Horror teen who killed two in first school shooting now incarcerated fork lift truck driver

When 16-year-old Brenda Spencer became the US’s first school shooter, killing two, the moment was immortalised by the Boomtown Rats in their hit single I Don’t Like Mondays

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Immortalised by the Boomtown Rats’ chart-topping single I Don’t Like Mondays, the day in 1979 when 16-year-old Brenda Spencer killed two adults, shot and injured eight school children and blasted a police officer, remains a watershed event. Known as the first school shooter, Spencer’s crime in San Diego was unfathomable. But school shootings are now so frequent in the US that crime historian and broadcaster N Leigh Hunt says: “School shootings are more common than weekends. CNN analysis says the average number per year, since 2020, is 79.”

Author of a new book, I Don’t Like Mondays – The True Story Behind America’s First Modern School Shooting, Mr Hunt continues: “The expression ‘school shooter’ was coined after Brenda Spencer took aim at defenceless children.” For Mr Hunt, now based in the UK, Spencer’s story is also unforgettable because – at age 10 – he lived in San Diego, where his mum was a hospital nurse and his dad was an editor at the Evening Tribune.

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He recalls of that day, January 29, 1979: “That morning, the police scanner lit up with activity, so he [his dad] assigned a reporter to chase the story. They located the phone number to the house directly across the road from Cleveland Elementary School and gave it a call.

“It sounded like a young girl answered. The reporter asked if her parents were home. She replied, ‘Yes, I saw the whole thing’. She said it was a 16-year-old kid who lived at 6356 Lake Atlin Ave. ‘Isn’t that your address?’ the reporter asked. ‘Sure, who do think did it?’ Brenda said, as she laughed and hung up.

“The reporter wasn’t buying it and called back. She answered again and explained, ‘I just started shooting. That’s it. I just did it for the fun of it.’ When asked why, her response made history. ‘I just don’t like Mondays. Do you like Mondays? I did this because it’s a way to cheer up the day. Nobody likes Mondays’.”

Statistics for the exact number of school shootings and consequent deaths since Spencer opened fire on Cleveland Elementary School – where the oldest pupils are just 11 – are sketchy. But multiple sources suggest there have been more than 1,300 shooter incidents in US schools since 1970. Two of the most alarming were the Columbine High School massacre of 1999, resulting in 16 deaths, and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 in which 20 children and six school staff died.

Lockdown training in US schools is now commonplace, with some doing drills for active shooters and others amending their fire drills to incorporate wider plans. Spencer, one of three children of whom her dad, Wally, was awarded custody after his 1972 divorce from her mum Dorothy, had stayed home from school, telling him she had period trouble. Then, taking the .22 calibre rifle he had bought her for Christmas – so they could go shooting in the countryside together – she had bashed out two small windows in the front door of the ranch-style house and shot children as they arrived for school.

None were killed, but she did kill principal Burton Wragg, 53, caretaker Mike Suchar, 56, and she shot police officer Robert Robb in the neck, injuring him. She told a detective straight after the shootings: “It was fun seeing kids being shot in a group. I enjoyed watching them squirm around after they’d been shot.”

Spencer had talked about shooting officers and told classmates what she wanted to do, all of which would be warning signs today. She used drugs and, while her story is still changing, has alleged she was abused. The school shooting was massive news in the US – and thanks to a controversial British band, it would soon be talked about worldwide.

Mr Hunt says: “Radio and TV news ran the story throughout the southwest. Bob Geldof and his band, The Boomtown Rats, were also in Southern California promoting their upcoming gigs. Their record label representative told them, ‘You need to write something that’s going to resonate in this country’.

“Geldof and pianist, Johnnie Fingers, got to work on composing the international hit I Don’t Like Mondays. It was written quickly. They performed it live less than a month after the event, 18 miles from the crime scene. That’s too soon,’ the locals thought. ‘Way too soon’. The single and album were released later in the year and coincided with Brenda’s trials.”

But, despite phenomenal international success, the hit did not help the Rats conquer America. Mr Hunt says: “The song was a number one here in the UK and Ireland and hit the top 10 in 15 countries. ‘Mondays’ barely made the top 75 in the States. Things had not gone to plan for the Boomtown Rats. They would never break America and the song remains their only entry in the Billboard Hot 100. But, the legacy of the song remains to this day.”

On Spencer’s crime he says: “Things have changed; it’s become worse and the demographic of who commits these unspeakable acts has widened.” Now 64, Spencer is incarcerated at the California Institution for Women in Chino. Serving 25 years to life, but so far denied parole, her most recent hearing was last year. She was told: “We find you pose an unreasonable risk to society.”

In prison, she has done anger management courses and embarked on various 12 step programmes. She has also studied everything from animal grooming to upholstering and is an accredited forklift truck driver. Invited to speak about her at a 2024 true crime festival, Mr Hunt notified Spencer, who was amazed that her story held such ongoing fascination.

He says: “I reminded her that her actions might have changed the world forever. She still can’t understand. She had not known that the first use of the expression ‘school shooter’, was about her. Is Brenda still ­minimising her actions or is she simply living in a very controlled environment and is detached from the real world? My gut tells me it’s a little of both.”

*I Don’t Like Mondays – The True Story Behind America’s First Modern School Shooting, by N Leigh Hunt, is published by Mirror Books, priced £10.99 – www.mirrorbooks.co.uk.

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