San Ysidro McDonald's massacre facts for kids

The San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was a terrible shooting event that happened at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro area of San Diego, California, on July 18, 1984. The person who did it, 41-year-old James Huberty, sadly killed 21 people and hurt 19 others. He was then stopped by a police sniper about 77 minutes after he started shooting.

At the time, this event was the deadliest mass shooting by one person in U.S. history. It was later surpassed seven years later by the Luby's shooting. It is still the deadliest mass shooting in California's history.

The Events of That Day

Before the Shooting Started

On July 15, 1984, James Huberty told his wife, Etna, that he thought he might have a problem with his mental health. Two days later, on the morning of July 17, he called a mental health clinic in San Diego to ask for an appointment. He left his phone number and was told the clinic would call him back soon.

His wife said he waited quietly by the phone for hours. Then, he suddenly left their home on his motorcycle. Huberty didn't know that the receptionist had misspelled his name. Also, because he sounded calm and said he had never been in a hospital for mental health issues, his call was marked as "not urgent." This meant it would be handled within 48 hours.

About an hour later, Huberty came home feeling happy. After dinner, he, his wife, and their two daughters (aged 12 and 10) rode their bikes to a nearby park. Later that evening, he and Etna watched a movie together.

July 18, 1984

The next morning, Wednesday, July 18, Huberty, his wife, and children visited the San Diego Zoo. While walking through the zoo, Huberty told his wife he felt his life was over. He mentioned the clinic not calling him back and said, "Well, society had their chance." After eating lunch at a McDonald's in the Clairemont area of San Diego, the family went home.

Soon after, Huberty walked into his bedroom wearing a maroon T-shirt and green camouflage pants. His wife was resting on their bed. He leaned towards her and said, "I want to kiss you goodbye." Etna kissed him and asked where he was going, saying she was about to make dinner. Huberty calmly replied he was "going hunting... hunting for humans."

Holding a gun over his shoulder and carrying a box of ammunition and a wrapped bundle, Huberty looked at his older daughter, Zelia, as he walked to the front door. He said, "Goodbye. I won't be back."

Huberty then drove down San Ysidro Boulevard. People who saw him said he first drove towards a supermarket and then a post office. Finally, he entered the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant, which was about 200 yards (180 meters) from his apartment.

The Tragic Shooting

Around 3:56 p.m. on July 18, James Huberty drove his car into the McDonald's parking lot. He had a 9mm Browning HP semi-automatic pistol, a 9mm Uzi carbine, a Winchester 1200 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, and lots of ammunition. There were 45 customers inside the restaurant.

Minutes later, Huberty entered the restaurant. He first aimed his shotgun at a 16-year-old employee, John Arnold. The assistant manager, Guillermo Flores, shouted a warning. When Huberty pulled the trigger, nothing happened. As Huberty checked his gun, the manager, 22-year-old Neva Caine, walked towards the counter. Arnold, thinking it was a joke, started to walk away. Huberty then fired his shotgun at the ceiling. He then aimed the Uzi at Caine, shooting her once. Caine died shortly after.

After shooting Caine, Huberty shot Arnold, hurting him in the chest and arm. He then shouted for everyone to get on the ground. One customer, 25-year-old Victor Rivera, tried to talk Huberty out of shooting anyone else. Huberty responded by shooting Rivera many times, shouting "shut up" as Rivera cried out in pain.

As staff and customers tried to hide under tables, Huberty turned his attention to six women and children huddled together. He killed 19-year-old María Colmenero-Silva with a single shot. Then he shot nine-year-old Claudia Pérez many times with his Uzi. He also hurt Pérez's 15-year-old sister Imelda in the hand. He shot 11-year-old Aurora Peña with his shotgun. Peña was shielded by her pregnant aunt, 18-year-old Jackie Reyes. Huberty shot Reyes many times with the Uzi. Next to his mother's body, eight-month-old Carlos Reyes cried. Huberty then killed the baby with a single pistol shot.

Huberty then killed 62-year-old trucker Laurence Versluis. He then targeted a family near the play area who were trying to protect their son and his friend. Thirty-one-year-old Blythe Regan Herrera shielded her 11-year-old son, Matao. Her husband, Ronald, protected Matao's friend, 12-year-old Keith Thomas. Ronald Herrera told Thomas not to move, shielding the boy with his body. Thomas was hurt but not seriously. Ronald Herrera was shot six times but survived. His wife, Blythe, and son, Matao, were both killed.

Nearby, three women tried to hide under a booth. Guadalupe del Río was hurt but not seriously. Her friend Gloria Ramírez was unharmed, but Arisdelsi Vuelvas Vargas was badly hurt and sadly passed away the next day. At another booth, Huberty killed 45-year-old banker Hugo Velázquez Vasquez with a single shot.

The first calls to emergency services were made shortly after 4:00 p.m. Police were told about a child who had been shot and taken to a post office. However, the dispatcher mistakenly sent officers to a different McDonald's two miles away. This mistake delayed the police response. The only warnings to people heading towards the restaurant came from passers-by. Shortly after 4:00 p.m., a young woman named Lydia Flores drove into the parking lot. She saw shattered windows and heard gunshots. She quickly reversed her car and hid in some bushes with her two-year-old daughter until the shooting stopped.

Around 4:05 p.m., a Mexican couple, Astolfo and Maricela Félix, drove towards the restaurant. They noticed the shattered glass. Huberty then shot at the couple and their four-month-old daughter, Karlita. Maricela was badly hurt, losing sight in one eye and permanent damage to one hand. Their baby was critically wounded. Astolfo was also hurt. As they struggled away, Maricela gave their baby to Astolfo, who then handed the crying child to a young woman named Lucía Velasco. Velasco rushed the baby to a hospital. All three members of the Félix family survived.

Three 11-year-old boys then rode their bikes into the parking lot to buy sundaes. Huberty shot all three boys. Joshua Coleman was critically wounded. His friends, Omarr Alonso Hernandez and David Flores Delgado, were both killed. Huberty then saw an elderly couple, 74-year-old Miguel Victoria Ulloa and 69-year-old Aída Velázquez Victoria, walking towards the entrance. As Miguel opened the door for his wife, Huberty shot Aída, killing her. He also wounded Miguel. A survivor later saw Miguel holding his wife and shouting at Huberty, who then approached and killed Miguel with a shot to the head.

Police Arrive

About ten minutes after the first call, police arrived at the correct McDonald's. The first officer, Miguel Rosario, quickly understood what was happening and told the San Diego Police Department. Huberty fired at Rosario's patrol car. Officers quickly set up a secure area around the restaurant. The police set up a command post two blocks away and sent 175 officers to different spots. Several SWAT team members joined them within the hour.

Because Huberty was shooting so much and changing guns, police weren't sure how many people were inside. Also, the shattered windows made it hard for police to see clearly inside due to reflections. At first, police thought there might be hostages. However, someone who escaped told police there was only one shooter, and he was not holding hostages, but shooting anyone he saw. At 5:05 p.m., all police were allowed to shoot Huberty if they had a clear shot.

Several survivors later said they saw Huberty go to the counter and adjust a portable radio, perhaps looking for news about the shooting. He then chose a music station and continued shooting people as he danced to the music. Shortly after, Huberty searched the kitchen area and found six employees. He shouted at them. One female employee screamed in Spanish, "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!" Huberty then opened fire, killing 21-year-old Paulina López, 19-year-old Elsa Borboa-Fierro, and 18-year-old Margarita Padilla. He also badly wounded 17-year-old Albert Leos. Just before Huberty started shooting, Padilla grabbed her friend Wendy Flanagan's hand, and they ran. Padilla was killed, but Flanagan, four other employees, and a female customer with her baby hid in a basement utility room. Leos, who had crawled there after being shot, later joined them.

When a fire truck drove nearby, Huberty shot at it, hitting the vehicle many times and slightly hurting one person inside. Hearing a wounded teenager, 19-year-old Jose Pérez, moaning, Huberty shot him in the head. Pérez died next to his friend Gloria González and a young woman named Michelle Carncross. At one point, Aurora Peña, who was lying wounded, noticed a quiet moment. She opened her eyes and saw Huberty nearby, looking at her. He threw a bag of french fries at her, then got his shotgun and shot her in the arm, neck, and jaw. Aurora Peña survived, but she stayed in the hospital longer than any other survivor.

The End of the Incident

At 5:17 p.m., Huberty walked from the counter towards the drive-in window. This gave a 27-year-old police SWAT sniper named Charles Foster a clear view of him. Foster was on the roof of a post office across the street. Foster fired one shot from about 35 yards away. The bullet hit Huberty in the chest, killing him almost instantly.

Wendy Flanagan (right) and fellow McDonald's employee Alicia Garcia, pictured in the parking lot of the restaurant shortly after Huberty's death

After shooting Huberty, Foster told other officers that he had stopped the shooter. However, because so many shots had been fired, police were not completely sure that Huberty was the only person involved. About one minute later, a police sergeant entered the restaurant. He saw Huberty and also noticed a wounded girl moving. When asked if the dead man was the shooter, the girl nodded.

The whole event lasted 77 minutes. During this time, Huberty fired at least 257 rounds of ammunition. He killed 20 people and wounded 20 others. One of the injured victims passed away the next day. Seventeen people were killed inside the restaurant, and four were killed just outside. Only 10 people inside the restaurant were not hurt, and six of them had hidden in the basement utility room.

Many victims tried to stop their own bleeding or help others with napkins, often without success. Of those who died, 13 were killed by shots to the head, seven by shots to the chest, and one victim, eight-month-old Carlos Reyes, by a single shot to the back. The victims ranged in age from four months to 74 years old. Most of them were of Mexican or Mexican-American background, which reflected the local community.

Before shooting some of his victims, Huberty shouted angry words. He also shouted that he didn't deserve to live. Although Huberty often claimed he was a veteran of the Vietnam War, he had never actually served in the military.

After the shooting, the San Diego Police Department first reported that everyone hurt or killed inside the restaurant was shot in the first few minutes. However, survivors strongly disagreed, saying Huberty continued shooting people for over 40 minutes after he started.

About James Huberty

James Huberty
Huberty, c. 1979
Born	James Oliver Huberty (1942-10-11)October 11, 1942 Canton, Ohio, U.S.
Died	July 18, 1984(1984-07-18) (aged 41) San Ysidro, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Gunshot wound to chest fired by SWAT sniper
Occupation	Former welder and security guard
Height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Spouse(s)	Etna Markland ​ (m. 1965)​
Children	2

Early Life

James Oliver Huberty (born October 11, 1942 – died July 18, 1984) was born in Canton, Ohio. He was the second of two children. His parents were Earl Vincent, a quality inspector, and Icle Evalone Huberty, a homemaker. Both parents were very religious and went to United Methodist Churches regularly.

When Huberty was three years old, he got polio. To help him recover, he had to wear special leg braces. He got better, but he had a slight limp for the rest of his life.

In 1950, Huberty's father bought a 155-acre farm. His mother refused to live in the countryside and left the family to become a religious missionary in Tucson, Arizona. Huberty was very sad about his mother leaving. His father later remembered finding his son crying near the family's chicken coop.

Huberty was a quiet child with few friends. His main hobby was target practice. Someone who knew the family later said he was a "queer little boy who practised incessantly with a target pistol." By his teenage years, Huberty was good at fixing and making guns. Because of his limp, his family's strong religious beliefs, and his shyness, bullies often picked on him at school. He was an average student and graduated in 1960.

In 1962, Huberty went to Malone College. He first studied sociology before deciding to study at the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science. He graduated with honors in 1964 and got a license to be a funeral director. The next year, he got a license to prepare bodies for burial.

Marriage and Jobs

In early 1965, Huberty married Etna Markland, whom he had met in college. Soon after getting married, Huberty got a job at a funeral home. He was good at preparing bodies, but his quiet personality made it hard for him to deal with the public. This caused some small problems with his bosses. Still, Huberty worked there for two years. Then, he decided to become a welder for a company in Louisville. He worked there for two years before getting a better-paying job at Babcock & Wilcox in June 1969.

Even though he was quiet, Huberty's employers thought he was a reliable worker. He often worked overtime and got promotions. By the mid-1970s, he earned a good income. Shortly after he was hired, he and his wife moved into a large home in a nice part of Massillon, Ohio. In 1971, this home was destroyed in a fire. They then bought another house on the same street. Later, they built an apartment building on their old property and managed it. Their daughters, Zelia and Cassandra, were born in 1972 and 1974.

Job Loss and Moving

In November 1982, Huberty lost his welding job. This made him very upset about his money problems and his inability to support his family. According to Etna, after her husband lost his job, he started hearing voices.

Unable to find a steady job in Ohio, James and Etna Huberty sold their apartment building in the spring of 1983. Huberty then found another welding job, but it only lasted five weeks before the factory closed. Weeks after losing that job, Huberty and one of his daughters were in a car accident. After this accident, Huberty noticed his neck pains, which he had since childhood, got worse. He also sometimes had increasing shaking in his hands and arms.

In the summer of 1983, the Hubertys applied to live in Mexico. They thought the money from selling their apartment building would last longer there. They also sold their home for a small amount of cash in September. Huberty told friends he planned to move his family to Tijuana to find work, saying, "We're going to show them who's boss."

When Huberty and his family moved from Ohio to Tijuana in October 1983, he left most of their belongings in storage. But he made sure to bring his large collection of guns, ammunition, and survival supplies. Reports say Huberty's wife and daughters liked their new home and made friends with neighbors. However, Huberty, who spoke little Spanish, was quiet and unfriendly. He couldn't find a job in Tijuana and quickly regretted moving to Mexico. Within three months, the family moved to San Ysidro. This was a mostly poor area of San Diego, just north of the Mexico–United States border, with about 13,000 people in 1984.

San Ysidro

In San Ysidro, the Hubertys rented an apartment while Huberty looked for work. Huberty was annoyed that his family was the only Anglo-Americans in their apartment complex, and he was often rude to his neighbors. Soon after, Huberty applied for a newspaper ad offering security guard training. He finished the course on April 12 and quickly got a job with a security firm. He was assigned to guard a condominium complex. The money he earned allowed the family to have their furniture shipped from Ohio. They moved to a two-bedroom apartment on Averil Road that same month. The rent for this apartment was $450 a month.

On July 10, Huberty was suddenly fired from this job. His employers told him it was because he wasn't doing well at work and seemed physically unstable.

Aftermath

The day after the shooting, reporters visited James Huberty's father in Ohio to learn more about his son. After talking about his son's childhood and the family's religious background, Earl Huberty cried and told reporters: "Yesterday was the worst day of my life. I feel so sorry for those people."

McDonald's temporarily stopped all TV and radio ads in the days after the shooting. As a sign of support, their competitor, Burger King, also temporarily stopped all advertising.

Huberty's body was cremated on July 23, 1984. No official religious service was held. His ashes were given to his wife and later buried in Ohio.

In the weeks after the shooting, Huberty's wife and daughters received many death threats. This forced them to stay with a family friend for a while. All three went to counseling for over nine months.

Etna Huberty and her daughters first moved from San Ysidro to Chula Vista, where Zelia and Cassandra went to school using different names. A year later, the family moved to Spring Valley.

Because so many people were killed, local funeral homes had to use the San Ysidro Civic Center to hold wakes for each victim. The local church, Mount Carmel Church, had to hold many funeral masses one after another so that everyone could be buried in time.

Several police officers who responded to the scene suffered from problems like trouble sleeping, memory loss, and guilt in the months after the event. A study in 1985 found that several officers suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder because of what happened.

The shooting made the city of San Diego rethink how they respond to such events and what weapons their officers carry. The police department increased training for special units and bought more powerful firearms. This was to better prepare law enforcement for similar situations. One officer said he felt "inadequate" with his .38-caliber revolver that day. He felt it was time for a "full-time, committed and dedicated, highly trained, well-equipped team" to respond quickly anywhere in the city.

On August 2, San Diego Police Chief William Kolendar held a press conference. He shared the results of the police department's review of their response. He noted that about 73 minutes passed between the first officer arriving and Huberty's death. The review found that even though SWAT team members were delayed by rush-hour traffic, the police acted correctly.

Kolendar said it would have been "ludicrous" (ridiculous) for police to storm the restaurant. He explained that officers couldn't get a clear view of the shooter because the windows were shattered with bullet holes, making it hard to see in direct sunlight. He also said the eight-minute delay between allowing officers to shoot Huberty and his death didn't change the number of people killed. Kolendar ended his report by saying, "I believe the operation was handled the way it should have been handled."

When asked about Huberty's reason for the shooting, Kolendar said there was no racial motive. He told reporters, "He didn't like anybody."

Within two days of the shooting, the restaurant was cleaned up and fixed. McDonald's planned to reopen, hoping it would become "just another McDonald's." However, after talking with community leaders, McDonald's decided on July 24 not to reopen. The renovated restaurant was torn down at midnight on September 26.

After the restaurant was closed and torn down, McDonald's gave the land to the city. They said no other restaurant could be built there. For over four years, people thought about turning the site into a memorial park or a shrine. The land was sold in February 1988 to Southwestern College for $136,000. They agreed that a 300 square foot area in front of the new college building would be a permanent memorial to the 21 victims.

McDonald's later built another restaurant two blocks away. The restaurant chain also promised to donate $1 million to a fund for survivors. The widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc also gave $100,000 to help with burial costs, financial aid for victims' families, and counseling for survivors. The total donations to this fund went over $1.4 million.

Despite some protests from residents and donors, Etna Huberty received the first payment from this fund.

Plaque at the victims' memorial, inscribed with the names of the 21 dead

A permanent memorial to those killed was officially revealed in 1990. This memorial has 21 hexagonal white marble pillars, each with a victim's name. The sculpture was designed by a former Southwestern College student named Roberto Valdes. He said the 21 hexagons represent each person who died. Their different heights show the variety of ages and backgrounds of the people involved. They are connected to show that the community, in a tragedy like this, will stick together. The monument is located at 460 West San Ysidro Boulevard.

Every year on the anniversary of the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre, this monument is decorated with flowers. On the three days when people of Mexican heritage celebrate the Day of the Dead, candles and offerings are brought for the victims.

Several family members of those killed, along with survivors, filed lawsuits against McDonald's and the San Diego Police Department. These lawsuits were heard in court. All the lawsuits were combined and later dismissed before trial. The people who filed the lawsuits appealed this decision.

On July 25, 1987, the California Court of Appeal agreed with the earlier decision. They ruled that McDonald's or any other business does not have a duty to protect customers from an unexpected attack by a violent person. They also said that security measures like guards or cameras would not have stopped Huberty, as he didn't care about his own survival. The San Diego Police Department was also found not responsible. The court said it was hard to imagine anything the police could have done differently that would have made the situation less dangerous. The final lawsuits were dismissed in August 1991.

In July 1986, Etna Huberty filed a lawsuit against both McDonald's and her husband's former employer, Babcock & Wilcox. This lawsuit asked for $5 million in damages. It claimed her husband's actions were caused by a poor diet and working around very poisonous metals for many years without enough protection. This lawsuit was dismissed in 1987. Etna Huberty passed away from breast cancer in 2003.

Survivor Albert Leos later became a police officer. He worked for several police departments in the South Bay area of San Diego County. Leos later joined the San Diego Police Department.

Media About the Event

Films

• The 1988 movie Bloody Wednesday is loosely based on this tragic event.

Television

• The 2016 documentary film 77 Minutes: The 1984 San Diego McDonald's Massacre focuses on the killings by James Huberty. This documentary includes interviews with many people who were in the restaurant at the time and the SWAT sniper who ended the shooting.

More to Learn

In Spanish: Masacre del McDonald's de San Ysidro para niños