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| On what seemed like a typical Tuesday morning, the playground at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California was crowded with over 400 laughing children. Then, at 11:42am, a lone guman walked into the schoolyard and opened fire on the helpless students with an AK-47. Two minutes later, 5 children lay dead and 29 other students and a teacher were wounded. The killer then took his own life with a shot from a 9mm handgun. Patrick Edward Purdy was a 26 year old drifter, a part-time welder, and rumored to be a homosexual prostitute. He had had brushes with the law before, and had been an alcoholic since childhood, although he was sober at the time of the shootings. Purdy also had a history of mental instability, struggling with depression and paranoia. He was said to harbor deep resentment for Asian immigrants, who he believed were taking jobs from native-born Americans. On the morning of January 17th, Purdy drove to the school where he had once been a student, a school whose rolls consisted of large numbers of children of Asian refugees. He set his car on fire, and walked into the schoolyard wearing a military-style flak jacket, a shirt bearing the word "Satan", and earplugs. Without a word, he methodically began shooting at the children playing in the crowded playground with the Chinese-made assault rifle he had purchased months earlier in a suburb of Portland, OR. After he had fired over 60 rounds into the crowd of terrified children, he pulled out a 9mm pistol and killed himsef with a single shot to the head. Though his emnity towards Asians is often cited, Purdy took his reasons for his murderous rampage with him to his grave. His shooting spree sent shockwaves through the nation, raising concerns from frightened parents about the safety of their kids at schools, sparking the gun control debate on assult-style weapons anew, and even inspiring a few equally disturbed individuals to attempt "copy-cat" assault rifle attacks of their own. |
| The 80's History Project Crimes Stockton, CA Schoolyard Shootings January 17, 1989 |
| Patrick Purdy |
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