After several other shootings across the country, the July 4th mass shooting at Highland Park, Illinois’ parade left at least seven dead and many others injured.
The FBI keeps a record of active shooter incidents. The definition of mass shooting is not set so data may appear different depending on where it comes from. We included shootings that were mostly in public, and where the victims were not often related to the perpetrator.
Some shooters started their rampages at home, then moved to public places. Some shooters moved from one place to another, killing everyone along the way. Others killed all their victims at one location.
These are the most violent mass shootings in American History.
Robert Stewart, a North Carolina resident, entered a Carthage nursing home and shot 11 people. Three were injured and eight died.
Stewart was shot at the scene by a police officer and sentenced to more than 100 years imprisonment.
This case is still unsolved after more than three decades.
In 1982, Mark Coulthurst and his wife Irene, along with their two children, were shot to death by their teenage deckhands.
Mark Essex, 23 years old, shot 8 people to death and injured at least 10 others at Howard Johnson’s Hotel in downtown New Orleans in 1973.
Patrons, employees, and several police officers were among the dead.
Jennifer San Marco, an ex-U.S. employee, entered the Goleta mail sorting facility in January 2006. Jennifer San Marco, a former U.S. employee, joined the Goleta mail sorting station in January 2006.
San Marco killed seven of her employees before she took her own life.
Carl Brown, a middle school teacher, brought a 12-gauge shotgun into Bob Moore’s welding shop in Miami on August 20, 1982.
Brown killed eight and injured three people. Witnesses later found him in a car and he fled the scene.
When Larry Gene Ashbrook arrived with two handguns, 1999 was the year that teens gathered at Wedgwood Baptist Church, Forth Worth, Texas, for a prayer rally.
Seven people were also injured along with the eight deceased. Ashbrook was then gunned down and killed.
Omar Sheriff Thornton, who had just been fired from Hartford Distributors for theft, killed eight employees at Hartford Distributors’ beer plant in August 2010.
Thornton took two guns from his lunchbox. Thornton pulled two pistols from his lunchbox before he turned on himself.
Robert A. Hawkins was 19 when he stole a semiautomatic rifle from a family member. He killed eight people, wounded two others, and then committed suicide.
Gian Luigi Ferri entered a San Francisco office in 1993 with modified pistols that could fire at the speed of fully-automatic weapons. Ferri, along with six other victims, also shot himself.
Joseph Thomas Wesbecker was a former employee who entered Standard Gravure’s Louisville office on a September morning 1989. Eight people were killed and twelve others were injured in the 30-minute-long killing spree. The killing spree ended when Wesbecker was shot.
Nine people, including the 22-year old sister of the shooter, were killed and shot less than 14 hours following another mass shooting at an El Paso mall.
The shooting began approximately 60 seconds after police shot and killed the suspect.
Michael Silka, a drifter, is suspected to have shot and killed a neighbor. He then murdered several others in Manley Hot Springs in central Alaska in 1984. Silka, along with a state trooper, were killed in a shootout between Silka’s police and Silka.
Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist, shot and killed nine people at Charleston’s historically Black church and also injured another person.
Roof was convicted on 33 federal hate crime charges and murder charges. He was sentenced to the death penalty.
Chris Harper-Mercer, a student at Oregon State College, opened fire on a class of students. Nine were killed and eight were injured. Harper-Mercer was then shot to death by police after exchanging fire.
Here are the Portland Trail Blazers players observing a moment to remember Umpqua Community College’s shooting victims in 2015.
Jeffrey Weise (16) began his murder spree at home. He then continued to Red Lake Senior High in Minnesota.
Weise shot students, teachers, and finally himself. Weise also injured five others in addition to the nine victims he had killed.
Mark O. Barton killed nine people in Atlanta’s office buildings in 1999 before committing suicide.
Police discovered hours later that he had killed three family members, possibly just days before.
In a shooting at Santa Fe High School, south of Houston, 10 people were shot and killed and 10 others were injured in May 2018.
Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, was identified as the shooting suspect. He was incompetent for trial in 2022 and was placed in a mental institution for 12 months.
On May 14, 2022, a gunman opened fire on a Buffalo supermarket, New York. Ten people were killed, and three others were injured. The shooter was taken into custody and charged with murder in a hate crime against Black people.
The suspect was facing 10 first-degree murder and hate-crimes charges as of July 2022.
On Easter Sunday, June 16, 1975, eleven people were murdered.
This photo was taken by reporters as they viewed the aftermath. Food still sits on a kitchen table, over the bloodstain that marks the spot where one of the victims had died.
James Ruppert was later found guilty of two charges in connection with the deaths his mother, brother and sister-in law, as well as eight nieces, nephews, and nephews.
On October 28, 2018, eleven people were killed and nine more were injured at the Tree of Life synagogue, Pittsburgh’s Squirrel hill neighborhood. According to reports, the suspect had posted antisemitic comments online prior to the shooting.
11 employees of the city and one contractor were killed in a shooting at Virginia Beach Municipal Center Operations on May 31, 2019.
DeWayne Craddock was the shooter. He had been employed by the city for fifteen years before deciding to quit for “personal reasons.” In the ensuing gun battle, he was killed by police.
James Holmes (seen above) opened fire at midnight screenings of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora on July 20, 2012. Twelve people were killed, and 70 others were hurt.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
Aaron Alexis, 34, a former contractor, opened fire on the Washington Navy Yard with a Remington-870 shotgun. He killed 12 people and wounded eight others before being shot by police.
28-year-old Marine veteran Ian David Long entered the Borderline Bar & Grill, Thousand Oaks, California, and lit a fire. Eleven people were killed and one officer responding to the shooting was also injured in the attack. Sgt. Ron Helus was shot five more times by the gunman, before being struck by friendly fire. Long is believed to be dead. According to reports, at least 18 others were also injured.
In a series of attacks on multiple locations in Jacksonville over two days, James Edward Pough murdered 13 people and injured six more. This was in 1990. He then committed suicide.
Howard Unruh, a 28-year-old veteran of World War II, shot 13 people to death in his neighbourhood in 1949 in one of the most shocking mass shootings in American history. Unruh was captured by the police and spent the rest his life in a mental institution, where he died in 2009.
Three of the 13 victims killed in a shooting rampage that took place in Wilkes-Barre in 1982 by George Banks were Montanzima Banks (6, Kissmayu Banks (5, and Nancy Lyons (11). These are undated family photos of them.
Banks, now 62, was later found guilty of the murders. He is currently in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.
Benjamin Ng (seen above) was one the three gunmen that opened fire on the Mah Mee gambling bar in Seattle’s Chinatown, February 1983. Twelve men and one woman were killed by the gunmen. The gunmen escaped, but the three suspects were captured and tried later.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hazan, an army psychiatrist, killed 13 soldiers and civilians at an army base in Texas on November 5, 2009. He also injured 32 more. Hasan was sentenced to death.
Jiverly Wong (41), entered the American Civic Association community centre, where immigrant were taking a citizenship test, and opened fire. Before taking his own life, Wong had killed 13 people.
Two seniors from Colorado’s Columbine High school murdered twelve of their fellow students and one teacher on April 20, 1999. They also injured 26 others before they committed suicide.
Pat Sherill, a mail carrier, entered a Edmond post office on August 20th 1986 and killed 14 people. He also wounded six more before committing suicide.
Syed Farook, his wife Tashfeen Malik, opened the fire at Inland Regional Center San Bernardino on December 2, 2015.
In a terrorist attack inspired ISIS, they killed 14 and injured more than a dozen other people. They were killed in a shootout between police and the couple.
A gunman opened fire on a Parkland high school, Florida on February 14, 2018. Seventeen people were killed, and 17 others were injured. Nikolas Cruz (19 years old), a former student, was identified as the suspect by police.
Cruz pleaded guilty 17 murder charges. His penalty phase was scheduled for mid-July 2022.
Charles J. Whitman, a Marine-trained sniper, shot at people passing by the University of Texas clock tower in 1966. Whitman shot and killed 16 people, with a 17th victim dying in 2001 from injuries. He also injured more than 30 others. Whitman was eventually shot and killed by a cop.
James Oliver Huberty, armed with a Uzi semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun, killed 21 people in a McDonald’s and left 19 others injured before he was fatally shot by police.
An 18-year old shot and killed 19 fourth graders and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022. He also injured 17 others.
This photo shows people reacting outside the Willie de Leon Civic Center where families gathered following the shooting.
On August 3, 2019, just after 10:30 AM, a gunman entered El Paso’s Walmart and began firing at shoppers with an assault rifle.
The alleged shooter shared a four-page racist document with 8chan minutes before his rampage. A 21-year-old man of color was arrested by police on the spot. The accused shooter was charged with capital murder.
After crashing his Ford Ranger into the front glass at Luby’s Cafeteria, Killeen Texas on October 16, 1991, George Hennard lit the fire in Luby’s Cafeteria.
Twenty-three people were killed and twenty more were injured. Hennard then committed suicide in a public restroom.
Devin Patrick Kelley opened fired on Sunday services at First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas on Nov. 5, 2017, killing 26 and injuring 20 more. After a brief chase by police officers, Kelley committed suicide.
Adam Lanza (20 years old) shot 27 people to death on the morning of December 14, 2012. Twenty first-graders and six women from Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut were among the dead, along with Lanza’s mother. He then took his own death.
Seung-Hui Cho, a Virginia Tech senior, killed 32 people on campus and injures 23 others before he committed suicide.
Omar Mateen entered Pulse in the morning of June 12, 2016, where he began shooting.
He also wounded 53 people. SWAT officers killed Mateen.
Stephen Paddock (64), opened fire on the Mandalay Bay Resort 32nd Floor, killing 58 and injuring over 500 people at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. When a SWAT team entered Paddock’s hotel room, he had already taken his own life.
This is the most deadly mass shooting in American history.
