Leonard Pell

**Leonard Randolph Pell** (July 3rd, 1981 - April 16th, 1997) was an American high school junior and school shooter who killed 18 students, 3 teachers, and injured 24 at the Lord's Way High School in Carthage, Illinois. He turned one of his guns on himself after the twenty-four minute spree.

Leonard lived less than three blocks from the school, and preferred to walk there more often than not. He entered the school at approximately 9:38 am on the morning of April 16th, carrying in three large bags containing numerous firearms: Two TEC-9's, a Daewoo USAS-12 automatic shotgun, a Remington 1100, two M1911 handguns, fourteen M67 hand grenades, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He also had several crudely made pipe bombs in his cargo pants that he never used, along with five metal throwing stars, a butterfly knife, and a pair of brass knuckles. He often carried these same bags to school containing various school related things for use in the socially-fringe clubs he oft attended, so it wasn't an unusual sight to see him that day carrying them.

Questions as to how Pell obtained such an absurd amount of weaponry was quickly answered during the investigation. His cousin, an ex-Marine and avid gun enthusiast, lived in Pell's parent's guesthouse. Although Leonard wasn't permitted to be inside there alone, he had long since figured out how to break in. The cousin usually spent the weekends away, and so the weekend before the shooting, Pell broke in and took what he decided he'd need. At first he took a Mossberg 590A1 shotgun, but later that night he returned to the guest house and exchanged it for the Daewoo.

He was known to be heavily infatuated with a girl student named Erin Farr, and had been cruelly rejected by her before at least a dozen students less than two months before the shooting. It's believed to be this incident that pushed Pell over the edge, as he wasn't really bullied, had no run-ins with the law, and had a relatively decent home life. Although Erin survived the massacre, many of her friends didn't.

At approximately 9:44, Pell entered the backroom of the music classroom, storing his duffel bags behind two large speakers used during assemblies. He made his way to his computer class, quite late, but he was friendly with the teacher and thus received little flak. He finished this class, and his Science class(both of which he was known to like the best), and then returned to the hidden duffel bags during first lunch. He would begin the spree in between first and second lunch, in the main hall where the highest concentration of students would be found at that time.

At 11:04, Pell entered the main hall, wielding the Daewoo USAS-12, with the Remington slung over his right shoulder. Over his left shoulder he had one of the duffel bags, which contained the two TEC-9's, the handguns, grenades, and most of the ammo. He fired five of the ten rounds of the shotgun in to a large group of students near a trophy case, killing three of them and injuring seven. At this point, the crowd erupted into panic, and Pell fired the other five rounds. Eleven were injured, one killed. He approached the injured students, and standing before them, he reloaded the shotgun and shot and killed four.

Pell had been so infatuated by Farr that he knew her schedule to a tee. At around this point, she was usually in the restroom with several of her friends, conversing about school-related things. Pell decided to enter the girl's bathroom, and there he found Farr and her friends, all cowering in stalls or behind the wall separating the sinks from the rest of the room. He fired four more rounds into the stalls, killing three of the girls. It's after this that he saw Erin behind the wall. He dropped the shotgun, retrieved the Remington, and killed the two friends beside her right in front of her. Erin, frantic and covered in blood, tried to run, but Pell shot her in the back of her left knee. This brought her down, after which she crawled to the corner beside the door. According to Erin, Pell said several things to her before shooting the wall just above her head, shouting *"leave this room and I'll fucking kill you!"*, and leaving the restroom.

Pell made his way down the now abandoned main hall, walking past those he'd just murdered. He looked into several of the classrooms, noticing students hunched down below desks and tables in many of them. He pounded on many of the windows with his fist, or fired at them, as he progressed toward the gymnasium. It was empty inside, and so Pell continued on to the next hall. As soon as he opened the door to the hall, he saw two students and a teacher leaving one of the classrooms. They noticed Pell, and began to run away, at which point he fired with the Remington and killed the teacher and one of the students. The other student rounded a corner, but Pell did not pursue him. Instead, he entered the home economics classroom. Inside, there were at least twenty students hiding under the tables. The teacher was under her desk. Pell put the Remington to the head of a random student, fired and killed him. This got a muffled frantic reaction from the others. He shot at the teachers desk, wounding her in the shoulder and spine, paralyzing her. Pell fired several shots into the ceiling, and at random things in the room, before leaving. Next he entered the school chapel. It was empty, save for two students who were at the altar praying. They turned to see him, then calmly continued to do so. Pell ignored them, instead opting to move on to a nearby math room(one that he had a regular class in).

There were a dozen students in the math room, all under tables. Pell smashed the chalkboard with the butt of the rifle, hitting it at least eight times. After this, he yelled out the name of Robert Neer, a student who attended the class with him that he knew had dated Erin Farr, telling him to emerge from his hiding spot. He yelled this five times before Neer stood reluctantly, hands in the air. Pell mocked him briefly, before shooting him point blank in the head, killing him. The teacher was next, shot while attempting to emerge and ambush Pell while his back was turned. Pell left the classroom, made his way through the adjacent hall and into the gymnasium again. After entering, he tossed aside the rifle and retrieved a one of the TEC-9's from his duffel bag. From here, he re-entered the main hall. Upon passing one of the classrooms, he turned to see a teacher looking through the window in the door. Pell shot him through the glass, killing him instantly. He proceeded to look through the door into the classroom, at which point he put his arm through and fired multiple shots in all directions. Four students were critically injured, one killed.

Pell moved on, stopping before the students he'd shot at the beginning. Nearby was a critically injured student, barely moving, who had pulled himself several yards, a trail of blood in his wake. Pell slipped on the blood, slamming into the trophy case and hitting the floor. He stood, enraged, and fired repeatedly at the student, killing him. He re-entered the girl's restroom, probably hoping to find Erin still there. However, she was gone, as was the only other survivor that had been in one of the stalls. The damage to the bathroom shows that Pell flew into a rage and destroyed much of the interior with his bare hands, or broken pieces of one of the sinks. At approximately 11:29, he shot himself in the head with one of the M1911s. His body was found in the same corner Erin had backed into after being shot in the leg.

An autopsy on Pell didn't reveal any drugs, legal or illegal. His parents' relationship was on the rocks, and it showed as they often verbally sparred before other members of the family. He didn't suffer from any diagnosed conditions, nor did he maintain any sort of secret life from his family. He wasn't known to be interested in media violence, but did apparently, occasionally, go to the movies by himself on Sundays. One of the more prominent theories attempting to offer an understanding of the incident was his infatuation over Erin Farr; it became apparent through several writings that he was quite obsessed with her, but only pined from afar, as he was far too shy to approach her in any given situation. Her complete dismissal of him was also apparent.

Police procedure in such situations didn't involve storming buildings during shootings. Because of this, there was no intervention during and therefore Pell was left to his own devices with the massacre. The police were condemned by the community, and although there were major divisional reforms, updated procedural specifications and training programs, not much changed on a national level.

The high school shut down for seven months, during which time much of it was renovated, with memorials built appropriately. To date, it is the only shooting at a Recognition Church learning institution.