He once returned after an outing around the county with both his students and a fresh wild turkey. How do you rectify that? "It was frightening. One negotiator remembers promising her a Burger King Whopper before she finally came outside. Her Dad, Wallace Spencer, gave her a semi-automatic .22 calibre rifle for Christmas in 1978. The rear sight folds flat when not needed. "I have often had visions of it happening there, and think about what I'd be doing if it did happen," she allows. He was wearing his brand-new blue down vest that day, he recalls, and a matching shirt. 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". We didnt understand why she was shooting at us, Rintoul said. 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. "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. 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. Official website of the comedian, television host, talking head, commentator, speaker, and word-haver. He still has occasional nightmares about Spencer. History, 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. Police subsequently described the home as littered with beer and whiskey bottles. The Archangel Nomad kit is a drop-in polymer chassis that makes the 10/22 into a proper facsimile of an HK G36 assault rifle. She reportedly answered: "I don't like Mondays. Gavin Newson rejected the decision in 2022. One quick note regarding comments. According to the San Diego Police Museum, she warned authorities that she was still armed and threatened to come out shooting if she was forced to leave her house. Once there, Spencer decided to withdraw her bid for parole. The school offered counseling immediately after the shooting, but Cam never went. Wragg and Suchar died; the others, including San Diego police Officer Robert Robb, survived their wounds. I remember that fear; you dont know whats going on. The basic chassis has been adapted to emulate a crank-powered, tripod-mounted Gatling gun, a miniaturized MG42 machinegun, and even an M1 Garand. As of 2015, there had been more than seven million copies sold. Prison should be reserved for those guilty of minor or first time felonies, where there is a chance of rehabilitation. 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. He could see Wallace through the screen door, sitting in front of the TV. 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. Later, Cam went with his parents to court. As a child Brenda took a tumble on her bicycle and suffered a head injury. What on that day had been unimaginable -- that a school could become a killing field -- is grimly familiar. It has a very strong ripple effect; even if youre not hit by a bullet, that stays with you forever. Death would have been welcome. Dan Barnes is now principal at Grossmont High School. 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. The MSRP for the base model 10/22 today is $309. Later, during tests while she was in custody, it was discovered Spencer had an injury to the temporal lobe of her brain. Spencer, who was charged in court as an adult, pleaded guilty in 1980 to two counts of murder. Still, she finds herself thinking about it in the abstract at the preschool where she teaches, especially when she's outside with the children. She grew up relatively poor and spent most of her early life with her father, Wallace Spencer, with whom she had a turbulent relationship. 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.. Rintoul suffered nightmares and got counseling. Author: Alfred Weidinger CC BY 2.0, When the shooting was finished, Spencer shut herself in her house and stayed there for hours. [14], After firing thirty-six times,[12] Spencer barricaded herself inside her home for several hours. brenda spencer father, wallace. He had wanted to confront her, finally. Early Life Brenda's parents divorced when she was young and lived with her father. "My wife saw her through the window and said, `There she is.' 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. The song was number 1 for four weeks in the UK, though it did not break the top 40 in the US. At the time, she lived in a house across the street from the school. Hers wasnt the first school mass shooting in the nation, but at that time it was among the few in which more than two or three people died or were wounded. Her father went on to marry Spencer's 17-year-old Juvenile Hall cellmate but they later divorced. [5][7] Police officers found beer and whiskey bottles cluttered around the house but said Spencer did not appear to be intoxicated when arrested. Cam would insist on touching each pane of glass, to assure himself that none was broken, that "she" hadn't slipped inside. Murder, rapes, gang rapes, assaults, forced prostitution, etc, etc. Two saplings planted in their memory took root in the bloodstained earth and have grown into trees now, sentries that stand tall and strong over an empty playground. The justice of a murderer getting life, while their victims get death, is lost on me. It seems the woke western world cares more about the rights of criminals than the rights of victims and society. Then, she aimed it out the window and began firing at the kids. She has thus far been before a parole board four times and has been denied each time. He has parachuted out of perfectly good airplanes at 3 oclock in the morning and summited Mount McKinley, Alaska, six timesalways at the controls of an Army helicopter, which is the only way sensible folk climb mountains. I realized shed never have a realistic answer of why she did it.. Blank, empty stare. A 16-year-old girl, Brenda Spencer, who lived in a house across the street from the school, was convicted of the shootings. 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Spencer pled guilty to two counts of 1st-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Thanks for another well written, informative article. One ripple outward from the shootings sent fear through a third generation in the Wragg family. 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. Age 16, she was 5'2" (157 cm) and had bright red hair. 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. I am a retired deputy sheriff and I have seen as much crime as anyone. The Spencers were divorced, with Brenda and her older brother living with their father. 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. Brenda Spencer had a reputation for being a problem child who struggled with numerous health issues. Christy Buell was shot. Which is not a good thing to live with., CBS 8 San Diego/YouTubeIn 1993, Brenda Spencer told CBS 8 San Diego that she didnt remember saying, I dont like Mondays.. 5 Jun. The shootings took place over 20 minutes with 36 shots, 11 hits. Police later found half empty alcohol bottles throughout the house. After her parents separated, she lived with her father, Wallace Spencer, in virtual poverty; they slept on a single mattress . The next victim was the schools custodian, who also attempted to bring the children to safety. 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. Charles Cam Miller sees the scar on his chest every day and remembers how, when he was 9, a bullet from Brenda Spencers .22 rifle pierced him from back to front. She has been formally inducted into the Golden Girls Club, an organization of female inmates aged older than 55. Wallace Spencer was previously married to Dot Spencer. 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. In 2005 Brendas prison girlfriend was released and she was reported for an incident of self-harm. He and other wounded children were hustled to the auditorium to await an ambulance. He noted that Suchar had been in the Seabees, a Navy construction battalion, during World War II and emerged with no battle wounds. They had a child, and the little girl attended Buell's preschool. The morning of the shooting, McGlinn said, Spencer drank alcohol and took her epilepsy medicine, Tegretol. Buzz, 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. All I can think was, his military training kicked in. He was not hired to represent Spencer at her parole hearings. She resembled Brenda. 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. ". In 2009, the board again refused her application for parole, and ruled it would be ten years before she would be considered again. I remember feeling weird, but no pain. She fired 36 rounds. 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 song was released the same year and topped U.K. music charts in the summer of 1979. When someone posts an ill advised accusation against you or your weekly audience, please allow us to respond in a timely manner. Her next opportunity for a parole hearing will be in 2025.[21][22][23][24]. The standard .22LR rifle feeds from a flush-mounted 10-round helical-feed magazine, though aftermarket magazines and drums carry fifty rounds or more. Thanks, Will. 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. 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. Brenda Spencer's father still lives across the street from the old school, and if Brenda were ever paroled, Cam figures, that is where she would return. A University of Southern California professor who has studied school shootings agreed that, while they can no longer considered new, they tend to cast a wider, more significant effect on society through widespread news reporting and posts on social media sites. Because the process (accountability, repentance, and restitution) requires it. 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. Brenda alleged that her father Wallace both beat and sexually abused her. Especially California state prisons. However, her teachers reported that she fell asleep regularly in class. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. 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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