2020 Springfield, Missouri shooting

Last updated

2020 Springfield, Missouri shooting
USA Missouri location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Springfield
Springfield (Missouri)
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Springfield
Springfield (the United States)
Location2885 East Chestnut Expressway
Springfield, Missouri, United States
Coordinates 37°12′38″N93°14′14″W / 37.21066°N 93.23709°W / 37.21066; -93.23709
DateMarch 15, 2020
11:24 – 11:43 p.m. (CST)
Attack type
Mass shooting, spree shooting, murder–suicide
Weapons
Deaths5 (including the perpetrator)
Injured2
PerpetratorJoaquin S. Roman
MotiveUnknown

On March 15, 2020, a mass shooting occurred in Springfield, Missouri, United States. After firing indiscriminately from his vehicle at passerby, 31-year-old Joaquin Roman shot and killed four people at a Kum & Go convenience store before committing suicide.

Contents

Shooting

Between 11:24 p.m. and 11:43 p.m. CST, multiple emergency calls were made regarding a man in a black 2019 Volkswagen vehicle shooting at random vehicles in eastern Springfield. [1] The shooter drove northward before crashing his vehicle at a Kum & Go convenience store on East Chestnut Expressway. [2] He entered the store at 11:43 p.m. and opened fire on those inside, killing three and injuring one. [2] An employee who was wounded told the Springfield News-Leader that the shooter had a "psychotic break" and "gave a speech about being disrespected throughout his life and wanting to inflict pain on others". [3] One person inside the store survived by hiding from the gunman. [4] Officers Christopher Walsh and Josiah Overton of the Springfield Police Department were shot at in the parking lot as they responded to the shooting; Walsh was fatally wounded. [5] After other officers arrived at the scene, they discovered that the shooter had committed suicide. [5]

Victims

The victims inside the store were identified as 57-year-old employee Troy Rapp, 46-year-old waste management contractor Shannon Perkins, and 22-year-old customer Matthew Hicks-Morris. The police officer killed outside the store was 32-year-old Christopher Walsh. [5] Employee Jayne Gilson was shot five times but survived; he was initially hospitalized in critical condition, but was upgraded to stable condition on March 26. [3] [6] Police officer Josiah Overton suffered non-life-threatening injuries. [6]

Investigation

On March 16, police served a search warrant at Roman's apartment in Springfield. [4] Due to concerns that the shooter had planted booby traps in his residence, a SWAT team used a Lenco BearCat to enter the apartment. [4] Police recovered accessories—including ammunition and magazines—for the SKS rifle and Glock pistol used in the attack. [4] Both firearms used in the shooting were legally acquired. [4] Items that were seized included an IPad, a computer, paperwork, and a counterfeit Social Security card. [4] Police are trying to determine a motive for the attack using Roman's electronic devices and other belongings. [4]

Perpetrator

The shooter was identified as 31-year-old Joaquin S. Roman. [2] Prior to the shooting, he had talked to his mother about being "infiltrated" and had searched online for "mental illness" and "tactical shooting". [3] Roman's mother had spoken to him by phone call shortly before the shootings began, and was planning to visit him from another state due to concerns about her son's mental health. [3] Roman had minor interactions with law enforcement, consisting of four traffic citations. [4] He had moved from California to Missouri in 2019. [3] [7]

In Mass Attacks in Public Spaces: 2016 - 2020, a 2023 report released by the United States Secret Service, Roman was described as holding "neo-Nazi and anti-government beliefs" which he expressed on social media. [8] He also used an unspecified social media platform to establish groups pertaining to his ideology. [8] In one group, he and another member "ranted about server administrators that did not tolerate neo-Nazism" and intended to livestream a campaign of online harassment against groups they felt opposed them. [8]

Response

Springfield mayor Ken McClure and Police Chief Paul Williams expressed their condolences to those affected by the shooting. [5] Following the shooting, Kum & Go created a relief fund for the families of the victims. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D.C. sniper attacks</span> 2002 series of coordinated shootings in the Washington, D.C. area

The D.C. sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred during three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, and preliminary shootings, that consisted of murders and robberies in several states, and lasted for six months starting in February 2002. Seven people were killed, and seven others were injured in the preliminary shootings, and ten people were killed and three others were critically wounded in the October shootings. In total, the snipers killed 17 people and wounded 10 others in a 10-month span.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geneva County shootings</span> Mass shooting in Geneva and Samson, Alabama

On March 10, 2009, Michael Kenneth McLendon, 28, fatally shot ten people and wounded six others between the communities of Kinston, Samson, and Geneva, Alabama. McLendon's shooting spree was the deadliest mass shooting in Alabama's history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass shooting</span> Incident involving multiple victims of firearm violence

A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers kill or injure multiple individuals simultaneously using a firearm. There is no widely accepted definition of "mass shooting" and different organizations tracking such incidents use different definitions. Definitions of mass shootings exclude warfare and sometimes exclude instances of gang violence, armed robberies, familicides and terrorism. The perpetrator of an ongoing mass shooting may be referred to as an active shooter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 shooting of Baton Rouge police officers</span> Mass shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

On July 17, 2016, Gavin Eugene Long shot six police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in an ambush attack, in the wake of the shooting of Alton Sterling. Four died, including one who was critically wounded and died from complications in 2022, and two others were hospitalized; of the officers who initially died, two were members of the Baton Rouge Police Department, while the third worked for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office. Long, who associated himself with organizations linked to black separatism and the sovereign citizen movement, was shot and killed by a SWAT officer during a shootout with police at the scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Dee Dee Blanchard</span> 2015 matricide in Missouri, U.S.

On June 14, 2015, sheriff's deputies in Greene County, Missouri, United States, found the body of Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard in her Springfield house. She had been stabbed to death some days before. Her daughter Gypsy-Rose, well-known in the area due to her purported severe health problems, was missing, although her wheelchair and medications were in the house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 Aztec High School shooting</span> School shooting in Aztec, New Mexico

The Aztec High School shooting was a school shooting and murder–suicide that occurred on December 7, 2017, at Aztec High School in Aztec, New Mexico, United States. The perpetrator, William Atchison, a 21-year-old former student, entered the school in the morning disguised as a student and hid in the school restroom. He was discovered before he could launch a major attack, but fatally shot two students before killing himself. Investigators believe that the quick actions of the teachers in barricading doors to the classrooms helped prevent mass casualties.

The 2018 Toronto shooting, known locally as the Danforth shooting, was a mass shooting that occurred on Danforth Avenue in the Greektown neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the night of July 22, 2018. Faisal Hussain killed two people and wounded thirteen using a Smith & Wesson M&P .40-calibre handgun. He died by suicide after a shootout with Toronto Police Service (TPS) officers. Despite a year long investigation, authorities were unable to determine a motive for the shooting. They noted that Hussain had mental health issues and a long time obsession with violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Dayton shooting</span> Mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio

On August 4, 2019, 24-year-old Connor Betts shot and killed nine people, including his brother, and wounded 17 others near the entrance of the Ned Peppers Bar in the Oregon District of Dayton, Ohio. Betts was fatally shot by responding police officers 32 seconds after the first shots were fired. A total of 27 people were taken to area hospitals. It is the deadliest mass shooting to occur in Ohio since the 1975 Easter Sunday Massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Jersey City shooting</span> Mass shooting in Jersey City, New Jersey

On December 10, 2019, a shooting took place at a kosher grocery store in the Greenville section of Jersey City, New Jersey. Three people were killed at the store by two assailants, David N. Anderson and Francine Graham. The assailants also wounded one customer and two police officers before being killed by police during an ensuing shootout. A Jersey City Police Department detective had also been shot and killed by the assailants at a nearby cemetery just before the grocery store attack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Nova Scotia attacks</span> Series of murders in Canada

On April 18 and 19, 2020, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at 16 locations in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Enfield.

On March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment when at least seven police officers forced entry into the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing operations. Three Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers—Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove—were involved in the shooting. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was inside the apartment with her when the plainclothes officers knocked on the door and then forced entry. The officers said that they announced themselves as police before forcing entry, but Walker said he did not hear any announcement, thought the officers were intruders, and fired a warning shot at them. The shot hit Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return. Walker was unhurt but Taylor, who was behind Walker, was hit by six bullets and died. During the incident, Hankison moved to the side of the apartment and shot 10 bullets through a covered window and glass door. According to police, Taylor's home was never searched.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Dolal Idd</span> Police shooting of a man in Minneapolis

Dolal Idd was a 23-year-old Somali-American man who was killed in an exchange of gunfire with Minneapolis police officers at approximately 6:15 p.m. CST on December 30, 2020, after he shot at them from inside the car he was driving. The fatal encounter happened in the U.S. state of Minnesota during a police sting operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Boulder shooting</span> Mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado

On March 22, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Ten people were killed, including a local on-duty police officer. The alleged shooter, 21-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Al-Issa, was arrested after being shot in the right leg. He was temporarily hospitalized before being moved to the county jail. After undergoing mental evaluations during the legal proceedings, Al-Issa was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in December 2021 and in April 2022. On August 23, 2023, prosecutors announced that Al-Issa was mentally competent to stand trial; a judge ruled as such on October 6 of that same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aftermath of the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul</span> Aftermath of local civil unrest following murder of an unarmed black man

The aftermath of the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul describes the result of civil disorder between May 26 and June 7, 2020, in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Protests began as a response to the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man on May 25, after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds as three other officers assisted during an arrest. The incident was captured on a bystander's video and it drew public outrage as video quickly circulated in the news media by the following day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Amir Locke</span> 2022 police killing in Minnesota

Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black American man, was fatally shot on February 2, 2022, by SWAT officer Mark Hanneman of the Minneapolis Police Department inside an apartment in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where police were executing a no-knock search warrant in a homicide investigation. The officer-involved shooting was reviewed by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the office of Hennepin County attorney Michael Freeman, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Ellison and Freeman declined to file criminal charges against the officer who shot Locke in a report released on April 6, 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Buffalo shooting</span> Mass shooting in Buffalo, New York

On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten people, all of whom were African Americans, were murdered and three were injured. The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron, livestreamed part of the attack on Twitch, but the livestream was shut down by the service in under two minutes. Gendron was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder. He formally entered a plea of "not guilty" on May 19, 2022. On November 28, 2022, Gendron pleaded guilty to all state charges in the shooting, including murder, domestic terrorism, and hate crimes. On February 15, 2023, Gendron was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole; as of that date, federal charges are still ongoing, and the federal prosecution also expressed their intention to seek the death penalty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uvalde school shooting</span> 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, US

The Uvalde school shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on May 24, 2022, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a former student at the school, fatally shot 19 students and two teachers, while 17 others were injured but survived. After shooting and severely wounding his grandmother at their home earlier that day, Ramos drove to and entered the school, remaining in an adjoining classroom for more than an hour before members of the United States Border Patrol Tactical Unit fatally shot him after they bypassed numerous local and state officers who had been in the school's hallways for over an hour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenwood Park Mall shooting</span> Shooting in Greenwood, Indiana

On July 17, 2022, a mass shooting occurred at the Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Indiana, United States. The shooting occurred at 5:56 p.m. EDT (UTC−04:00) and lasted less than one minute. Three people were killed and two others were injured in the shooting before the perpetrator, 20-year-old Jonathan Sapirman, was fatally shot by 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, a legally-armed civilian bystander.

On November 22, 2022, Andre Marcus Bing killed six co-workers and injured four others before killing himself, in retaliation for perceived workplace harassment at the Walmart Supercenter where he worked as a night-supervisor in Chesapeake, Virginia, United States. Bing's suicide note cited concern he was being "led by Satan" and asking forgiveness - while also mentioning cancer treatments and loneliness.

References

  1. Bridgeman, Megan; Keegan, Harrison (March 16, 2020). "Map: 911 calls and reports show Kum & Go shooter's path through Springfield". Springfield News-Leader. Archived from the original on May 19, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Diaz, Johnny (March 16, 2020). "Shooting at Missouri Gas Station Leaves 5 Dead, Including Police Officer and Attacker". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Keegan, Harrison (June 1, 2020). "Search warrant sheds new light on motive in Springfield Kum & Go shooting". Springfield News-Leader. Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Keegan, Harrison (April 8, 2020). "Search warrant reveals new information in Springfield Kum & Go shooting". Springfield News-Leader. Archived from the original on March 19, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Keegan, Harrison (March 16, 2020). "Springfield police officer among 4 killed by active shooter, chief says". Springfield News-Leader. Archived from the original on May 17, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2022.
  6. 1 2 Keegan, Harrison (March 26, 2020). "Loved ones grieve in isolation after 4 killed at Springfield Kum & Go". Springfield News-Leader. Archived from the original on January 28, 2022. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
  7. Keegan, Harrison (March 17, 2020). "Motive still a mystery as Kum & Go shooting investigation continues". Springfield News-Leader. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 "Mass Attacks in Public Spaces: 2016 - 2020" (PDF). United States Secret Service. January 2023. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2023.