Luby's shooting

On October 16, 1991, at approximately 12:39 p.m., 35-year-old George Pierre Hennard drove a blue 1987 Ford Ranger pickup truck through the plate-glass front window of a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas. The restaurant was unusually crowded, with around 150 patrons present, because the day was Boss's Day. Hennard began firing from inside the truck using a Glock 17 and a Ruger P89 pistol; veterinarian Michael Griffith was the first person killed. Hennard exited the vehicle, shouted statements blaming "women of Killeen and Belton" and Bell County for his grievances, and then moved through the cafeteria shooting patrons and staff, reportedly selecting some victims and sparing others.

Witness accounts describe Hennard addressing several women as "bitch" before shooting them, and separately ordering a woman carrying a crying baby to leave before he "changed his mind." During the attack, a bullet that struck one victim passed through and killed a second person, 70-year-old Venice Ellen Henehan. Twenty-eight-year-old Tommy Vaughan threw himself through a rear window during a lull in the shooting, creating an escape route that allowed roughly a third of those present to flee before police arrived.

Hennard reloaded multiple times and engaged in a brief shootout with responding police officers. He was struck twice by police gunfire in the abdomen but refused orders to surrender, stating he intended to kill more people. He then died by suicide, shooting himself in the head. In total, Hennard fired approximately 80 rounds and police fired approximately 30; only Hennard was struck by police fire. He killed 23 people, including 10 shot at point-blank range, and wounded 27 others.

Hennard, a former Merchant Marine seaman discharged for drug use and racial incidents, had a documented history of hostility toward women, including a stalking letter sent to two sisters in his neighborhood months before the attack. Fifteen of the 23 people killed were women. He was described by acquaintances as reclusive and prone to explosive anger, and had reportedly studied the 1984 San Ysidro McDonald's massacre extensively.

The attack, at the time, was the deadliest mass shooting by a single perpetrator in modern U.S. history until surpassed by the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. In its aftermath, survivor Suzanna Hupp, whose parents Alphonse and Ursula Gratia were killed, became a prominent advocate for concealed-carry legislation in Texas, which was eventually signed into law in 1995. A memorial listing victims' names stands behind the Killeen Community Center. The cafeteria reopened five months after the shooting and operated until closing permanently in 2000.