The deadliest school shootings in the United States since Columbine
The Uvalde, Texas, slaughter of 19 elementary school students and two teachers on Tuesday is the latest in a long list of mass shootings at U.S. schools. Here are the deadliest incidents since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.
Virginia Tech, April 16, 2007 — 32 dead
Seung-Hui Cho, 23, killed 32 people and wounded 17 others with two semiautomatic pistols at Virginia Tech University, where he chained the doors shut of a classroom building and opened fire. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as police closed in.
Sandy Hook Elementary School, Dec. 14, 2012 — 26 dead
Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed his mother at home in Newtown, Conn., then drove to the school, where he killed 20 students, all 6 and 7 years old, and six adults before killing himself.
Robb Elementary School, May 24, 2022 — 21 dead
Salvador Ramos, 18, barricaded fourth-grade students inside their Uvalde, Texas, classroom and gunned down 19 children and two teachers before he was killed by police.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Feb. 14, 2018 — 17 dead
Nikolas Cruz, 19, shot up his former Parkland, Fla., high school, killing 17 and injuring 17. He escaped in the chaos and was arrested several miles away. He pleaded guilty on all counts in October 2021.
Columbine High School, April 20, 1999 — 13 dead
Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, planted homemade bombs at their Colorado high school, then opened fire, killing 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves. Twenty-one others were wounded.
Santa Fe High School, May 18, 2018 — 10 dead
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, allegedly killed eight students and two teachers and wounded 13 others before surrendering to police. He was found mentally unfit to stand trial in 2019 and remains in a mental hospital.
Umpqua Community College, Oct. 1, 2015 — 9 dead
Chris Harper-Mercer, 26, who complained about having “no friends, no job, no girlfriend,” fatally shot an assistant professor and eight students in an Oregon classroom. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Red Lake High School, March 21, 2005 — 7 dead
Jeff Weise, 16, killed his grandfather and his grandfather’s girlfriend at home in Minnesota, then drove to Red Lake High School where he fatally shot an unarmed security guard, a teacher and five students before killing himself.
Oikos University, April 2, 2012 — 7 dead
Former nursing student One Goh, 48, killed seven people at the Northern California vocational college that kicked him out a few months before, then surrendered to police. He died behind bars in 2019.
Northern Illinois University, Feb. 14, 2008 — 5 dead
Steven Kazmierczak, a 27-year-old former sociology student, walked into an oceanography lecture wearing a “Terrorist” shirt and opened fire before killing himself as police rushed in.
West Nickel Mines School, Oct. 2, 2006 — 5 dead
Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania and barricaded the door with only the girls inside after allowing the boys, a pregnant teacher and three parents with infants to leave. He then shot 10 girls, killing five, before turning the gun on himself.
Oxford High School, Nov. 30, 2021 — 4 dead
Ethan Crumbley, 15, allegedly used a semiautomatic handgun to kill four people and wound another eight inside his Michigan high school. He pleaded not guilty to murder and terrorism in January. His parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter after being accused of giving Ethan easy access to a gun and ignoring warning signs about his threatening behavior.
