July 18: On This Day in World History … briefly

1984:  McDonald’s Massacre: James Oliver Huberty kills 21 and injures 19

The San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre occurred on July 18, 1984, when 41-year-old James Huberty fatally shot 21 people and wounded 19 others in a mass shooting at a McDonald’s restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California, before being killed by a police sniper. The shooting ranked as the deadliest mass shooting committed in the United States until the 1991 Luby’s shooting in Killeen, Texas, and is now the seventh-deadliest mass shooting in US history. On July 15, he commented to his wife, Etna, that he suspected he might have a mental problem. On the morning of July 17, he called a mental health clinic requesting an appointment. Leaving contact details with the receptionist, he was assured the clinic would return his call within hours. According to his wife, he sat quietly beside the telephone for several hours, awaiting the return call, before abruptly walking out of the family home and riding to an unknown destination on his motorcycle.

Unbeknownst to Huberty, the receptionist had misspelled his name as ‘Shouberty’. His polite demeanor conveyed no sense of urgency to the operator; therefore, she logged the call as a ‘non-crisis’ inquiry, to be handled within 48 hours. Approximately one hour later, Huberty returned home in a contented mood. After eating dinner, Huberty, his wife, and their two daughters (aged 12 and 10) cycled to a nearby park. Later that evening, he and Etna watched a film together on their television.

The following morning (18th), Huberty took his wife and daughters to the San Diego Zoo. In the course of the walk, he told his wife that he believed his life was effectively over. Referring to the mental health clinic’s failure to return his phone call the previous day, he said, “Well, society had their chance.” After eating lunch at a McDonald’s restaurant in the Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego, the family returned home. Shortly thereafter, Huberty walked into his bedroom as his wife lay on the bed tired from the heat of the day. He changed his clothing by putting on a red T-shirt and green camouflage slacks. He then leaned toward her and said “I want to kiss you goodbye.” Etna asked him where he was going, to which he replied he was ‘going hunting… hunting for humans.’ Carrying a bundle wrapped in a checkered blanket, Huberty looked toward his elder daughter Zelia as he walked toward the front door of the family home and said “Goodbye. I won’t be back” and drove down San Ysidro Boulevard.

The incident had lasted for 77 minutes, during which time Huberty fired a minimum of 245 rounds of ammunition, killing 20 people and wounding as many others, one of whom died the following day. Seventeen of the victims were killed inside the restaurant and four in the immediate vicinity. Several victims had tried to stanch their bleeding with napkins—often in vain. Of the fatalities, 13 died from gunshot wounds to the head, seven from gunshots to the chest, and one victim, 8-month-old Carlos Reyes, from a single 9mm gunshot to the back. The victims, whose ages ranged from eight months to 74 years, were predominantly, though not exclusively, of Mexican or Mexican-American ancestry, reflecting local demographics.

Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.

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