1995 Richland High School shooting

1995 Richland High School shooting
LocationLynnville, Tennessee, United States
DateNovember 15, 1995 (CST)
Attack type
School shooting, double-murder
Weapons.22-caliber Remington Model 522 Viper semi-automatic rifle
Deaths2
Injured1
PerpetratorJames Ellison Rouse
MotiveRevenge for poor grades
VerdictGuilty on all counts
ConvictionsRouse: Abbott:
Criminal responsibility (4 counts)
SentenceRouse:
Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, plus 42 years
Abbott:
40 years imprisonment; commuted to 27 years imprisonment
ConvictedRouse, Stephen Abbott

The Richland High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on Wednesday, November 15, 1995,[1] in Lynnville, Tennessee, a small community located in Giles County. Seventeen-year-old James Ellison "Jamie" Rouse, a senior student at the school, murdered one teacher and one student, and seriously wounded another teacher.[2]

Perpetrator

Jamie Rouse
Born
James Ellison Rouse

(1978-08-05) August 5, 1978
U.S.
Criminal status
Incarcerated
ConvictionsFirst degree murder (2 counts), Attempted murder (2 counts)
Criminal penalty
Life without parole
Imprisoned atTurney Center Industrial Complex

James "Jamie" Ellison Rouse was born on 8/5/1978. During his junior year in 1995, he held his brother Jeremy at gunpoint, as punishment for the threat, the boys parents took away Jamie's gun, though he later obtained the rifle used in the subsequent school crime. For his senior year yearbook entry, Jamie wrote a threatening reference leaving his bad memories to his two younger brothers. He also got in a fight with two students in spring 1995 during which he kept threatening to kill the boys, Rouse was suspended for three days for the fight.[3]

Shooting

Rouse used a .22-calibre Remington Viper semi-automatic rifle,[4] which he hid behind bushes before driving to retrieve his friend. His friend Stephen Abbot drove Jamie Rouse the rest of the way to Richland High School. He parked the car outside the school, and Rouse entered through the north entrance hallway. Inside the hallway he confronted teachers Carolyn Yancey and Carolyn Foster.[5]

He then shot both teachers in the head in the view of over fifty students in the hallway. He then aimed his rifle at football coach Ron Shirey; however, he missed and fatally shot freshman Diane Collins in the throat. He was then tackled by a male student and an agriculture teacher, who forcibly took the rifle away from him. Carolyn Foster was killed by a gunshot wound to the head, while Carolyn Yancey survived in serious condition.[2]

Trial

Rouse was convicted as an adult of one count of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, and one count of first-degree attempted murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 42 years.[6] Stephen Abbott was convicted of criminal responsibility for second degree murder and criminal response for attempted first and second degree murder as a judge decided Abbott knew what Jamie Rouse was planning because Rouse had told him, "It's going to happen today." Abbott was sentenced to 40 years in prison.[7] Abbott's sentence was later reduced to 27 years, and he was released from prison on January 26, 2014.[8]

Aftermath

On December 4, 1995, Rouse's 14-year-old brother Jeremy was arrested and charged with solicitation to commit first-degree murder for trying to get other students to finish the shooting.[9]

Rouse is currently imprisoned in the Turney Center Industrial Complex.[10][11][12][13][14] As of January 2016, he was up for resentencing due to the Supreme Court cases Miller v. Alabama and Montgomery v. Louisiana, which have banned juvenile offenders from getting a mandatory life without parole sentence and required those who were previously sentenced to life to be given a chance for a resentencing.[15][16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ LAURIE GOODSTEIN and WILLIAM GLABERSON (April 10, 2000). "The Well-Marked Roads to Homicidal Rage". New York Times.
  2. 1 2 Meyer, Richrd E. (April 22, 2000). "When The Shooting Stops". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Rampage Killers: The Well-Marked Roads to Homicidal Rage". archive.nytimes.com.
  4. ↑ "School Killers — The List — Crime Library". March 10, 2014. Archived from the original on March 10, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  5. ↑ Rebecca Leung. "The mind of a school killer". 48 Hours. CBS News. Archived from the original on April 15, 2004.
  6. ↑ Violence Goes to School Archived October 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ "When The Shooting Stops". Los Angeles Times. April 22, 2000.
  8. ↑ "Detailed Results". foil.app.tn.gov. Retrieved May 23, 2025.
  9. ↑ "POLICE ARREST TEEN'S BROTHER IN TENNESSEE SCHOOL KILLING". December 6, 1995.
  10. ↑ "U.S. Supreme Court rules on juvenile offenders". Columbia Daily Herald. January 25, 2016. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
  11. ↑ Mass Shootings in America: Understanding the Debates, Causes, and Responses. ABC-CLIO. May 25, 2018. ISBN 9781440856259.
  12. ↑ "Richland High School shooting. The Richland High School shooting was a school shooting that occurred on Wednesday, November 15, 1995, in Lynnville, Tennessee, A".
  13. ↑ "'Relearn school': Discipline amid pandemic dominates concerns at Maury County schools".
  14. ↑ "Detailed Results".
  15. ↑ "U.S. Supreme Court rules on juvenile offenders". The Daily Herald. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  16. ↑ "James Ellison Rouse v. State of Tennessee | Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts". www.tncourts.gov. Retrieved December 4, 2020.

35°20′14″N 87°01′55″W / 35.3371°N 87.0319°W / 35.3371; -87.0319

This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.