools library where, shortly after noon, Harris and Klebold turned the guns on themselves. We would advise parents to look into it, and learn whether shooting is to be a part of the scholastic course which may be practiced on their boys; or else we advise them to see that their own boys are properly armed with the most approved and deadly-pistol, and that there may be an equal chance at least of their shooting as of being shot.". The community and country were shocked to see this teenage girl with long wavy hair and large glasses as the source of such evil. July 14, 1952 New York City, New York Bayard Peakes walked in to the offices of the American Physical Society at Columbia University and shot and killed secretary Eileen Fahey with a .22 caliber pistol. As he tried to help, he was shot in the chest and killed. This incident occurred near present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania and was named the Pontiac's Rebellion school massacre. The summer of that year, Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats released their song I Dont Like Mondays, inspired by the shooting. Four Lenape warriors. The shooter killed seven people at the school, including students, a teacher and a security guard, and injured five others. After being removed as principal of South Pasadena Junior High School, Verlin Spencer shot six school officials, killing five, before attempting to commit suicide by shooting himself in the stomach. Then he said, "no one will ever call my brother a pussy again" then committed suicide. The first school shooting occurred On July 26, 1764, when a Lenape Indian shot and killed nine children and the school master of the Greencastle, Pennsylvania school (Galvin): as noted in Appendix A. He killed fourteen people and injured 31 others. According to the National School Safety Center, since the 1992-1993 U.S. school year there has been a significant decline in school-associated violent deaths (deaths on private or public school property for kindergarten through grade 12 and resulting from schools functions or activities): 1992-1993 (44 Homicides and 55 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) What started out as an ordinary day at a south Florida high school ended in gunfire and death in Parkland, Florida - about 20 miles northwest of Fort Lauderd. The shooter, Claude Hubert, was never to be found but three other men were arrested in connection with the shooting. Thread: School shooting in the U.S. since 1764, We are the world's largest archive of information about Illegal Immigration and are archived in the Library of Congress, The Shootings at Grand Rapids High School, California State University, Fullerton massacre, Grover Cleveland Elementary School Shootings, Cokeville Elementary School hostage crisis, http://www.alipac.us/f9/school-shoot-years-269091/, http://www.alipac.us/f9/2-women-shottained-276049/, http://www.alipac.us/f9/police-shotsschool-290520/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States, http://www.alipac.us/f9/student-12-umexico-295595/, Killed father and brother before shooting at school; shot and killed by police, Ronald E. McNair Discover Learning Academy Elementary School shooting, Welcome to ALIPAC! Distancing herself from her actions, she also claims to have no memory of the event. 10-11 dead, 2 injured. Variations on the name in sources include the "Enoch Brown massacre" and the "Enoch Brown Indian massacre". It was 14:30 when David Hogg heard the first shot. Then in a quiet voice, Matt Ward demanded to see Mr. Butler, one of the teachers at the high school. In his closing argument, Crittenden said that Ward had shot in self-defense and that the blood that flows in his veins has come down from those noble pioneers who laid the foundations for the greatness and glory of our state.. [8], Settlers buried Enoch Brown and the schoolchildren in a common grave. Kehoe found this a great financial burden and blamed these additional taxes for the foreclosure proceedings against his farm. June 4, 1936 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Wesley Crow shot and killed his Lehigh University English instructor, C. Wesley Phy. October 10, 1906 Cleveland, Ohio Harry Smith shot and killed 22-year-old teacher Mary Shepard at South Euclid School after she had rejected him. February 2, 1996 Moses Lake, Washington Two students and one teacher killed, one other wounded when 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis opened fire on his algebra class. 18, a 13 year old lad brought a pistol loaded and capped, without the knowledge of his parents or school-teachers, and shot and injured a fellow classmate. Following the massacre, it was reported that they had also planted a bomb that failed to detonate. Kuhns had reportedly been courting Dellamea for over a year but the relationship was ended when Dellamea discovered that Kuhns was already married. On July 26, 1764, four Lenape American Indian warriors entered a log schoolhouse of white settlers in what is now . About 11:30am local time (2:30am AEST) on Tuesday the shooting began at Robb Elementary School, in south-west Texas. A doctor was summoned, but Butlers wound was too grievous and he died after hours of suffering. Answer (1 of 7): the 1760s iirc, an attack by native americans on a schoolhouse somewhere on the western frontier. Settlers buried Enoch Brown and the schoolchildren in a common grave. Sporting trench coats, they opened fire, killing twelve students and one teacher. Since then, hundreds have occurred, claiming many lives (Galvin). School shootings and mass shootings happen about every year or two in the U.S. and I guarantee that there is going to be another one in a year and another one after that and nothing is going to change until enough people develop a political will to support meaningful gun changes. For the mass shooting that occurred in 2023, see Killing of the Haight family. Wives and mothers testified and fainted. All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions 2023 worldatlas.com, The Deadliest School Massacres In American History, The Deadliest Massacres In Canadian History. The incident took place in a schoolhouse about a mile outside of Warrenville after the students had been dismissed for the day. [9] In 1843, the grave was excavated to confirm the location of the bodies. February 24, 1903 Inman, South Carolina Edward Foster, a 17-year-old student at Inman High school, was shot and fatally wounded by his teacher Reuben Pitts after he had jerked a rod from Pitts' hands to resist punishment. The majority of mass school shootings were carried out by a lone gunman, with just two - Columbine and the 1998 shooting at Westside School in Jonesboro, Arkansas - carried out by two gunmen . [7], Incidents such as these prompted the Pennsylvania General Assembly, with the approval of Governor John Penn, to reintroduce the scalp bounty system previously used during the French and Indian War. March 11, 1949: New York City A 16-year-old student at Stuyvesant High School was accidentally shot in the arm by a fellow student who was 'showing off' with a pistol in a classroom. On July 26, 1764, a group ofLenape American Indians entered a schoolhouse nearGreencastle, PA, and clubbed and scalped schoolmaster Enoch Brown and killed9 or 10 of his children (precise numbers vary). When the prosecution pointed out that Butler could not even make a fist because of a childhood burn, the defense countered that Ward, a Harvard graduate and young author, was peaceable, gentle and kind. (Like Butler, Ward suffered from an infirmity, rheumatism, which caused him to use a crutch in court.) Charles Whitman (25) was a student and ex-Marine who would go down in history as the "Texas Tower Sniper." On August 1, 1966, he fired down at the passersby below from the clock tower at the University of Texas in Austin. She was beaten to death, scalped, and the baby was cut out of her body. Teachers from all over the country came to Butlers funeral. September 14, 1934 Gill, Massachusetts. Andrew Kehoe (55) methodically planned out his attack, spending months placing dynamite and explosives around the school. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza (20) rocked the nation when, after killing his mother, he drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Now, talk of her book has reignited the conversation not just about Columbine, but about the long history of mass shootings in the U.S., including recent tragedies at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, and Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. getty. December 24, 1948 was the first accidental school shooting. On June 24, the Washington Post reported their calculation that school shootings increased in 2021. 1764 massacre in Pennsylvania, United States, "Enoch Brown" redirects here. The Courier-Journal reported that Matt was upset with Butler because he had beaten his other brother, William, with 5 or 6 licks with a leather strap the previous day in school after William had been caught eating chestnuts in class. January 17, 1969 Los Angeles, California Two student members of the Black Panther Party, Alprentice Carter and John Huggins, were fatally shot during a student meeting inside Campbell Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles. A video was found shortly after the shooting of them apologizing to their parents for what they were about to do. The incident was likely sparked by Wiseman's refusal to marry Barnett. Character witnesses remarked that Spencer would often talk about guns, and that she would shoot at cans and birds for fun. The teacher had just passed out. January 29, 1979 Grover Cleveland Elementary School Shootings, California, where a 16yr old girl opened fire with the rifle, a gift from her father, killing 2 and wounding 9. January 30, 1968 Miami, Florida 16-year-old Blanche Ward shot and killed fellow student Linda Lipscomb, 16, with a .22-caliber pistol at Miami Jackson High School. School shootings are a distinctly American phenomenon. Still, as infamous as it was, Columbine wasn't the first, or the deadliest, school shooting in America. It was reported that after Turner refused to date Colletta he handed her the gun and dared her to pull the trigger, telling her that the gun was "only a toy." May 21, 1998 Springfield, Oregon Two students killed, 22 others wounded in the cafeteria at Thurston High School by 15-year-old Kip Kinkel. In 2014, the school was demolished and replaced by a new one with a series of surveillance cameras. March 23, 1907 Carmi, Illinois George Nicholson shot and killed John Kurd at a schoolhouse outside of Carmi, Illinois during a school rehearsal. Overall, the bombings killed 44 people38 of which were schoolchildrenand left 58 injured. He killed fourteen people and injured 31 others. The bullet lodged in the wall just above the teacher's head. Motive could not be conclusively determined, although many people relate it to mental illness. The newspapers reported that Allen was also Matt Wards best friend. Butler walked in and approached Ward. Only two children survived. December 24, 1948: New York City A 14-year-old boy was wounded fatally by an accidental shot from the .22-caliber rifle of a fellow-student the youth was shot in the head when he chanced into range where Robert Ross, 17, of Brooklyn, was shooting at a target near a lake on the school property. Though in a 1993 interview, Spencer claimed that the morning of her attack she had drunk whiskey, smoked marijuana, taken PCP, and had hallucinatory visions of commandos outside her window in combat gear. 1997-1998 (35 Homicides and 40 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) According to homeland security expert William Pelfrey Jr.as reported by VCU news, "Eighty or 90 percent of all the school shootings in the world happen in the U.S.". Crow committed suicide after shooting Phy. June 12, 1887 Cleveland, Tennessee Will Guess went to the school and fatally shot Miss Irene Fann, his little sister's teacher, for whipping her the day before. 2009-2010 (5 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.). After shooting Kurz Weller tried to escape, but was surrounded by police on the campus, whereupon he killed himself with a shot in the chest. Though the earliest school shooting is dated back to July 26, 1764, the most infamous school shooting in U.S. history has been Columbine and unfortunately has been the blueprint for so many other offenders across the country. Until Matt and Robert Ward walked in, the schoolhouse on Chestnut Street in Louisville on Nov. 2, 1853, was engaged in the routine morning business of words, numbers and questions. The Sandy Hook shooting was, at the time, the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States after the 2007 shooting at . A freshman caught Cruz loading his rifle in the bathroom and told a staff member, but they, too, failed to act. November 15, 1995 Lynnville, Tennessee A seventeen-year-old boy shot and killed a student and teacher with a .22 rifle. Ultimately, it seems that virtually no conversation about gun violence in the U.S. would be complete without mentioning the mass casualties that have occurred at the hands of mentally troubled and otherwise disturbed young people on school grounds. January 10, 1912 Warrenville, Illinois Sylvester E. Adams shot and killed teacher Edith Smith after she rejected his advances. The stabbing was reportedly sparked over a dispute about a basketball game. A 15-year-old has killed four fellow students and injured seven others, including a teacher, in a high school shooting in the US state of Michigan. The defense called some 70 witnesses, including two sitting members of Congress. December 9, 1985 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania At the Archbishop Ryan High School for Boys, a 22yr old Mental health patient took 6 students hostage with what ended up being a starter pistol. February 22, 1978 Lansing, Michigan After being taunted for his beliefs, a 15-year-old self-proclaimed Nazi, kills one student and wounds a second with a Luger pistol. Butler was revealed to have previously worked in the Ward mansion as a private tutor. He then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. The 17-year-old was in environmental science class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida. Brown pleaded with the warriors to spare the children before being shot and scalped. It is also considered to be the event that has most shaped the modern gun control debate. At his homestead following the attacks, a note was found saying: criminals are made, not born. The ruins of the school were quickly demolished. Since 1764, the number of school shootings rose exponentially. [4] Settlers could collect $134 for the scalp of an enemy American Indian male above the age of ten; the bounty for women was set at $50. According to the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, in the United States, from September 1986 to September 1990 (four year period): At least 71 people (65 students and 6 school employees) had been killed with guns at school. Lee Arthur Hester, a 14-year-old student, is later convicted of the murder and sentenced to 55 years in prison. The gunman escaped in the crowd of fleeing students, but was later arrested off campus. One other student named Archie McCullough was wounded. February 2, 1960 Hartford City, Indiana Principal Leonard Redden shot and killed two teachers with a shotgun at William Reed Elementary School in Hartford City, Indiana, before fleeing into a remote forest, where he committed suicide. Inside were the schoolmaster, Enoch Brown, and a number of young students. "The earliest known United States shooting to happen on school property was the Pontiac's Rebellion school massacre on July 26, 1764, where four Lenape American Indian entered the schoolhouse near present-day Greencastle, Pennsylvania, shot and killed schoolmaster Enoch Brown, and killed nine or ten children (reports vary). The officers fired into the crowd, killing three young men: Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith, and wounding twenty-seven others. September 24, 1959: New York City, New York Twenty-seven men and boys and an arsenal were seized in the Bronx last night as the police headed off a gang war resulting from the fatal shooting of a teenager Monday at Morris High School. The gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School - which teaches children. Even more startling was news that the week before the shooting, Spencer told classmates she was about to do something big to get on TV.. November 19, 1969 Tomah, Wisconsin Principal Martin Mogensen is shot to death in his office by a 14-year-old boy armed with a 20 gauge shotgun. BBC News, Uvalde Nineteen young children and two adults have died in a shooting at a primary school in south Texas. Even Spencers self-inflicted scars became matters of interpretation. The massacre at Columbine was at the time the worst high school shooting in US history. Spencer was denied parole at her most recent hearing in 2009. The school master and 10 children were killed.. 2001-2002 (4 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) As a result, national gun debates are being waged fiercely, an issue which deeply divides the American people. April 20, 1961 Chicago, Illinois Teacher Josephine Keane, 45, is sexually assaulted and stabbed to death inside a storeroom at Lewis-Champlin elementary school in Chicago. November 20, 1952 New York City, New York "Rear Admiral E. E. Herrmann, 56 years old, superintendent of the Naval Post-Graduate School, was found dead in his office with a bullet in his head. As tragic as it was, Columbine wasn't the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. school, either. And in 1764, during Pontiacs War in the colonial era, four Native Americans killed a schoolmaster and around 10 students in what would later become the state of Pennsylvania, though accounts differ on whether the victims were shot or clubbed.). Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, shot at their classmates and teachers from the woods. Franklin County, Pennsylvania, United States. They often result in high death tolls and unimaginable grief for those involved. Following his death, an autopsy revealed a tumor in his brain. From the very first school shooting in the 18th century, to sniper Charles Whitman, who enacted the actualfirst school mass shooting in modern UShistory, toBrenda Spencer,a female shooter who not only defied the "loner white male" stereotype but also inspired a pop song by the Boomtown Rats. Education in the United States during COVID-19, History of Education in the United States, Primary School and Kindergarten Incidents, College and University School Incidents , History of School Shootings in the United States. On July 26, 1764, a group of Lenape American Indians entered a schoolhouse near Greencastle, PA, and clubbed and scalped schoolmaster Enoch Brown and killed 9 or 10 of his children (precise numbers vary). July 26, 1764. A boy of 12 has his pantaloons made with a pistol pocket; and this at a boarding-school filled with boys, who, we suppose, do or wish to do the same thing. "We thought there was . Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. Eyewitnesses had seen Ward shoot Butler. He then ran out of the school building, grabbed a shotgun from one of the farmers and shot himself, before running away and leaping into a well where he finally drowned. On April 20,1999, teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Kleboldgunned downtheir classmates and teachers at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, killing 15people and wounding 24. I shot a pig [a policeman], I think, and I want to shoot more. By the end of her sniping assault, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer had shot 11 people. After a horrifying ninety minutes, four law enforcement officers surrounded Whitman on the observation deck and shot him. October 2, 1957: New York City, New York "A 16-year old student was shot in the leg yesterday by a 15-year old classmate at a city high school." This tragedy sent shock waves through the nation as communities struggled to understand what could cause students to carry out such violence at school. Neither did most of America. April 15, 1908 Asheville, North Carolina Dr. C. O. Swinney shot and fatally wounded his 16-year-old daughter Nellie in a reception room at Normal and Collegiate Institute. Tereaschinko then shot himself in a failed suicide attempt. 2003-2004 (29 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) Armed with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle, Cruz killed seventeen people and left more than a dozen injured. The Bath School disaster was a pair of bombings that took place in 1927 at Bath Consolidated School in a small township in Michigan. Here are the 10 deadliest school shootings in American history: 10. This article was corrected to reflect the year for the interview Brenda Spencer gave about the shooting. The Issue: Over the past two decades, 143 American public schools have experienced shootings during school hours that resulted in at least one fatality. On April 27, 1854, the jury issued its verdict: not guilty. On the other end was a reporter from the San Diego Tribune. The Ward trial began April 18, 1854, in nearby Elizabethtown, having been moved to an adjoining county because of the public outcry. Biden urges end to carnage of gun violence after 18 children killed at Texas school. Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, had plotted for a year to kill at least 500 and blow up their school. Testimony also showed that Brenda and her father slept on the same mattress on the floor. (In 1840, a University of Virginia teacher had been shot by a student. In his suicide note, he wrote that he did not understand himself anymore. When cornered by police, he shot himself in a suicide attempt but survived and served 30 years in prison. Twelve students watched in horror. The Wards scattered. On the morning of Nov. 30, 2021, a 15-year-old fatally shot four students and injured seven others at his high school in Oakland County, Michigan. Only the brother survived. 2008-2009 (10 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) List of school shootings in the United States (before 2000), List of school shootings in the United States (2000present), "July 1764 Enoch Brown schoolhouse massacre commemorated", "The History and Topography of Dauphin, Cumberland, Franklin, Bedford and Adams", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enoch_Brown_school_massacre&oldid=1142038844, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 05:05. The first known mass shooting in the U.S. where students were shot, was on April 9, 1891, when 70 year old, James Foster fired a shotgun at a group of students in the playground of St. Mary's Parochial School, Newburgh, New York, causing minor injuries to several of the students. After a nearly seven-hour SWAT negotiation, Spencer left her house, surrendered, and was arrested. From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. On April 20, 1999, two students gunned down 12 students and a teacher and wounded more than 20 others before turning the gun on themselves. Townspeople were incensed. In 2018, Nikolas Cruz (19) opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. School shootings have sadly occurred at steady rates over the course of the last decade. March 4, 1958: New York City, New York "A 17-year-old student shot a boy in the Manual Training High School." The massacre at Virginia Tech remains the worst school shooting in the United States. Law enforcement toxicology tests showed no sign of intoxicants in either Spencers blood or urine. Just after 7 am on April 16, 2007, there was an active shooter at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. Here'sa look at someterrifying school shootings that happened before Columbine. Data on the mass shootings that have occurred so far this year can be found here.. March 27, 1919 Lodi Township, Michigan 19-year-old teacher Irma Casler was shot and killed in her classroom at Rentschler school in Lodi Township, Michigan by Robert Warner, apparently because she had rejected his advances. GAO found that shootings at K-12 schools most commonly resulted from disputes or grievances, for example, between students or staff, or between gangs, although the specific characteristics of school shootings over the past 10 years varied widely, according to GAO's analysis of the Naval Postgraduate School's K-12 School Shooting Database. Colt Todd, 14, was hiding in the woods when he shot the students as they stood in the parking lot, March 24, 1998 Jonesboro, Arkansas Four students and one teacher killed, ten others wounded outside as Westside Middle School emptied during a false fire alarm. Mr. Long reported to the police that, while the three were drinking beer at 7 a.m., Davis pulled out a gun and started shooting with a gun he had obtained from the car of a former roommate. Three years later, Spencer learned theblood sample taken after his arrest was found to have high levels of bromide, a popular painkiller he took for headaches. 1994-1995 (17 Homicides and 20 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) Matt Ward was represented by 18 lawyers led by Sen. John J. Crittenden, a former U.S. attorney general and Kentucky governor. Welcome to the History Forum! July 22, 1950 New York City, New York A 16-year-old boy was shot in the wrist and abdomen at the Public School 141 dance during an argument with a former classmate. 2004-2023 K12academics.com All Rights Reserved. [4] [3], A child survivor recounted "Two old Indians and a young Indian rushed up to the door soon after the opening of the morning session. Want to leave a comment? [2], A day earlier, the warriors had encountered a pregnant woman, Susan King Cunningham, on the road. October 17, 1961 Denver, Colorado Tennyson Beard, 14, got into an argument with William Hachmeister, 15, at Morey Junior High School. Butler was lifted up by several of his students and taken to a nearby house. [3] The warriors then tomahawked and scalped the children. The shooting claimed the lives of Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17, authorities said. 2007-2008 (3 Deaths resulting from school shootings in the U.S.) June 12, 1976 California State University, Fullerton massacre, where the school's custodian opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle in the library on the California State University, Fullerton campus killing 7, and wounding 2. Gun Violence. He killed 32 people27 of which were studentsbefore shooting himself. Oct. 1, 1997: A 16-year-old in Pearl, Miss., fatally shoots two students to death and wounds seven others after stabbing his mother to death. But after Columbine in 1999, school violence incidents increased, with tragedies like Sandy. An article from the New York Times reads, "Another "Jesse James" Gang - "Word was brought to the Fifth Police Station to-night that a number of boys were using the Concord-street School-house for some unknown purpose, and a posse of officers was sent to investigate. He asked a few short questions to confirm that the young girl was indeed the culprit. June 8, 1867 New York City At Public School No. November 13, 1949 Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State University freshman James Heer grabbed a .45 caliber handgun from the room of a Delta Tau Delta fraternity brother and shot and killed his fraternity brother Jack McKeown, 21, an Ohio State senior. His parents were later found dead at home, June 15, 1998 Richmond, Virginia One teacher and one guidance counselor wounded by a 14-year-old boy in the school hallway. Date Location Attacker (s) Casualties Description. It wasn't until 1966, though, that the next mass shooting or, at least,. The U.S. ended 2021 with 693 mass shootings, per the Gun Violence Archive.The year before saw 611. Prosecutors said the attack was in retribution for a failing grade. Eight children and a police officer were injured, and two men custodian Michael Suchar and principal Burton Wragg were killed in what is considered the first modern school shooting in the United States. Whitman grew up with an abusive father and joined the Marines in 1959 as a means of escape. A service revolver was found by his side. [4] When the warriors returned to their village on the Muskingum River in the Ohio Country and showed the scalps, an elder Delaware chief rebuked them as cowards for attacking children. In 1843, the grave was excavated to confirm the location of the bodies. In the earliest known school shooting in the United States that happened on July 26, 1764, 4 American Indians entered the schoolhouse, shot and killed the schoolmaster, and killed nine or ten children.