Lindhurst High School shooting


The Lindhurst High School shooting was a school shooting and subsequent siege that occurred on May 1, 1992, at Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst, California, United States. The gunman, 20-year-old Eric Houston, was a former student at Lindhurst High School. Houston killed three students and one teacher, and wounded nine students and a teacher before surrendering to police.

Background

Lindhurst High School, where the shooting took place, has a multiethnic student body, most from poor and working-class backgrounds.

Shooting and siege

Eric Houston arrived on campus armed with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a sawed-off.22 caliber rifle around 2:40 p.m. on May 1. As he entered the school, he fatally shot teacher Robert Brens, his civics teacher during his senior year. He then shot and killed Judy Davis, a 17-year-old student inside Brens' classroom. Houston then walked through the hallway outside the classroom and fatally shot student Jason Edward White in the chest. Further on, Houston pointed his shotgun at another student, Angela Welch, but before he could fire his weapon, another student, 16-year-old Beamon Aton Hill, pushed her to safety, taking a single fatal bullet to the side of his head. Ten others were injured from the gunfire.
Houston then entered a classroom with about 25 to 30 students inside. According to reports, Houston would send student Andrew Parks to retrieve more hostages, threatening that if he did not come back he would kill another student, and eventually held over 80 students hostage. He engaged in an eight-hour standoff with police before surrendering to authorities.

Aftermath

While in police custody, Houston stated that he was despondent over losing his job and was angered that he failed to graduate from high school or obtain a GED. He claimed to be "out of touch with reality" when he committed the murders. He also confessed to holding a grudge against his former Civics teacher Robert Brens, who failed Houston in his class. On September 21, 1993 Houston was found guilty on all charges against him, and was sentenced to death. In 2012, the California Supreme Court upheld his death penalty. He is currently awaiting execution at San Quentin State Prison. Eric Houston also stated that he had not warned the school that he was coming on campus as some alleged. His statements were introduced as evidence in both the civil and criminal trials. As of December 2019, Houston is still on death row.
A memorial park was erected on McGowan Parkway in Olivehurst, California in remembrance of the four people who died that day.

Film

is a 1997 film based on the Lindhurst High School shooting. The television series Hostage Do or Die also produced an episode recreating the events of the shooting and standoff. The episode aired on December 29, 2011.