James Huberty

Case record: James Huberty

Identity

James Oliver Huberty was a 41-year-old unemployed security guard. He was born in Canton, Ohio, on October 11, 1942.

Background

Huberty contracted polio when he was three. He made a progressive recovery, but the disease caused permanent walking difficulties. In the early 1950s, his father bought a farm in the Pennsylvania Amish Country. Huberty’s mother refused to live in the Amish country and abandoned her family to do sidewalk preaching for a Southern Baptist organization. Her abandonment left a profound effect on Huberty, who became sullen and withdrawn.

In 1962, Huberty enrolled at a Jesuit community college, where he earned a degree in sociology. He later received a license for embalming at the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While at mortuary school, he met his wife, Etna. They married in 1965 and had two daughters, Zelia and Cassandra. The Huberty family settled in Massillon, Ohio, where James worked as an undertaker at the Don Williams Funeral Home.

In 1971, the Huberty family was forced to relocate to Canton after their house in Massillon was set ablaze. While living in Canton, Huberty found work as a welder for Union Metal Inc.

Huberty and his wife Etna had a history of violent behavior. At a birthday party for a neighbor’s daughter, Etna instructed her daughter Zelia to physically assault one of her classmates. In a related altercation with the child’s mother, Etna threatened the woman with a 9 mm pistol; although she was arrested, the Canton police failed to confiscate the weapon.

At one point James shot his German Shepherd in the head when a neighbor complained about the dog damaging his car. Domestic violence was frequent in the Huberty household. Etna once filled a report with the Canton Department of Children and Family Services that her husband had “messed up” her jaw.

To pacify James and his bouts of violence, Etna produced tarot cards and pretended to read his future, which produced a temporary calming effect.

As a result of a motorcycle accident, Huberty had an uncontrollable twitch in his right arm, which made it impossible for him to continue as a welder.

In January 1984, the Huberty family left Canton and briefly stayed in Tijuana, Mexico before settling in San Ysidro, a community of San Diego, California. Huberty found work as a security guard in San Ysidro but was dismissed two weeks before the shooting. His apartment was three blocks away from the site of the massacre.

Investigation and pre-shooting conduct

On the day before the massacre, Huberty called a mental health center. The receptionist misspelled his name on intake as “Shouberty”. Since he had not claimed there was an immediate emergency, his call was not returned.

Huberty and his family went to the San Diego Zoo on the morning of July 18. They ate at a McDonald’s in the Clairemont neighborhood in northern San Diego a few hours prior to the massacre. Before Huberty left for McDonald’s, his wife Etna asked where he was going. Huberty responded that he was “hunting humans”. Earlier that day he commented to his wife, “Society had its chance.”

When questioned by police, Etna gave no explanation as to why she failed to report this behavior.

A witness spotted Huberty as he left his apartment and proceeded down San Ysidro Boulevard with two firearms. The witness phoned police, but the dispatcher gave the reporting officers the wrong address.

Timeline

• July 18, 1984 — The massacre began at 3:40 p.m. and lasted for 77 minutes.
• July 18, 1984 — Police communications received the first telephone call of shooting at McDonald’s at 4:00 p.m.
• July 18, 1984 — Officer Mike Rosario, first on the scene, called out over radio: “Shots being fired at me. Returning fire with two rounds. Request code 10.”
• July 18, 1984 — Officer Velasquez arrived and described the suspect as firing at anything that moved.
• July 18, 1984 — Command post was established two blocks from the shooting scene; full SWAT alert issued at 4:10 to 4:19.
• July 18, 1984 — SWAT Commander Lt. Jerry Sanders was notified of shootings after his pager failed to work at 4:29.
• July 18, 1984 — First SWAT sniper team arrived at the scene at 4:35.
• July 18, 1984 — Two witnesses escaped through the back door of the restaurant and were debriefed at 4:46.
• July 18, 1984 — SWAT marksman Charles Foster killed Huberty with a single shot at 5:17 p.m.

The offence: San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre

Huberty used a 9 mm Uzi semi-automatic (the primary weapon fired), a Winchester pump-action 12-gauge shotgun, and a 9 mm Browning HP in the restaurant. He killed 22 people and wounded 19 others. Huberty’s victims were predominantly Mexican and Mexican-American and ranged in age from 8 months to 74 years.

The massacre began at 3:40 p.m. and lasted for 77 minutes. Huberty spent 257 rounds of ammunition before he was fatally shot by a SWAT team sniper, Chuck Foster, perched on the roof of the post office adjacent to the restaurant.

Law enforcement initially responded to the McDonald’s located at the U.S. International Border with Tijuana at 3:15 p.m., then changed directions 15 minutes later after learning the shooting was taking place at the McDonald’s next to the post office approximately 2 miles away.

During the massacre, Huberty stated that he had killed thousands in Vietnam, but he had never served in any military branch. Eye-witnesses said he had previously been seen at the Big Bear supermarket and later at the U.S. Post Office. It was surmised that he found the McDonald’s a better target.

Due to the number of victims, local funeral homes had to use the San Ysidro Civic Center to hold all the wakes. The local parish, Mount Carmel Church, had to have back-to-back funeral masses to accommodate all the dead.

Victims named

Elsa Herlinda Borboa-Firro, 19 (McDonald’s employee) Neva Denise Caine, 22 (McDonald’s manager) Michelle Deanne Carncross, 18 María Elena Colmenero-Silva, 19 David Flores Delgado, 11 Gloria López González, 23 Omar Alonso Hernández, 11 Blythe Regan Herrera, 31 (mother of Matao Herrera) Matao Herrera, 11 Paulina Aquino López, 21 (McDonald’s employee) Margarita Padilla, 18 (McDonald’s employee) Claudia Pérez, 9 Jose Rubén Lozano Pérez, 19 Carlos Reyes, 8 months Jackie Lynn Wright Reyes, 18 (mother of Carlos Reyes) Victor Maxmillian Rivera, 25 Arisdelsi Vuelvas Vargas, 31 Hugo Luis Velazquez Vasquez, 45 Laurence Herman “Gus” Versluis, 62 Aida Velazquez Victoria, 69 Miguel Victoria-Ulloa, 74 (husband of Aida Victoria)

Aftermath

Property and memorial

On September 26, 1984, McDonald’s tore down the restaurant where the massacre occurred and gave the property to the city. The city established the Education Center as part of Southwestern Community College. This location was built in 1988 as an expansion of its off-campus locations. In front of the school, a memorial to the massacre victims consisted of 21 hexagonal granite pillars ranging in height from one to six feet.

Lawsuit

In 1986, Etna Huberty, Huberty’s widow, unsuccessfully sued McDonald’s and Babcock and Wilcox, Huberty’s longtime former employer, in an Ohio state court for $7.88 million. She claimed that the massacre was triggered by the combined mixture of McDonald’s food and work around poisonous metals. She alleged that monosodium glutamate in the food, combined with high levels of lead and cadmium in Huberty’s body, induced delusions and uncontrollable rage. An autopsy revealed high levels of the metals, most likely built up from fumes inhaled during 14 years of welding. Autopsy results also revealed there were no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of the killings.

Coroner and body research

The brain of mass killer James Oliver Huberty would be destroyed rather than given to doctors for research because there was no reason to believe they could learn anything useful. Coroner David Stark said: “We will not be releasing it,” and “We will keep it for about 90 days. We routinely keep blood and tissue for 90 days unless there are still questions.”

Other reported events in popular culture

The murders were reconstructed in The Sett (1996), a book by Ranulph Fiennes, dealing with revenge killing. Singer Kristin Hersh referenced Huberty in the Throwing Muses song “Hate My Way,” a track from the band’s eponymous debut album.

Additional people and statements included in the record

Chuck Foster was identified as a SWAT team sniper who fatally shot Huberty.

Juan Echavarria was identified as a reserve police officer who reported observing three injured youngsters outside the restaurant shortly after 4 p.m.

Terry Kelly was identified as a former coworker who said Huberty “was always talking about shooting somebody.”

Brother Dave Lombardi was identified as a minister who discussed beliefs about Huberty’s childhood.

Charles Rubner was identified as a McDonald’s spokesman who said: “The fact is that a McDonald’s restaurant was the site of the killings.”

Carlos Lopez was identified as the grandfather of a wounded victim and said: “This could happen anywhere.”

Coroner David Stark was quoted saying: “We will not be releasing it,” and “We will keep it for about 90 days.

Sarah and other named individuals included in the record:

• Juan Acosta, 33, of Tijuana, Mexico (gunshot wounds to left knee and arms)
• Felix Astaifo, 26, of San Diego (minor injuries of chest and neck)
• Maricela Flores, 23, of San Diego (critical condition with wounds of the face, chest and pelvis)
• Ronald Herrera, 25, of Orange, California (critical condition with neck and chest wounds)
• Francisco Lopez, 22, of San Ysidro (gunshot wounds)
• Guadalupe del Rio, 24, of Tijuana (gunshot wounds, treated and released)
• Stacy Rosebrough was identified as a Bay Hospital Medical Center spokesman.

Gloria Salas, 38, was identified as a leader of a grassroots effort; she said afterward of Joan Kroc: the quotation appeared as a setup without the quote following it in the record.

Joan Kroc and Ray A. Kroc were referenced in the record.

Karlita Maria Felix was referenced as a four-month-old who was discharged from Children’s Hospital; she had suffered shotgun pellet wounds in the head, right chest and abdomen.

Etna Huberty was quoted saying: “A psychologist or a counselor could have gotten him to a medical doctor - a psychiatrist - and he could have given him medication,” and also saying in a statement: “Everyone is wondering why he would do such a thing,” “He was always very sad and lonely.”

Equipment and ammunition referenced

Huberty was described as having an Uzi semiautomatic, an U.S.-issued rifle with a telescope-sighted Remington .308-caliber rifle used by the sniper, a Winchester pump-action 12-gauge shotgun, and a 9 mm Browning HP. He spent 257 rounds of ammunition before being killed.

The record described SWAT command decisions including a “green light” to sharpshooters and a rescindment heard by SWAT Commander Sanders. It recorded these radio and event fragments as part of the sequence.