Murder of John Gillette: 1998 Parker Middle School dance shooting

On April 24, 1998, Andrew Jerome Wurst, a 14-year-old eighth-grade student, arrived late to a school dinner dance held at Nick's Place, a banquet facility near Edinboro, Pennsylvania. He was carrying his father's .25-caliber pistol concealed under his jacket. Wurst had previously left a suicide note under his pillow and told investigators he had originally planned to go to the dance only to kill himself.

The shooting began on an outdoor patio around 21:40, about 20 minutes before the dance was scheduled to end. Teacher John Gillette, 48, approached Wurst and asked him to come inside; Wurst shot him once in the face and once in the spine, killing him. Wurst then entered the banquet hall itself, where he fired additional shots, wounding teacher Edrye Boraten and two students, Jacob Tury and Robert Zemcheck. The attack ended when the owner of Nick's Place, James Strand, confronted Wurst with a shotgun, ordered him to drop his weapon, and held him at bay for 11 minutes before getting him to the ground. A search of Wurst turned up a dinner fork in his sock; he had already run out of ammunition.

Prior to the shooting, Wurst was described by peers as an average but somewhat withdrawn student. One classmate recalled that he had grown curt and unfriendly and had told others he wanted to "kill people and commit suicide." Wurst had also attempted to recruit another student to help carry out the attack and had mentioned his plan to classmates days beforehand; at the dance itself, he reportedly showed the gun to other students, none of whom alerted an adult.

Descriptions of Wurst's mental state at the time indicate he was experiencing psychosis. He reportedly believed at times that everyone around him was a "zombie" already dead, or alternatively that he was the only real person in the world with everyone else activated only in his presence. He also claimed to be an alien brought to Earth as an infant and, at school, sometimes referred to himself as "your god, Satan." He had a history of developmental difficulties, including bedwetting as late as age nine and a persistent fear of monsters as a young teenager. He had no formal diagnosis of mental illness prior to the shooting.

Wurst's attorneys considered pursuing an insanity defense but ultimately recommended a guilty plea, judging it difficult to persuade a jury. He was charged with attempted murder, third-degree murder, and first-degree murder, and pleaded guilty in a plea agreement to the lesser charge of third-degree murder along with attempted murder, avoiding a life sentence. He was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison and is currently incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution – Forest, with parole eligibility in 2029.