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Brenda Ann Spencer’s Background

Brenda Ann Spencer was born in San Diego, California, on April 3rd, 1962. She was the youngest of three children, and her parents had been married for just over seven years at the time of her birth.

Just before Brenda turned 10 in 1972, her parents split up due to infidelity issues. After that, Brenda and her father lived in poverty for the next few years.

By the time she was 16, they lived in a home across the street from Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California.

Spencer didn’t care too much about learning, and she hated cops as much as she hated school. She frequently called them pigs and talked about wanting to blow them away.

She had a BB gun she would use to hunt birds in her neighborhood. She also had an incident where she shot out the windows of Cleveland Elementary School with a BB gun.

That incident, along with a burglary charge, landed her on probation and added to her already poor reputation.

She was considered crazy by many of her classmates, and some even claimed they were afraid of her.

By December 1978, her probation officer thought she had some mental health issues. He had a psychiatrist evaluate her, and the doctor recommended she go to a mental hospital for depression. Since she was just 16, her father needed permission, but refused.

He thought the best way to cheer his daughter up was to buy her something. She wanted a radio for Christmas, but he gave her a rifle with a telescopic sight and 500 rounds of ammo instead.

1979 Grover Cleveland Elementary School Shooting

On January 29th, 1979, Spencer woke up to see dozens of children standing outside Grover Cleveland Elementary School, waiting for the 53-year-old principal, Burton Wragg, to open the door.

She grabbed her brand-new rifle and started shooting into the crowd. She fired 36 shots but stopped shooting when police moved a garbage truck in place to block her line of fire.

At the end of her rampage, Wragg and 56-year-old school custodian Mike Suchar were dead, and eight others were injured, including a police officer whom she shot in the neck.

Spencer refused to give up and barricaded herself in her home. While inside, she received a call from a newspaper reporter who inquired why she did it. She stated, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.”

She later surrendered after authorities offered her Burger King.

Legal Proceedings

She pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon. On April 4th, 1980, she was sentenced to 25 years to life.

She has been eligible for parole since 1993, but she has been denied several times, with the most recent one in February 2025. The 62-year-old will be up for parole again in 2028.