Solved case · 1995
The short answer
On October 12, 1995, a 16-year-old suspended student shot two teachers at Blackville–Hilda High School in South Carolina, killing one and wounding the other, before fatally shooting himself.
No one's coverage is attached to this file yet.
Know great coverage of this case?
A documentary, a podcast episode, a careful long-form video. Suggest it and an editor will review it before it appears here.
Suggest coverage for this caseOn October 12, 1995, a school shooting occurred at Blackville–Hilda High School in Blackville, South Carolina. The perpetrator, 16-year-old Anthony Sincino, was a student at the school who had been suspended at the time of the attack. Sincino entered the school through a back door armed with a .32 caliber revolver.
Sincino first entered the classroom of math teacher Johnny Thompson and shot him in the face. He then left the room and confronted another math teacher, Phyllis Senn, in the teachers' work room. Senn was found dead and was initially believed to have died of a heart attack, but an autopsy later determined she had been shot once in the back of her right shoulder, with the bullet entering a lung and causing rapid blood loss. A student in a classroom across the hall from the first shooting later stated that Sincino did not appear angry during the attack, but instead seemed as though he did not know exactly what he was doing.
Sincino's body was subsequently found outside the school office door; he had died by suicide, shooting himself in the right temple.
Sincino was African American, while those he attacked or allegedly attempted to attack — including the school's principal, whom he had allegedly stalked prior to the shooting — were white. This fueled speculation that the shooting was racially motivated, an assertion supported by Sincino's mother, who attributed her son's actions to his being a victim of institutional racism. Sincino had a documented history of disciplinary problems at the school, including an expulsion in 1994 and a subsequent expulsion for making obscene hand gestures on a school bus after he was readmitted in 1995. Some in the community, including Sincino's friend Latisha Grant, viewed these disciplinary actions as unnecessarily harsh, and there was a broader belief locally that the severity of the discipline was connected to Sincino being African American.
Sincino, armed with a .32 caliber revolver, entered Blackville–Hilda High School through a back door and shot teacher Johnny Thompson in the face.
Sincino confronted teacher Phyllis Senn in the teachers' work room; she was shot once in the back of the right shoulder and later found dead.
Sincino's body was found outside the school office door after he died by suicide from a gunshot to the right temple.
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
Are you family of someone named in this file? Corrections and removal requests from victims’ families are prioritized.
ONGOINGListenHampton, South Carolina · 2010s
Stephen Smith was found dead on a Hampton County road in 2015; SLED later classified the case as an active homicide investigation, and no one has been charged.
OVERTURNEDListenMoselle estate, Islandton, South Carolina · 2020s
On June 7, 2021, Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found shot to death at their family's hunting estate in Islandton, South Carolina. Maggie's husband and Paul's father, attorney Alex Murdaugh, was convicted of both murders in March 2023 and sentenced to two consecutive life terms, but the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the convictions in May 2026 after finding a court clerk had tampered with the jury; a retrial on the murder charges is scheduled for April 2027.
SOLVEDListenFive Points, Columbia, South Carolina · 2010s
A University of South Carolina senior was kidnapped and stabbed to death in March 2019 after mistakenly entering a car she believed was her rideshare pickup in Columbia, South Carolina. The driver, Nathaniel Rowland, was convicted of her kidnapping and murder in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison, and the case prompted new rideshare-safety laws in several states and at the federal level.
Credit: Ron OlsenCC BY-SA 4.0SourceSOLVEDListenThurston High School, Springfield, Oregon, United States · 1998
On May 21, 1998, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel opened fire in the cafeteria of Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, killing two students and wounding 25 others, a day after killing his parents at their home.
Credit: San Quentin State Prison, California Department of Corrections and RehabilitationPublic domainSourceSOLVEDListenLindhurst High School, Olivehurst, California · 1992
On May 1, 1992, a former student armed with a shotgun and a sawed-off rifle killed four people and wounded ten others at Lindhurst High School in Olivehurst, California, before holding dozens of students hostage in an eight-hour standoff.
SOLVEDListenHeath High School, West Paducah, Kentucky · 1997
On December 1, 1997, 14-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on a student prayer group at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, killing three students and wounding six others before surrendering to the school principal.
