San Ysidro McDonald's massacre

The McDonald's massacre was an incident of mass murder which resulted in 21 deaths and 15 injuries at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro section of San Diego, California, on July 18, 1984.

The massacre was carried out by James Oliver Huberty, a 41-year-old former welder from Canton, Ohio. In January 1984, Huberty had moved to San Ysidro with his wife and children, where he worked as a security guard until his dismissal one week prior to the murders. His apartment was located near the site of the shooting spree.

Before the massacre
On the day before the massacre, Huberty had called a mental health center. The receptionist misspelled his name on intake. Since he had not claimed there was an immediate emergency, his call was not returned. Huberty had eaten at a McDonald's in Clairemont a few hours prior to the massacre.

Before leaving for McDonald's, his wife Etna asked him where he was going. Huberty responded that he was "hunting humans". Earlier that day he had commented to his wife, "Society had its chance." A witness, who spotted Huberty leave his apartment and proceed down San Ysidro Boulevard with two firearms, phoned police, but the dispatcher gave them the wrong address.

The mass murder
Huberty used a 9mm Uzi semi-automatic (the primary weapon fired in the massacre), a Winchester pump-action twelve-gauge shotgun, and a 9mm Browning HP in the restaurant, killing 21 people and wounding 19 others. Huberty's victims were predominantly Mexican and Mexican-American and ranged in age from 8 months to 74 years. The massacre began at 4 p.m. and lasted for 77 minutes. Huberty had spent 257 rounds of ammunition before he was fatally shot by Chuck Foster, a SWAT team sniper perched on the roof of a nearby post office.

Although Huberty stated during the massacre that he had killed thousands in Vietnam, he had never actually served in any military branch; this led to speculation that schizophrenia led him to believe he had served in the war.

In 2005, Daniel Múñoz, the publisher of the local newspaper La Prensa San Diego, criticized Jerry Sanders, the Republican mayoral candidate who had been commander of the San Diego SWAT team at the time of the massacre. In the editorial "Former San Diego Police Chief Jerry Sanders Unfit to be Mayor," he states "that the Mexican American community has a lot of unanswered questions" about Sanders' "abilities and leadership." Múñoz's criticisms include that Sanders "was busy drinking with other policemen at a special police event in Mission Bay" and that when the SWAT team received the call, they were unable to find the key to board their armored vehicle. He further criticized Sanders, who was not present at the scene, for rescinding a lieutenant's order to use sniper fire to eliminate Huberty. This usurpation of authority, according to Múñoz, was contrary to department policy. The editorial lays the blame for the extensiveness of the massacre at Sanders' feet, and urges San Diego voters not to elect him due to his incompetence and lack of leadership. Despite Múñoz's criticism, Sanders was elected Mayor of San Diego later that year.

Victims

 * Elsa Herlinda Borboa-Firro, 19 (McDonald's employee)
 * Neva Denise Caine, 22 (McDonald's manager)
 * Michelle Deanne Carncross, 18
 * María Elena Colmenero-Silva, 19
 * David Flores Delgado, 11
 * Gloria López González, 23
 * Omar Alonso Hernández, 11
 * Blythe Regan Herrera, 31 (mother of Matao Herrera)
 * Matao Herrera, 11
 * Paulina Aquino López, 21 (McDonald's employee)
 * Margarita Padilla, 18 (McDonald's employee)
 * Claudia Pérez, 9
 * Jose Rubén Lozano Pérez, 19
 * Carlos Reyes, 8 months
 * Jackie Lynn Wright Reyes, 18 (mother of Carlos Reyes)
 * Victor Maxmillian Rivera, 25
 * Arisdelsi Vuelvas Vargas, 31
 * Hugo Luis Velazquez Vasquez, 45
 * Laurence Herman "Gus" Versluis, 62
 * Aida Velazquez Victoria, 69
 * Miguel Victoria-Ulloa, 74 (husband of Aida Victoria)



Site
On September 26, 1984, McDonald's tore down the restaurant where the massacre occurred and gave the property to the city. They in turn established the Education Center as part of Southwestern Community College. This location was built in 1988 as an expansion of its off-campus locations. In front of the school is a memorial to the massacre victims, consisting of 21 hexagonal granite pillars ranging in height from one to six feet.

Lawsuit
In 1986, Etna Huberty, his widow, unsuccessfully sued McDonald's and Babcock and Wilcox, James Huberty's longtime former employer, in an Ohio state court for $7.88 million, claiming that the massacre was triggered by the combined mixture of McDonald's food and work around poisonous metals. She alleged that monosodium glutamate in the food, combined with the high levels of lead and cadmium in Huberty's body, induced delusions and uncontrollable rage. An autopsy did reveal high levels of the metals, most likely built up from fumes inhaled during 14 years of welding. Autopsy results also revealed there were no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of the killings.

References in popular culture
The murders are reconstructed in The Sett (1996), a book by Ranulph Fiennes which deals with the subject of revenge killing.

Singer Kristin Hersh references Huberty in the Throwing Muses song "Hate My Way," a track from the band's eponymous debut album.

The Dead Milkmen reference God speaking to a "Mr. Huberty" in their song "Take Me to the Specialist"