What happened on a Monday morning on January 29th 1979 in the USA?

In the USA on 29th January 1979, Brenda Spencer went on a shooting spree and killed 2 men and wounded 9 children in the process. She was only sixteen years old at the time of the attack.

• Early years of Brenda Spencer.

Brenda Ann Spencer was born on 3rd April 1962 in San Diego. When she was young, Spencer apparently took quite a liking to guns, weapons and stories containing violence. On Christmas Day 1978, her father Wallace bought her a semi automatic .22 caliber rifle.

• The day of the attack.

On the morning of 29th January 1979, Brenda Spencer, just sixteen years of age, positioned herself in front of her open window and began to randomly shoot people that were waiting outside Grove Elementary School across the street from her home. She open fired when children were waiting outside for the Principal, Burton Wragg. In the shooting process, Spencer killed Burton Wragg and Mike Suchar whilst they were trying to help the children, as well as injuring 5 children and a police officer.

After she fired thirty rounds from her gun, Spencer barricaded herself inside the house for at least seven hours, refusing to come out. She surrendered herself to the police, despite warning them she was only going to leave her house shooting.

When she was asked why she committed the attacks, Spencer's only reply was that she did it for the fun of it because Mondays bored her and she was trying to liven up her day.

• Conviction.

Because her crimes were so serious, Spencer was tried as an adult even though she was only sixteen at the time. After her trial, Spencer was sentenced to 25 years in prison and is currently being held at the California Institution for Women in Chino, California. So far she has been denied parole four times and will not be eligible for parole again until 2019.