1984 Dallas nightclub shooting

Shortly after midnight on June 29, 1984, Abdelkrim Belachheb, a 39-year-old Moroccan national and U.S. resident alien, opened fire inside Ianni's Restaurant and Club in Dallas, Texas. The shooting followed an argument on the dance floor with a woman who had shoved him and called him a "monkey." Belachheb left the bar, retrieved a Smith & Wesson 459 pistol from his car, and returned. He shot the woman point-blank, then walked down a row of bar stools shooting four more people. He briefly left the bar again before returning to shoot and kill another man, and shot a seventh victim as he fled the scene. Witnesses described him as calm during the attack. Three of the six people killed were shot execution-style, with the gun held to their heads. The dead were four women and two men, ranging in age from 32 to 49. Five victims died at the scene, and the woman he had argued with died en route to Parkland Memorial Hospital. One victim, John McNeill, survived after being left in serious condition.

Belachheb fled the club but crashed his car into a telephone pole; police traced the vehicle to him, and he was arrested at a friend's house roughly two hours later. He was initially charged only with the woman's death but was subsequently charged with five additional counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

At trial, Belachheb pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His defense argued he had brain damage from repeated blows to the head and could not distinguish right from wrong; one doctor testified he had paranoid schizophrenia and was undergoing a seizure at the time of the shooting. Two other psychiatrists testified he had an anti-social personality but was legally sane, and stated there was no evidence of brain damage. Under Texas law at the time, multiple murder alone was not an aggravating factor required for a capital charge, so Belachheb could not be sentenced to death. He was instead sentenced to six consecutive life sentences plus fines totaling $70,000, along with a maximum 20-year sentence and $10,000 fine for the attempted murder, to be served consecutively. His appeal was denied.

The case prompted Texas legislators to add a "multiple victims" provision to the state's capital murder statute during the next legislative session. It also drew criticism of U.S. immigration policy, since Belachheb had been a fugitive in both Belgium and Morocco — wanted for assaulting his wife and daughter — yet was able to obtain a U.S. visa, reportedly through fraudulent statements about his residency and criminal history. Surviving victim John McNeill and relatives of four deceased victims later sued the Immigration and Naturalization Service, though the lawsuit did not proceed far. An August 1985 ABC News 20/20 segment, "Passport for Murder," examined how Belachheb entered the country. Belachheb died in prison on October 19, 2017, at age 72, of natural causes.