San Ysidro McDonald's massacre 🍟 (Warning, Graphic/NSFW/Long Read)

The San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was a mass shooting that occurred in and around a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California, on July 18, 1984. The perpetrator, 41-year-old James Huberty, killed 21 people and injured 19 others before being fatally shot by a SWAT team sniper.

The shooting ranked as the deadliest mass shooting committed in the United States until the 1991 Luby's shooting. It is currently the seventh-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.








Chain of events

On July 15, 1984, James Huberty commented to his wife, Etna, that he suspected he might have a mental problem. Two days later, on July 17, he called a mental health clinic requesting an appointment. Leaving his 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.

The following morning—Wednesday, July 18—Huberty took his wife and daughters to the San Diego Zoo. In the course of the walk, he told his wife 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 Hubertys returned home.

Shortly thereafter, Huberty walked into his bedroom as his wife lay relaxing upon the bed; he 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." He drove down San Ysidro Boulevard. According to eyewitnesses, he drove first toward the Big Bear supermarket and then toward a U.S. Post Office branch, before entering the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant located approximately 200 yards from his apartment.







Shooting

At approximately 3:56 p.m. on July 18, Huberty drove his black Mercury Marquis sedan into the parking lot of the McDonald's restaurant on San Ysidro Boulevard. In his possession were a 9mm Browning HP semi-automatic pistol, a 9mm Uzi carbine, a Winchester 1200 12 gauge pump-action shotgun, and a cloth bag filled with hundreds of rounds of ammunition for each weapon. A total of 50 customers were present inside the restaurant.

Entering the restaurant minutes later, Huberty first aimed his shotgun at a 16-year-old employee named John Arnold. The assistant manager, Guillermo Flores, shouted, "Hey, John, That guy's going to shoot you!" According to Arnold, when Huberty pulled the trigger, "nothing happened." As Huberty inspected his gun, the manager of the restaurant, 22-year-old Neva Caine, walked toward the service counter of the restaurant in the direction of Arnold, as Arnold—believing the incident to be a distasteful joke—began to walk away from the gunman. Huberty fired his shotgun toward the ceiling before aiming the Uzi at Caine, shooting her once beneath her left eye. Caine died minutes later.

Immediately after shooting Caine, Huberty fired his shotgun at Arnold, wounding the youth in the chest, before shouting a comment to the effect of, "Everybody on the ground." Huberty referred to all present in the restaurant as "dirty swines," shouting that he had killed thousands and that he intended to "kill a thousand more." Upon hearing Huberty's profane rant and seeing Caine and Arnold shot, one customer, 25-year-old Victor Rivera, tried to persuade Huberty not to shoot anyone else. In response, Huberty shot Rivera 14 times, repeatedly shouting "shut up" as Rivera screamed in pain.

As most of the customers tried to hide beneath tables and service booths, Huberty turned his attention toward six women and children huddled together. He first killed 19-year-old María Colmenero-Silva with a single gunshot to the chest, then fatally shot nine-year-old Claudia Perez in the stomach, cheek, thigh, hip, leg, chest, back, armpit, and head with his Uzi. He then wounded Perez's 15-year-old sister Imelda once in the chest with the same weapon, and fired upon 11-year-old Aurora Peña with the shotgun. Peña—initially wounded in the leg—had been shielded by her pregnant aunt, 18-year-old Jackie Reyes. Huberty shot Reyes 48 times with the Uzi. Beside his mother's body, eight-month-old Carlos Reyes sat up and wailed, whereupon Huberty shouted and killed the infant with a single pistol shot to the center of the back.

Huberty shot and killed a 62-year-old trucker named Laurence Versluis, before targeting one of the families near the play area of the restaurant, who had tried to shield their children beneath the tables with their bodies. Blythe Regan Herrera (aged 31) had shielded her 11-year-old son, Mateo, beneath one booth, and her husband Ronald protected 12-year-old Keith Thomas under a booth across from them. Huberty began shooting people seated in the restaurant as he walked toward those under the tables. Ronald Herrera urged Thomas not to move, shielding the boy with his body. Thomas was shot in the shoulder, arm, wrist, and left elbow,[14] but was not seriously wounded; Ronald Herrera was shot eight times in the stomach, chest, arm, and head but survived; his wife, Blythe, and son, Mateo, were both killed by numerous gunshots to the head.

Casualties

killed inside restaurant:

Elsa Herlinda Borboa-Firro (19)
Neva Denise Caine (22)
Michelle Deanne Carncross (18)
María Elena Colmenero-Silva (19)
Gloria López González (22)
Blythe Regan Herrera (31)
Matao Herrera (11)
Paulina Aquino López (21)
Margarita Padilla (18)
Claudia Perez (9)
Jose Rubén Lozano-Perez (19)
Carlos Reyes (8 months)
Jackie Lynn Wright Reyes (18)
Victor Maxmillian Rivera (25)
Arisdelsi Vuelvas-Vargas (31)
Hugo Luis Velazquez Vasquez (45)
Laurence Herman Versluis (62)

killed outside restaurant:

David Flores Delgado (11)
Omarr Alonso Hernandez (11)
Miguel Victoria-Ulloa (74)
Aida Velazquez Victoria (69)

Injured but not killed:

Juan Acosta (33)
John Arnold (16)
Anthony Atkins (36)
Astolfo Cejundo (26)
Joshua Coleman (11)
Guadalupe del Rio (24)
Astolfo Felix (31)
Karlita Felix (4 months)
Maricela Felix (23)
Ronald Herrera (33)
Alberto Leos (17)
Francisco Lopez (22)
Aurora Peña (11)
Imelda Perez (15)
Maria Rivera (25)
Mireya Rivera (4)
Keith Thomas (12)
Juan Tokano (33)
Kenneth Villegas (22)

Nearby, two women had attempted to hide beneath a booth. Guadalupe del Rio, 24, was against a wall; she was shielded by her friend, 31-year-old Arisdelsi Vuelvas Vargas. Del Rio was hit several times in the back, abdomen, chest, and neck, but was not seriously wounded, whereas Vargas received a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. She died of her wound the next day, the only person fatally wounded who lived long enough to reach a hospital. At another booth, Huberty killed 45-year-old banker Hugo Velazquez Vasquez with a shot to the chest.

The first of many calls to emergency services was made at 4:00 p.m., although the dispatcher mistakenly directed responding officers to another McDonald's two miles (three kilometers) from the San Ysidro Boulevard restaurant. This meant that the restaurant was not locked down until several minutes later, and the only warnings about the shooter would come from passers-by outside in the meantime. Shortly after 4:00, a young woman named Lydia Flores drove into the parking lot. Stopping at the food-pickup window, Flores noticed shattered windows and the sound of gunfire, before "looking up and there he was, just shooting." Flores reversed her car until she crashed into a fence; she hid with her two-year-old daughter until the shooting ended.

Three 11-year-old boys rode their bikes into the west parking lot to purchase cold drinks. Hearing a member of the public yell something unintelligible from across the street, all three hesitated, before Huberty shot the three boys with his shotgun and Uzi. Joshua Coleman fell to the ground critically wounded in the back, arm, and leg; he later recalled looking toward his two friends, Omarr Alonso Hernandez and David Flores Delgado, noting that Hernandez was on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds to his back and had started vomiting; Delgado had received several gunshot wounds to his head. Coleman survived; Hernandez and Delgado both died at the scene. Huberty next noticed an elderly couple, Miguel Victoria Ulloa (74) and Aida Velazquez Victoria (69), walking toward the entrance. As Miguel reached to open the door for his wife, Huberty fired his shotgun, killing Aida with a gunshot to the face and wounding Miguel. An uninjured survivor, Oscar Mondragon, later reported that he had seen Miguel cradling his wife in his arms and wiping blood from her face. Miguel shouted curses at Huberty, who approached and killed him with a shot to the head.

At approximately 4:10 p.m., a Mexican couple, Astolfo and Maricela Felix, drove toward one of the service areas of the restaurant. Noting the shattered glass, Astolfo initially thought renovation work was in progress and that Huberty—striding toward the car—was a repairman. Huberty fired his shotgun and Uzi at the couple and their four-month-old daughter, Karlita, striking Maricela in the face, arms and chest, blinding her in one eye and permanently rendering one hand unusable. Her baby was critically wounded in the neck, chest and abdomen. Astolfo was wounded in the chest and head. As Astolfo and Maricela staggered away from Huberty's line of fire, Maricela was ordered by her husband to give the baby to him (before being shot more times by the perpetrator). While running away from the shooter Maricela returned to her husband and noticed that he was also wounded and did not have her child. Shortly after that, she fainted. She later found out that he had given her to a random passerby. The woman rushed the baby to a nearby hospital as her husband assisted Astolfo and Maricela into a nearby building. All three members of the Felix family survived.







Police intervention

Approximately 10 minutes after the first 9-1-1 call was placed, the police arrived at the correct restaurant. They imposed a lockdown on an area spanning six blocks from the site of the shootings. The police established a command post two blocks from the restaurant, and deployed 175 officers in strategic locations. (These officers were joined within the hour by SWAT team members, who also took positions around the McDonald's restaurant.)

Several survivors later said they saw Huberty walk toward the service counter and adjust a portable radio, possibly to search for news reports, before selecting a music station and returning to shooting. Shortly thereafter, he searched the kitchen area, discovering six employees. He opened fire, killing 21-year-old Paulina López, 19-year-old Elsa Borboa-Fierro, and 18-year-old Margarita Padilla, and critically wounding 17-year-old Alberto Leos. Padilla had urged her colleague, 17-year-old Wendy Flanagan, to run, before being fatally shot. Flanagan, four other employees and a female customer hid inside a basement utility room. They were joined by Leos, who had crawled to the utility room after being shot multiple times.

When a fire engine drove within range, Huberty repeatedly pierced the vehicle with bullets, but did not wound any occupants. Hearing a wounded teenager, 19-year-old Jose Pérez, moaning, Huberty shot him in the head; the boy slumped dead in the booth. Pérez died alongside his friend and neighbor, 22-year-old Gloria González, and a young woman named Michelle Carncross. At one point, Aurora Peña, who had lain wounded beside her dead aunt, baby cousin and two friends, noted a lull in the firing. Opening her eyes, she saw Huberty nearby and staring at her. He swore and threw a bag of french fries at her, then retrieved his shotgun and shot her in the arm, neck, and chest. She survived, although she would be hospitalized longer than any other survivor. Occasionally, Huberty blurted justifications as he shot his victims.

Police had established a command post two blocks from the restaurant. They initially did not know how many shooters were inside, since Huberty was using firearms of several types, and rapidly firing shots. Because most of the restaurant's windows had been shattered by gunfire, reflections from shards of glass made it difficult for police to see inside. A SWAT sniper was positioned on the roof of the post office next door to the McDonald's. He was authorized to kill the shooter should he have a clear shot.

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