A photo of school shooter Brenda Ann Spencer being arrested after shooting at an elementary school in 1979
Brenda Spencer was a 16-year-old girl from San Diego, California. Her parents were divorced, and her father was an alcoholic.
Spencer lived in poverty with her father, Wallace Spencer, when her parents divorced.
In a house littered with empty bottles of alcoholic beverages, both father and daughter slept on a single mattress on the living room floor. She went to Patrick Henry High School, where one instructor remembers asking her if she was awake in class regularly.
Brenda showed exceptional photography skills and won awards for her work but took little interest in school, with one teacher claiming that she always had to check on Brenda to ensure she was not sleeping in class.
It was discovered later in custody that she suffered an injury to her frontal lobe, which she acquired during a bicycle accident. She was also suicidal around this time too.
It has also been said that Brenda had been sexually abused by her father, though there was no evidence presented by Brenda for this accusation despite it being brought to the attention of the police.
During the summer of 1978, she started hunting birds in her neighborhood. She was also arrested for shooting a BB gun out her window and for burglary.
Neighbors also reported that she abused cats and dogs in the local area. Brenda was psychologically assessed, and she was found to be depressed.
That Christmas, her dad bought her a Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle with a telescopic sight and 500 rounds of ammunition. Spencer said in an interview, "I asked for a radio, and he bought me a gun." When asked why he had done that, she answered, "I felt like he wanted me to kill myself."
On Monday morning, January 29th, 1979, while children were waiting outside Grover Cleveland Elementary, Spencer began firing at them with the Ruger out of her bedroom window across the street.
She shot and killed the principal and the school's custodian, who were both shielding and helping the children get to cover.
No children were killed. Police arrested her after a standoff that lasted a few hours.
When asked why she did it, she said:
"I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."
She is serving her sentence in the California correctional facility for women. She is a rare example of a female school shooter.
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