Every now and then when things start to go sideways, pure luck or circumstance turns the tide… but only if an opportunity is taken advantage of. That was the case on the morning of May 16, 2018 at approximately 8a.m. when alleged shooter Matthew Milby, Jr. opened fire with a 9mm semi-automatic rifle in the main hallway of Dixon High School.
Dixon is a smaller city in Illinois, located about a hundred miles west of Chicago. On that particular morning, the seniors were gathered in the high school’s gymnasium to practice for graduation. Milby, 19 years old at the time, was a former student of the high school. Post event investigation and statements from the Education Superintendent for that jurisdiction made it clear that Milby had not been expelled, had not dropped out and was eligible to graduate with his class. That said, no explanation was given for why Milby is almost always referred to as a “former student” at the school.
Video from the school’s security cameras show Milby in the school’s hallway, then exiting and then returning and going into the bathroom closest to the gym near the athletic offices. Video shows one of the school’s physical education teachers coming down the hallway out of the athletic offices. Milby steps out from behind a vending machine, where he was apparently hiding, concealing the rifle and perhaps readying it for his attack. The video shows Milby shooting several shots at the PE teacher, but not hitting him even once. Reportedly, you can see debris from the ceiling falling as Milby’s shots hit it. It’s hard to imagine missing an intended target from relatively close range (sounds like less than ten yards from the descriptions of the video). Does this mean Milby didn’t really want to shoot anyone?
Upon hearing the shots, the school’s assigned police officer responded immediately. The SRO, Mark Dallas, gave chase to Milby who fled from the school through the parking lot toward his vehicle which he had parked in a nearby wooded area. Milby is reported to have fired his weapon back at Dallas as the foot pursuit evolved and Dallas returned fire, striking Milby twice in the right side, neither shot causing critical injury. Milby was arrested and transported the hospital before being taken to a detention facility after being medically cleared. He was initially charged with three counts of Aggravated Discharge of a Firearm.
On the day after the shooting, Milby’s mother released a statement claiming that Milby had been so badly bullied in the past at school that his jaw had been broken. Other students reportedly watched the physical assault that caused the injury and no one did anything to help Milby.
Of interest is how the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) reported on this event the day after it occurred. The headline reads, “Heroic Illinois Officer Guns Down School Shooter.” The headline brings up images of the old west and a gunfight with one shooter killing the other at high noon. Dallas did not “gun down” Milby… although, if your society embraces complete gun control and is critical of other nations’ rights and laws, it’s easy to see how you’d write it that way.
After completion of the post-event investigation, Milby was charged with two counts of attempted murder and four counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm. Milby, as far as this author can find to date, has still not stood trial. His mental ability to do so has been a yo-yo battle. In January and March of 2019 he was examined and found unfit for trial. After months of mental counseling and treatment, in September of 2019 Milby was declared fit for trial. But then in January of 2020, he was again declared unfit for trial and remanded for more mental counseling / treatment. That’s the last reported status of his case.
In an interesting and related turn of events, Milby’s father – Matthew Milby, Sr. was reportedly arrested in February 2020 after having tried to hire someone to commit to assassinations for him. Milby, Sr. was arrested and charged with two counts of Solicitation of Murder for Hire. In all of the reporting on the school shooting event and post event investigation, there is no mention of Milby’s father until this article in February 2020 when he’s arrested. It might lead one to wonder what type of father he was; absentee or involved; responsible or not; law abiding or not. Would he have contributed to Milby’s willingness to commit an act of violence?
One also has to wonder if Milby really had the intent to commit murder, or even to wound people. While he allegedly fired several shot at the PE Teacher in the hallway, he missed so badly as to hit the ceiling in the hallway. That is either stupendously bad shooting, or it demonstrated his intent to miss. Immediately upon confrontation by SRO Dallas, Milby fled the school and even as he fired his weapon toward the officer, he was running. This was not aimed fire, but may have been something akin to panic fire – just trying to get the SRO to stop chasing him so he could get away. Kudos go out to the SRO Dallas, his immediate response and having given chase to the identified threat.
While there were no victims shot in this incident, it’s included in our series on active shooters because the potential was vast. No information this author can find has been reported on who type of weapon Milby had or what capacity the magazine had. Did he have other magazines? Was he prepared to shoot ten people? Twenty? Thirty? We may never know. What we DO know is that the timely intervention of a School Resource Officer, once again, clearly demonstrates how loss of life can be minimized.
Joshua Borelli
Joshua Borelli has been studying active shooter and mass attack events over the course of the past several years, commensurate with receiving training on response and recovery to natural disasters and civil disturbances. Joshua started to outline this series of articles in an attempt to identify commonalities and logistical needs patterns for response.
