Attack type School shooting Non-fatal injuries 9 | Deaths 2 | |
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Date September 26, 1988 (1988-09-26)
11:30 a.m. Weapons 9-shot .22-caliber revolver Victims Shequila Bradley and Tequila Thomas Location Greenwood, South Carolina, United States | ||
Survivors of oakland elementary school shooting in 1988 speak
The Oakland Elementary School shooting was a mass shooting in Greenwood, South Carolina, in which 19-year-old James William Wilson, Jr., shot and killed two 8-year-old students, and wounded seven other students, a teacher and gym coach at a public elementary school. He shot people in the cafeteria and in a classroom. Wilson had a history of mental illness.
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The shooting
At 11:30 a.m. on September 26 1988, a gunman entered Oakland Elementary School and started firing shots in the cafeteria, where at least 100 students were seated for lunch. He wounded two students and a first-grade teacher. He went into a boys' restroom, reloaded his gun, and left. He was confronted by physical education teacher Kat Finkbeiner, who accosted him and tried to stop him; he shot her twice, wounding her. He then entered a third-grade classroom and shot at the teacher, missing and hitting the blackboard. Wilson turned toward the students and opened fire, killing Shequila Bradley and Tequila Thomas, both eight years old, and wounding five students. Finkbeiner entered the room and tried to force him to surrender but he kept firing. When the police arrived, they eventually subdued and arrested him. They identified him as James William Wilson, Jr.
Victims
Shequila Bradley died at the scene, while Tequila Thomas died at Self Memorial Hospital three days after the shooting.
Perpetrator
Wilson was 19 years old, unemployed, and living a rather isolated life with his paternal grandmother. He had frequently been a patient at psychiatric hospitals. He was treated with Benzodiazepine drug Xanax to address anxiety and depression. He got relief from his symptoms with this medication. His family's insurance eventually ran out and he was no longer able to be treated as an in-patient. After losing the medication of Xanax, Wilson suffered depression. He was bullied by contemporaries because of being overweight and due to his style of clothes.
On the morning of the shooting, Wilson took a revolver from the mantel at his maternal grandmother's home, he was living with his paternal grandmother. She had bought it for self-defense. He drove to Sky City, a local department store, where he bought two boxes of ammunition, then drove to Greenwood and to Oakland Elementary School. He walked in the front door and went to the cafeteria, where children were gathered for lunch.
Prosecution and sentencing
Wilson was convicted of the murders and sentenced to the death penalty by electric chair. He has been imprisoned on death row for 27 years, and his attorneys have sought an appeal to his sentence.