On January 29, 1979, Brenda Ann Spencer put herself by a window in her home and began randomly shooting at Grover Cleveland Elementary School across the street. She opened fire as children were waiting outside for principal Burton Wragg to open the gate. The shooting claimed the lives of Wragg and Mike Suchar, and injured eight students and a police officer. Wragg was killed while trying to help the children, and Suchar was killed while trying to pull Wragg to safety. After firing thirty rounds, Spencer barricaded herself inside her home for almost seven hours, warning police that she was going to “come out shooting.”Ultimately, she surrendered to police. Although police officers found beer and whiskey bottles cluttered around the house, they stated that Spencer did not appear to be intoxicated. When asked why she committed the gun attack Spencer replied, “I just did it for the fun of it. I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day. I have to go now. I shot a pig [policeman] I think and I want to shoot more. I’m having too much fun [to surrender].“She also said, “I had no reason for it, and it was just a lot of fun,” “It was just like shooting ducks in a pond,” and, “[The children] looked like a herd of cows standing around; it was really easy pickings.” At the time of the shootings, Spencer was 16 years old.
