Spree killer
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A spree killer, also known as a rampage killer, is someone who embarks on a murderous assault on his victims in a short time in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders."[1] Serial killers are different in that they have cooling off periods between attacks, while mass murderers typically stick to one location.[citation needed]
Notably large spree killings
Notably large spree killings in history include:
- Tsuyama massacre (Japan, 1938): Mutsuo Toi, using an old Japanese rifle and swords, killed 30[2] and then himself in an hour and a half.
- University of Texas massacre (United States, 1966): Charles Whitman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin killed 14 people and wounded 31 others as part of a shooting rampage from the observation deck of the University's 32-story administrative building. He did this shortly after murdering his wife and mother. He was eventually shot and killed by Austin police.
- Uireyeong massacre (South Korea, 1982): Woo Bum-kon killed 57 and then himself in eight hours, using grenades and an M1 Carbine.
- Hungerford massacre (United Kingdom, 1987): Michael Robert Ryan, using two semi-automatic assault rifles and a handgun, killed 16 people and wounded 15 others in a space of 7 hours before shooting himself.
- Aramoana Massacre (New Zealand, 1990): David Gray, using a (Norinco .223 AK) semi-automatic assault rifle killed 13 people on 13 November. He was shot and killed by police the following day after a 22 hour stand off.
- Luby's massacre (United States, 1991): George Jo Hennard drove his pickup truck into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot and killed 23 people, wounded another 20 and then committed suicide by shooting himself.
- Dunblane Massacre (United Kingdom, March 1996): Thomas Hamilton, killed 17 when he stormed a primary school using two 9 mm Browning HP pistols and two Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolvers. 16 children and their teacher died before he took his own life. After this massacre, the United Kingdom adopted some of the world's toughest gun laws.
- Port Arthur massacre (Australia, 1996): Martin Bryant, using two semi-automatic weapons, an AR-15 and an L1A1 SLR, killed 35 in five hours.
- Virginia Tech massacre (United States, 2007): Seung-Hui Cho, using two pistols, killed 32 and then himself in the course of about three hours.
- Jokela school massacre (Finland, 2007): Pekka-Eric Auvinen killed 8 (later committing suicide) with SIG Mosquito. The school principal and a nurse were killed on the attack. The incident took two hours and 10 minutes.
- Akihabara massacre (Japan, 2008): Tomohiro Kato surprised and ran over three people with a rental truck, then stabbed seventeen, before being subdued by police. Seven people were killed in the attack.
- Kauhajoki school shooting (Finland, 2008): Matti Juhani Saari killed 10 people (later committing suicide) with Walther P22 and molotov cocktails. Most of the victims were severely burned. It took an hour and 45 minutes from the first call to the emergency number to the finding of Saari with a gun wound on his head.
See also
References
- ^ Nick Charalambous and Meryl Dillman, "No evidence of spree killer yet, police say", Anderson Independent-Mail News (Anderson, South Carolina), December 17, 2006. Accessed 8 July 2008.
- ^ 津山三十人殺し―日本犯罪史上空前の惨劇 (Akira Tsukuba, 2001) ISBN 4102901280.
Further reading
- Pan Pantziarka 2000, Lone Wolf: True Stories of Spree Killers , Virgin Publishing. ISBN 0-7535-0437-5.
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