Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
July 1984
and a mad gunman has been in in Mc Donald’s in san Ysidro for more than 30 minutes.
shooting everyone in sight .
He’d revisit his victims to make sure they were dead and shoot them again if they were not.
or even if they were.
by this point nearly everyone who was in the resturant has been killed.
but there’s a small group of employees crotched between two of the aisles ,they managed to stay quiet to avoid detection for over half an hour
but the man on a rampage finally discovered them.he comes over and like he’d done for everyone else he encountered, he immediately began shooting them..
as he shooting at the final person he runs of ammunition and goes back to the front of the resturant to reload , so he can return and finish his job.
the 17 year old young man has been shot five times but still alive and despite being shot in a leg and unable to walk.
he crawls and drags himself down a flight of 25 stairs and hides n a basement closet joing one of the few groups of survivors of the deadliset mass shooting up until that point.
for todays case we’re not going to sugarcoat it , it’s a real gut puncher.
if incredibly sad and senseless cases are tought for you , we definitely recommend you skip this one .
for those of you staying ,grab your tissues as we cover this brutal case of evil sadness and some of the bravest souls tohave ever walked this planet.
san ysidro is a community within the city of san diego ,california.bordering Tijuana mexico it is the most sothern community in california
sitting just north of the border between the united states and mexico.
beeing the busiest international border crossing in the entire world.
san ysidro is known as the gateway to americas supporting tourists from many countries
In 1984 san Ysidro had a population of about 25,000 93 % of whom were Hispanic and appproximately 3 % of whom were white.
That was the year that James and huberty and his wife Etna moved to the community.
james oliver huberty was born in canton ohio on october 1st. 1942.
In the early 1950s huberty’s father purchased a farm in the the pennsylvania amish country.
but hubertys mon refused to live in the Amish country and left the family to become a religious missionary.
from then on huberty became a loner with an explosive personality
after huberty’s parents split,his father remarried a young school teacher but they didn’t get along.
when huberty’s father who was explosive himself would arrive home each day
he’d fire off 10 to 12 shots to warn the family that he was almost home
in 1962 huberty enrolled a community college earning a degree in sociology
he later attended the Pittsburgh institute of mortuary science where he received a license in embalming.
It was there that he met Etna Markland ,the two married in 1965 and had two daughters
the family of four would soon move from Canton to Massillon Ohio
where puberty found work as a welder
there the couple would establish the reputation for violent behavior.
with james huberty once shooting his German sheperd in the head, when a neighbor complained about it damagin his car
another neighbor noted how he noticed huberty ‘s front door jar with huberty seing just inside it holding a shotgun.
threats and altercations towards neighbors were frequent
and Etna was volatile as welll once threatening another mom with a nine millimeter handgun after an altercation which Etna herself aggressively initiated.
Domestic violence was also a regular occurence in the household as were complaints from neighbors about huberties and from huberties about neighbors .
when calls would come into the local police station about minor incidents ,officers would joke that” it was the huverties again”
then in 1982 after 10 years of working as a welder in Massillon ,huberty was laid off
as a result he became concerned about making his house payments ,he worried constantly and he blame the country ,the government and Ronald Reagen for his misfortune.
he was so disenchanted with his country that he applied for residency in Mexico, an odd fact since he was known to harbor extreme hatred toward immigrants especially mexican immigrants.
he also stockpiled food and weapons , a lot of them .
including an israel -made military -style Uzi machin gun.
the following year ,1983, the family moved briefly to Tijuana , Mexico
then finally to San Ysidro in january of 1984
there huberty landed a job as a security guard
but was fired on july 19th eight days before the shooting .due report work percormance and general physical instability .
1 day before the incident.
july 17, 1984 , On the day before the shooting,41 year old james huberty called the san diego mental health clinic requesting an appointment
he’d shared with Etna that he felt like he was having a mental health problemthe clinic receptionist told huberty that someone will call him back within hours.
according to Etna ,huberty sat quietly by the phone waiting for the retunr call for several hours .
at the clinic since huberty´s polite demeanor didn’t convey any urgency and since he´d never been hospitalized for any mental health issues in the past .
she lobbed the call as non -crisis. which slated it to be handled within 48 hours.
after waiting hubery left for a while , returned, had dinner with his family and appeared normal.
JULY 18, 1984
The next morning huberty attended a minor traffic court hearing.
then took his family to lunch to a nearby Mc Donald’s different from the one of the incident.
and then to visit the san diego zoo.while strolling the zoo, he told Etna that his life is effectively over and that society had their chance ,referring to the clinic’s failure to return his call the previous day.
the family returned home after the zoo.
3:45
It was right after that at around 3:45 pm ,that huberty walked into their bedroom where Etna was relaxing and kissed her goodbye , something he’d normally not do. she asked him where hw was going and he calmly replied that he was “going hunting for humans”
Etna would later state that she didn’t take him seriously as he mad similarly bizarre throughout their marriage.
the couple’s 12 years old Zelia who noticed that who noticed that her father was strapped with all his weaponry as he was leaving assumed he was going out to targer practice at a rual location , like he often did to alleviate anger. but he was not.
james huberty got into his black mercury marquee and drove.
he first drove toward Big Bear Supermarket
then toured a U.S post office.
before finally entering the parking lot of the Mc Donald’s at approximately 3:56 PM. Just a short block from his everal Road Apartment.
he was carrying a browning nine millimeter semi- automatic pistol , modified to make it automatic.
a 12 gauge pump action shotgun
and a 9 millimeter Uzi semi- automatic rifle. the weapon he would primarily use during the massacre
he also had a box and a cloth bag filled with hundreds of rounds of ammunition for each weapon.
45 customers were inside the resturant
sadly mass shootings in the U.S are all too commonplace today.but in 1984 there were almost non- existent occurrence.
so as the massacre began to unfold the understandably unassuming victims in the resturant thougt the whole thing was a joke .
and they along with law enforcement were placed in unfamiliar territory, without effective strategies for survival or for stopping the massacre.
huberty entered the resturant and armed with the Uzi he first aimed it at 16 year old employee john arnold.he already pulled the trigger but nothing happened.
as he checked to see what was wrong with his gun.
22 year old Neva kane ,the resturant’s manager who had just returned from her honeymoon began walking toward john who was already walking away figuring the whole thing was a distasteful joke.
by then huberty had corrected the problem with his gun, fired a test shot into the ceiling
then aimed the weapon at Neva, shooting her in her head ,she would die minutes later.
he then immediately shot john arnold wounded him in the chest and arm just before shouting” everybody on the ground”
then he called everyone in the resturant in primarily latino populated resturant, dirty swine and vietnam as holes before he stating that he had killed thousands in Vietnam and that he intended to kill a thousand more. even though he had never served in the military nor killed anyone.
here in huberty’s ranting and seeing the two people shot . 25 year old customer victor rivera, try to persuades huberty to not shot anyone else. huberty responded by shooting victor 14 times. shouting at him to shut up the entire time .
customers and emplyees scramlbed to hide behind booths ,tables and counters.
Next he shot 11 year old Aurora Pena, wounded jher in the leg.
she was being shielded by her incredibly brave 18 year old pregant aunt jackie reyes when huberty shot with his Uzi 48 times.
sadly rendering her poor body in a condition that would later prevent her family from laying her to rest in the lovely pink dress they got for her ,because there wasn’t enough of her intact.
jackie’s eight – month -old baby carlos reyes who had just been baptized one months prior to that sat up and began crying, huberty already shouted atthe baby then shot him in the back, killing him.
Then huberty shot and killed 62 year old Lawrence vs louise ,a truck driver who was retiring that day after 40 years of driving.
his family panicked when they saw his his truck in the parking lot on television.thhey learned of his death hours later.
huberty then proceeded to a family crouched near the play area were a couple was shielding their son and his frie3nd underneath the tables with their bodies.
the mother blythe regan Herrera had barricaded her son Mateo under one booth.
while her husband ronald herrera guarded his son’s friend keith thomas under another.ronald instructed keith not to move.
and when huberty approached them ,he shot ronald six times in the stomack ,chest, arm ,hip ,shoulder and head.
Ronald miraculously survived.
keith was alsso shot in the arms ,wrist and left elbow.but he was blocked from most of the bullets by ronald.
Keith also survived and would later recall how ronald saved his life and how he couldn’t feel any pain from the bullets.
Ronald’s carring and loving wife life and his artistic musical son Mateo were both killed having been shot numerous times in the head.
near the Herreras ,three women was also hiding beneath a booth
24 year old Guadalupe del rio was wedged against a wall, shielded by her friends
25 year old gloria ramirez and 31 year old arisdelsi vuelvas vargas
Guadalupe was shot several times but not seriously wounded
Gloria miraculously was not hit.
In Arisdels vuelvas vargas tragically, receive a single shot to the back of her head,she died the next day.
she would be the only fatally wounded who lived long enought to reach a hospital.
huberty nest killed 45 year old banker hugo velazQuez vasQuez shooting him once in the chest,killing him.
their first call to police to report to shooting was made
at 4 pm.
the call notificed police that a child had been shot and taken to the U.S post office on San Ysidro Boulevard.
the dispatcher mistakenly sent responding officers to the wrong Mc Donald’s 2 miles or three kilometers from the San Ysidro location.
costing several precious minutes of the area not being locked downduring which time several other victims unaware of what happening inside appproached the resturant.
starting with lydia fores.
4:00 p.m
Lydia drove into the parking lot and headed to the drive- through window.
and saw chattered glass and heard gundshots
she immediately locked up and saw huberty through the window shooting.
she reversed hercar and crashed into a fence, she then hid in bushes with her two year old daughter until the shooting ended.
4:05 p.m.
married couple estofo and maricela felix drove into the parking lot and immediately noticed the shattered glass.astolfo assumed that the resturant was being renovated or repaired
and that hubery who was making his way toward their car was on of the construction crew.
hubery fired both his shotgun and his Uzi.
the couple and their four month old baby carla called carlita. he shot maricela in the face , arms and chest,blinding her n one eye and rendering one of her hands, permantly unusable.
baby carlita was wounded in the chest , abdomen, and neck.
Astolfo was wounded in the chest and head.
the couple managed to stagger away from huberty’s line of fire. and maricela handed her crying baby to her husband ,who in turn handed her to a stranger named lucia velascio just as maricela collapsed
lucy handed the baby to a police officer and the two rushed the baby to the hospital,lucia holding her hand over one of the baby’s wounds to try to contain the bleeding and the officer using the hand he wasn’t driving with to contain another wound.
maricela, astolfo and baby carlita all survived.
then there were three eleven year old boys.
they just gone to get donuts one of the friends wanted ice cream , so they rode their BMX bikes to the Mc Donald’s
as they pedaled int othe parking lot they heard someone form across the street yelling at them .
but they couldn’t make out what they were saying, so they hesitated.
it was right then that huberty shot all three boys.
david flores delgado received several gunshot wounds to his head and died instantly.Omar aloso hernandez received several gunshots to his back and died a few minutes later and joshua coleman critically wounded in the back, arm and leg. collapse
but was still alive, he just watched his friend david and get killed.
and then he watched omar as happy humble bestfriend with whom he converts back and forth over the backyard fences as they helped each other learn the other’s native language, struggle until he too died.
mr joshua having previously pondered what he might do where he in a similarly dire situation laid still , playing dead. Until the SWAT team later come to rescue him over an hour later.
next huberty targeted an elderly couple that was walking toward the entrance, 74 year old miguel victoria ulloa and 69 year old Aida velazQuez victoria .
huberty shot aida in the face,which also wounded miguel, miguel instinctively began cradling his wife and wiping blood from her face while cursing at huberty.hubery swore back at miguel then shot him in the head.killing him.
about 1o minutes after the first call to the police had placed , police arrived at the correct Mc Donald’s.
as soon as the first patrol car arrived huberty began firing at it. shattering its windshield and emergency lights.
police lock down the area spaning six blocks from the resturant and establish a command post two blocks away.
175 officer s were deployed at strategick positions
soon joined by squad the special weapons an tactics teams .
but stil they were unsure, how to approach such a dangerous situation.
huberty returned to the inside of the resturant and continued his killing spree.at one point he went to the cashier counter to adjust the radio.
victims assumed to listen for news of the incident but instead he turned into a music station and began dancing.
a few minutes later he searched the kitchen area and found a group of employees hiding huber exlaimed .
and open fire.
two of the employees 18 year old margarita padilla and 17 year old wendy flanagan grab each other’s hands and try to run for it but huberty fatally shot margarita, wendy was able to make it to the basement utility room.
of the remaining group of hiders huberty shot and killed.
21 year old paulina lopez and 19 year old elsa borbor fierro .
then shot 17- year old albert leos critically wounding him.
running out of ammunition huberty heads to the front of the resturant to reload
giving albert an opportunity to escape by draggging himself down the stairs to join a groupf of survivors hiding.
two other employees from the froupe were able to successfully flee down a stairway and through to an emergency exit. escaping.
earlier that morning albert had actually contemplated not coming to work that day and joining his friends who invited him to hang out.
but being the resonpisble young man that he was, he came into work instead.
in the utility room albert would join two male and three female co -workers
one hwom was wendy who had taken refuge there along with a women and a baby .
once albert arrived he removed the shoelaces from his shoes and used them to make a tourniquet for his left arm ,which was losing blood quickly. and he bit down on a cloth to stifle his cries of pain to avoid to putting the entire groupe at risk of being discovered.
at one point eleven year old aurora pena ,the yooung girl who was shielded by her 18 year old pregnant aunt and was laying next to her slain aunt, cousin, and friends heard heard a lull in the shooting and and opened her eyes.
huberty already happened to be staring in her direction and notice her open her eyes ,he cursed , threw some french fries in her ,then shot her in arm , neck and jaw . she miraculously survived but spent longer in the hospital than any other survivor.
huberty would similarly return to shoot and kill other injured but still live victims.
Like injured jose Perez who lay moaning in pain next to his friend 22 year old gloria gonzales and a young lady named michelle carncross both of whom huberty had already killed.
after minutes passed ,then an hour everyone inside the resturant wondered where are the police.
5:05 pm
over an hour after the first call to police was made all responding lawenforcement personnel were authorized to kill the assailant if they should obtain a clear shot.
At one point the official green light to shoot was windrawn but was reinstated at 5.13.
it was around that time that SWAT sharpshooter charles foster positioned himself along with a spotter
onto the roof of the post office.just south of McDonalds.he could see the bodies on the floor of the resturant, but he could also see that huberty was at an advantage.
huberty had a clear view of the parking lot and the surroundings area.
so anyone who tried to approach even just gave aid to the people shot outside the resturant were driven away by more gunfire.
the windows of the resturant were both tinted and coated with a laminate.
so not only was it hard to see into the resturant due to the tinting but once the windows were shot at a and shattered the laminate held much of them in place
spidering the windows and creating an even more obstuctured view.
at 5 pm
the sun also wreaked on their ability to see into the resturant.
so foster’s job was a challenge. he didn’t actually see huberty until just before shooting him .
which happened when he finally got a glimpse of huberty through the resturant double doors.
the only doors whose safety glass was fully shattered out by huberty’s gunfire.
foster could see huberty’s legs dangling as he sat on top of the cashier counter.
the he hopped off the counter and began woalking toward the shattered double doors
from foster’s vantage point huberty’s head and neck were blocked by the door frame. but his chest and torso were not
at 4 :17 foster shot a single shot through huberty’s heart, killing him instantly.
it was one that just five bulllets fired by police throughout the duration of the massacre the other four were fired at the same time as foster but they missed the assailant.
Police report .5.20 pm .
San Diego, California, on July 18, 1984.
The perpetrator, 41-year-old James Huberty, fatally shot 21 people and wounded 19 others before being killed by a police sniper approximately 77 minutes after he had first opened fire.
GRAPHIC
A better shot of Huberty’s wound.
Aida Victoria Velazquez, (69) was shot by Huberty after pleading for her life.
Arisdelsi Vuelvas Vargas, (31)
Claudia Perez, 9. Baby Sister of Jose Perez. Huberty sprayed child with an Uzi. Hitting her 8 times all over her body.
David Delgado Flores (11) was shot by a shotgun while riding his bike.
Hugo Luis Velazquez (45) lying dead in the dining canopy.
Jose Ruben Perez (19) is laying on top of Victor. Both pleaded but were shot. Blythe Regan Herrera (31) was shot dead
Laurence Versluis (62)
Margarita Padilla. (18)
María Colmenero-Silva (19)
Michelle Deanne Carncros (18)
Miguel Ulloa Velazquez, (73) was cuddling and cradled his dying wife when Huberty shot him too.
Omar Hernandez was also riding his bike when he got shot by Huberty with a shotgun to the chest.
Paulina Lopez, (21). Friend of Teen Mother Jackie Lynn Reyes, (18) Jackie is lying on the Left. Carlos (8 months)
Store Manager Neva Caine, (22) and Shift Manager Elsa Herlinda Borboa-Fierro, (19)
Victor Maxmillian Rivera (25) With the jeans. He was pleading to Huberty to not kill any more people
The Horrific 1984 California McDonald’s Massacre
A bloodied victim is led away by police as SWAT officers assist the wounded at a McDonald’s restaurant, July 18, 1984 in San Ysidro, California. AP Photo
According to witnesses, Huberty ran in, shouted ‘freeze’, then showered bullets. Daily Mail
A McDonald’s window riddled with bullet holes. ABC
A San Diego Police Officer escorts a woman away from the scene in San Ysidro. Daily Mail
Grieving survivors of the massacre. ABC
Investigators look for evidence in the parking lot of the San Diego, Calif., McDonald’s restaurant in July, 1984, following a shooting massacre. (VINCE BUCCI:ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paramedics treat a survivor. ABC
Staff screamed as they ran out of the diner in horror on July 18, 1984. Daily Mail
The massacre lasted for 77 minutes until Huberty was fatally shot by a SWAT team sniper. Pinterest
SWAT rush to the scene. ABC
Woman sits in shock after the massacre. Murderpedia
SWAT member trying to take out Hubert. ABC
Wounded boy being led away from the scene. Murderpedia
SWAT prepare to enter the McDonald’s. ABC
McDonalds Memorial – Memorial for all the people killed in the July 18, 1984 massacre. Pinterest