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Solved case · 1987
Also known as 1987 Murray-Wright High School shooting
The short answer
In April 1987, a 14-year-old student shot and killed 17-year-old Chester Jackson and wounded two other students at Murray–Wright High School in Detroit; the attacker, Michael Schofield, was later convicted in juvenile court and years afterward committed additional killings before dying by suicide.
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On April 16, 1987, a shooting occurred at Murray–Wright High School, a Detroit Public Schools secondary school in the city's Woodbridge neighborhood. According to contemporaneous reporting by James Risen of the Los Angeles Times, a student entered the school's parking lot around noon and shot 17-year-old Chester Jackson, a junior running back, in the head, killing him. The attacker then went into the school's gymnasium and shot 18-year-old Damon Matthews, a basketball player, in the face. An 18-year-old, Tomeka Turner, was also wounded, apparently in the school's corridors as the attacker fled the building. Matthews received treatment at Detroit Receiving Hospital.
The attacker was identified as Michael Schofield, who was 14 years old at the time of the crime. He was 15 at sentencing and was ordered to serve time in a juvenile correctional facility until he turned 19. Risen, writing for the Los Angeles Times News Service, described the shooting as the incident that put "most clearly into focus" a broader pattern of youth violence affecting Detroit at the time.
The 1987 shooting followed a separate violent incident at the school less than two years earlier: on October 18, 1985, during homecoming festivities, a car pulled onto the football field during a Public School League game between Murray–Wright and Northwestern High School, and one occupant fired a shotgun into a crowd of roughly 300 people, injuring seven, including six teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 19. All were treated at Detroit Receiving Hospital, and the suspects fled the scene.
In the aftermath of the April 1987 shooting, school officials closed Murray–Wright for two days and held special assemblies addressing school violence; officials reported that about half of the students who attended these assemblies did so with a parent, despite earlier concerns that few parents would attend.
Michael Schofield's history of violence did not end with his juvenile sentence. Schofield killed four people on September 11, 2003, during an attempted robbery of a convenience store in Westland, Michigan, and then killed himself. A co-defendant in that 2003 crime, Leslie Gordon, was sentenced to life without parole.
4 dated entries · 1985–2003
During Murray-Wright homecoming festivities, occupants of a car fired a shotgun into a crowd of about 300 people on the football field, injuring seven, including six teenagers.
A 14-year-old student, Michael Schofield, shot and killed 17-year-old Chester Jackson in the school parking lot, then shot and wounded 18-year-old Damon Matthews in the gymnasium and wounded 18-year-old Tomeka Turner in a corridor while fleeing.
Michael Schofield, sentenced at age 15, was ordered to serve time in a juvenile correctional facility until age 19.
Michael Schofield killed four people during an attempted robbery of a convenience store in Westland, Michigan, and then killed himself.
5 named in this file
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
17-year-old junior running back shot and killed in the school parking lot on April 16, 1987.[3]
18-year-old basketball player shot in the face in the gymnasium during the April 16, 1987 attack; survived and received treatment.[3]
18-year-old wounded in a school corridor as the attacker fled the building on April 16, 1987.[3]
Co-defendant in the 2003 Westland, Michigan convenience store killings; sentenced to life without parole.[3]
Convicted as a juvenile for the April 16, 1987 shooting at Murray-Wright High School that killed Chester Jackson and wounded two others; sentenced to a juvenile correctional facility until age 19. Later killed four people in 2003 and died by suicide.[3]
From the record
3 cited
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
PressLos Angeles TimesAccessed Jul 7, 2026
Pressnl.newsbank.comAccessed Jul 7, 2026
EncyclopedicWikipediaAccessed Jul 7, 2026
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