It is not often that we see an active shooter event that spans more than one relatively centralized location; it is even more rare to see one that spans more than one day (unless it’s within a few minutes before and after midnight). In the case of the shooting spree that occurred in Rancho Tehama in November 2017, both of these circumstances were displayed.
Rancho Tehama is an unincorporated community located northwest of Sacramento, California - a state with some of the most strict gun control laws in the nation.
The first murder considered part of this spree was that of Barbara Glisan, wife of the perpetrator Kevin Janson Neal who reportedly hid her body under some floor boards in their home. That murder occurred on November 13th and the remainder of the spree committed by Neal occurred the following day, November 14th. This is reminiscent of the way Seung Hui Cho, at Virginia Tech, murdered two students in a residence hall on one side of the campus and then, several hours later, enacted his plan across campus to kill dozens more. It is also similar to how Charles Whitman, way back in 1966, killed his parents before arming and provisioning himself to commit his murder spree at the University of Austin during the infamous “Texas Tower” incident.
On November 14th, Neal began his murder spree with the killing of his neighbors. Investigation revealed that he had an on-going debate with them, allegedly stemming from their belief - and reports - that he was dealing controlled substances from his home. After murdering his neighbors, he took their truck and drove to the nearby Rancho Tehama Elementary school. Along the way he fired, apparently randomly, at other drivers and pedestrians. At one point it’s reported that he had a minor accident with another vehicle containing a woman and her three children. Neal fired into the vehicle, striking the female driver five times and then drove away.
At the elementary school, one of the staff members heard the shooting not far away and put the school on lockdown. Neal drove the stolen pickup truck through the school’s gates, parked near the front of the school, exited the truck and, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, began firing at and into the windows on one side of the school. Some reports claimed he was attempting to shoot the son of the neighbors he had murdered and stolen the truck from.
At the school, several students were injured, as was a heroic woman who reportedly tried to distract Neal from shooting at the school. It should be noted, and honored, that any bullets Neal fired at her weren’t fired at the students, staff or faculty of the school. Post incident investigation revealed that Neal fired over 100 rounds at or into the school and after firing more in a nearby field, he dropped the rifle. He was still armed at that time with two pistols, one a .40S&W caliber and the other a .45ACP.
After leaving the school, still in the stolen pickup truck, Neal was involved in a motor vehicle accident that was enough to stop the truck. Neal shot both the driver and the passenger in that vehicle, killing one of them. A Good Samaritan who stopped to see if he could render aid to anyone injured in the accident was shot by Neal and then Neal stole the man’s car.
Now being chased by the responding police, Neal continued to shoot at various innocents along his path of travel. The chase was ended when the vehicle Neal was driving was rammed by two police vehicles, one from Corning Police Department and the other from Tehama County Sheriff’s office. The two police officers were engaged in a gunfight by Neal with multiple rounds being fired back and forth. The fight ended when Neal killed himself with a single shot to the head.
This “single” spree took place over a span of 25 minutes on the morning of the 14th and ultimately produced eight different crime scenes. This type of constantly moving active shooter event presents a challenge to law enforcement in that the initial response to a shooting converges responding officers to a single location. Once the shooting “goes on the move,” then officers have to adjust and the dispatchers managing the incoming information have to be particularly agile in their thinking, processing, analysis and dispatch of information.
By the time he was done, Neal had fatally five shot people along with injuring by gunfire another twelve. The victims ranged in age from six to sixty-eight and included members of both genders. At least one student at the elementary school was wounded by a bullet that traveled through the school’s exterior wall and hit him while he hid under a desk.
The post incident investigation into Neal’s background revealed that he had a history of mental illness and anger management challenges. His mother went so far as to state that Neal’s stability had seemed to be steadily declining in the past year to year and a half prior to the event. In January 2017, ten months prior to the attack, Neal had been arrested for two felonies and five misdemeanor crimes, all stemming from an attack on one of his neighbors. Neal had reportedly accused his neighbors of making and dealing the drug methamphetamine, but nothing ever came of those reports. One of the neighbors he murdered on November 14th, however, had meth in his system according to the coroner’s report and had a prior criminal history for possession of drug paraphernalia. After his arrest in January 2017, Neal’s mother had paid his bail and the legal fees attached to securing his release from prison.
As is true of gun laws nationwide, having been arrested and charged with two felonies, Neal was prohibited by law from owning any of the weapons he had in his possession when he committed his spree murder attack. The rifle he used was reported as a “ghost” gun; that being one he built himself rather than buying through a licensed dealer. Neither of the two handguns he had on his person at the time of his attack were registered to him, but no further information can be found (at the time of this writing) on who those weapons were licensed or registered to.
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.
