2017 North Park Elementary School shooting

On the morning of April 10, 2017, a shooting occurred inside a special education classroom at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, California. The attack was characterized as an apparent murder–suicide and an act of domestic violence. Three people died from their wounds: the gunman, his wife, who taught at the school, and a student who had been standing behind her. A second student was wounded and hospitalized.

The gunman, later identified as Cedric Anderson, first attempted to enter the school through a locked secondary door, which failed. He then went through the main entrance and was granted access after telling administrators he needed to drop something off to his wife. Staff did not notice his concealed firearm. Shortly before 10:30 a.m., he entered Classroom B-1, where his wife, 53-year-old teacher Karen Elaine Smith, was standing roughly ten to fifteen feet from the door. Without speaking, he opened fire with a large-caliber revolver, firing ten rounds and reloading once before shooting himself. Fifteen students, ranging from first to fourth grade, along with two teacher's aides, were present in the classroom. Two students were struck by gunfire.

One of the wounded students, eight-year-old Jonathan Martinez, who had Williams syndrome, was airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center and later died there. The second wounded student, nine-year-old Nolan Brandy, was hit in the upper body, was initially listed in critical condition, and later stabilized, recovering enough to be discharged to continue recovery at home. Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said the boys were not deliberately targeted and may have been struck by stray bullets, though a teacher's aide who witnessed the shooting said the gunman had attempted to shoot another aide before running out of ammunition.

A search of Anderson's home turned up a handwritten note referencing his relationship with Smith, which Chief Burguan described as referencing "needing closure and feeling disrespected and dishonored," though not framed as a suicide note beyond the context of the shooting. Anderson and Smith had been in a relationship for four years but were only married from January to March 2017 before separating. Anderson had a documented history of domestic violence accusations, including a 1997 restraining-order petition filed by a former wife and a 2013 restraining order obtained by a former girlfriend, though no convictions resulted from any prior arrests. According to Burguan, Anderson had contacted Smith before the shooting in an attempt to get her to return to him and had made threats against her that were not taken seriously; Smith's relatives said she had been staying at their homes to avoid him.

The school was closed following the shooting and reopened on April 17. The district's superintendent announced a review of campus security, including a new rule limiting non-staff campus access to fingerprinted volunteers.