San Ysidro McDonald's massacre

On July 18, 1984, 41-year-old James Huberty drove to a McDonald's restaurant on San Ysidro Boulevard in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California, approximately 200 yards from his apartment, and opened fire on staff and customers. He was armed with a 9mm Browning HP pistol, a 9mm Uzi carbine, and a Winchester 1200 12-gauge shotgun, along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Forty-five customers were inside the restaurant at the time.

Huberty began shooting shortly before 4:00 p.m., killing restaurant manager Neva Caine and wounding an employee before turning his weapons on other staff and customers, including several children and a pregnant woman. Victims killed inside and outside the restaurant ranged in age from four months to 74 years old, and included María Colmenero-Silva, Claudia Pérez, Jackie Reyes (who was pregnant) and her infant son Carlos Reyes, Laurence Versluis, Blythe Regan Herrera and her son Matao, Arisdelsi Vuelvas Vargas, Hugo Velázquez Vasquez, Omarr Alonso Hernandez, David Flores Delgado, Aída Velázquez Victoria, Miguel Victoria Ulloa, Paulina López, Elsa Borboa-Fierro, Margarita Padilla, Jose Pérez, Gloria González, and Michelle Carncross. A dispatch error initially sent responding officers to the wrong McDonald's location, delaying the police lockdown of the area. San Diego police established a perimeter, deployed roughly 175 officers, and were later joined by SWAT personnel.

At 5:17 p.m., approximately 77 minutes after the shooting began, SWAT sniper Charles Foster fired a single shot from a position on a nearby post office roof, striking Huberty in the chest and killing him. In total, Huberty fired at least 257 rounds, killing 21 people, including an unborn child, and wounding 19 others; one additional victim was declared brain dead and died the following day. Seventeen victims died inside the restaurant and four in the immediate vicinity.

Huberty had a documented history of domestic violence, unemployment, financial strain, and expressed paranoid and survivalist beliefs. The day before the shooting, he had called a mental health clinic seeking an appointment; the call was misclassified as non-urgent and not promptly returned. He had never served in the military despite repeatedly claiming otherwise during the attack.

In the aftermath, McDonald's did not reopen the restaurant, which was demolished in September 1984; the site was later donated to the City of San Diego and eventually sold to Southwestern College, with a permanent memorial to the 21 victims unveiled in 1990. Lawsuits filed by survivors and victims' families against McDonald's and the San Diego Police Department were dismissed, with the California Court of Appeal affirming summary judgment for the defendants in 1987. A separate lawsuit filed by Huberty's widow against McDonald's and his former employer was also dismissed. The case remains the deadliest mass shooting in California history.