DISCLAIMER : If you're under the age of 13, or if you're sensetive to murder, violence, and suicide, and scary stuff in general, I suggest you don't read this for your own safety.

Hello, my friends. It's your old Story Telling friend, Noel here, and I'm back with another one of my favourite Crime Stories of all time. The Story Of James Huberty And The San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre. This is definitely a top ten'er for me because it's another one of those deep and emotional Crime Stories that really hits me hard whenever I think about it... Just like several other Crime Stories I've covered, I decided to give this Story it's own seperate Book from my Crime Book because it's one of the longest Crime Stories I've ever seen. It's really sad and scary, and has always haunted me since I first learned about this Story when I was 16 years old. Credit goes to Wikipedia, and the YouTuber, Rob Gavagan for the information, who I highly recommend subscribing to since he makes a lot of awesome videos about Serial Killers, Mass Murderers, and scary Stories in general. He even collabs with Mr. Nightmare sometimes, who is another one of my favourite YouTubers. Enjoy, and let's dive into The Story Of James Huberty.

James Oliver Huberty was a typical American man who wanted nothing more than a happy life with his family and friends. Unfortunately, what neither he or anyone else could've expected, was how troubling his life would be. For 41 years, he would have to endure through so many problems in his life until he reached his maximum limit. But when he couldn't take anything in life anymore, no one would have predicted that what he did would be so horrific, not only would it make a staple in History, but it would also be a traumatizing event that would change the lives of not just many people, but society as a whole...

James Huberty was born on October 11th 1942 in Canton, Ohio to his parents, Earl Vincent Huberty, and Icle Evalone Huberty. They were a very happy and religious family who often attended church together. Everything seemed like it was going to be perfect for The Huberty Family, but unfortunately, trouble for them would begin almost immediately. Trouble that would turn into a big chain reaction that would send James into a downward spiral of a very chaotic life...

In 1946 when James was three years old, he contracted Polio, a deadly disease caused by The Poliovirus which causes paralysis in any part of the human body. James's legs were badly affected by his Polio, and he was required to wear leg braces. He later recovered from his leg braces, but he had to deal with limps in his legs for the rest of his life.

In 1950 when James's father, Earl purchased a 155 acre farm in Mount Easton, Ohio, his mother, Icle didn't want to live on the farm, since she wanted to spend the rest of her life sidewalk preaching a Pentecostal missionary in Tucson, Arizona. This made the couple go through a divorce which deeply affected James. James's father Earl, claimed that James would often sob next to their chicken coop on their farm. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of James's eternal life struggles that would push him even further into madness.

Huberty had a difficult time during his years in school as he had very few friends since he was cast out a lot from his other school mates, and he preferred being alone most of the time. There were often rumors spread about him coming from a broken home like the majority of children at his school. He was also made fun of for coming from a very religious family and for being by himself most of the time. He also didn't have many similar interests as most of his school mates such as sports. So much so that he was the only member of his class to not participate in his school's football team when he was in 7th grade. One day during his 7th grade, when the rest of his class was outside playing football together and he and his teacher were the only people in the classroom, he got into an argument with his teacher as she rudely sneered at him saying : "If you were a REAL man like all the other boys, you'd be out playing football.". Things weren't any different during his high school years at Waynedale High School as he still participated in quiet and lonely activities and continued distancing himself from everyone to the point where he never showed up to have his picture taken for the school year book when he graduated high school in 1960.

Despite all the trouble and distance Huberty was going through, he had an interest in guns at a young age, to the point where he started to become a gunsmith during his teen years. The lack of understanding, spreading rumors about his troubling life, his limp in his legs, his extremely religious family, and his loneliness only made Huberty's life at school more difficult. This caused him to have a short temper during school and he was quick to become furious if anyone upset him. Little did he or anyone else know however, how much more extreme his short temper would become later in his life...

Two years after his graduation from high school in 1962, Huberty went to Malone College, where he initially studied sociology. There, he met Etna Catherine Markland, who he started dating. However, he later moved colleges to study at The Pittsburgh Institute Of Mortuary Science in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated with honors from the institute in 1964, being issued with a funeral director's license and, the following year, an embalmer's license.

One year after he graduated from college, in 1965, Huberty happily married Etna and moved in with her family. Huberty wanted to be a funeral director as he thought it was a relaxing, quiet, and easy job for him. However, Huberty never had the knowledge or independence to become a funeral director because he failed to pay $15 for his funeral director's license as well as his embalmer's license and because he didn't want to also work with the families of the deceased people like funeral directors have to.

After Huberty lost interest in being a funeral director due to the rules he didn't agree with, he started working as a welder for a firm in Louisville. He worked for the firm for two years before securing a better-paid position at an engineering company named Babcock & Wilcox in June 1969. Huberty was reclusive and taciturn during his time there, but he was still a helpful and reliable worker. He willingly took overtime, earned promotions and by the mid-1970s, he usually earned between $25,000 and $30,000 a year, which would be the equivalent of $121,000–$145,000 for today's money.

Shortly after Huberty was hired by the firm, he and Etna moved into a three-story home in an affluent section of Massillon, Ohio. Unfortunately, in the winter of 1971, their home was destroyed in a fire. After the tragic burning of their new house, Huberty and Etna bought another house on the same street and they later built a six-unit apartment building on the grounds of their first home. Huberty and Etna then had two daughters named Zelia and Cassandra in 1972 and 1974. It seemed like life for Huberty was actually getting better and there wasn't anything left for him to worry about anymore, but unfortunately, his difficult times in his life were far from over.

Just about anyone who knew Huberty knew he wasn't the brightest person ever. A pastor who knew Huberty from the church services he attended with Etna and her family described him as "Bitter against God". He was known to be a man with pent up emotions and an explosive personality. People who worked with him at any of his jobs described him as angry, sad, or paranoid a lot of the time, and seeing his inner conflict just by speaking to him. He was known to hold grudges and never forgive anyone who made him upset unless his issues were fixed the way he wanted. His neighbors felt the same way as he was often heard screaming inside his house and he kept a large gun collection. Huberty also put several "No Trespassing" and "Beware Of Dog" signs on his front lawn. His neighbors were very concerned about the extreme and unnecessary measures he took to secure himself. Huberty also hated his neighbors and was always infuriated whenever they complained about his German Shepherds constantly barking and destroying their properties.

Huberty also had a long history of domestic violence as well. Huberty often slapped, punched, beat, and even held knives to Etna's and his daughters' throats. On one occasion, Etna filed a report with The Canton Department Of Children And Family Services stating that Huberty seriously "messed up" her jaw. She also claimed he assaulted her several times, and even struck her once.

After experiencing her husband's extreme behaviors and realizing how troubling his life was, Etna repeatedly suggested Huberty to seek mental health counseling to help him, but Huberty refused to seek any form of therapy. Because Huberty refused to seek any sort of mental help, Etna tried herself to calm her husband's stress levels down by agitating him as much as possible, and by reading or playing tarot cards because Etna believed she was able to read Huberty's future. Huberty believed her, and her solutions did seem to help her husband, but not for long.

Huberty was also a bad influence on his daughters, Zelia and Cassandra. Along with physically abusing them in inhumane ways, he also often encouraged violence and enmity with them. Zelia and Cassandra often practiced and talked about Witchcraft and Satan Worshiping. They would conduct seances together and brag about their beliefs to everyone they could, even their very own babysitter. They claimed spirits would give them vital information about their family's future, such as when they would move away from Ohio.

One time, Huberty's daughters got into a rivalry with their own neighbors, which Huberty didn't support. However, instead of trying to properly teach his daughters how to treat rivalries and enmity, he started planning revenge against the neighbors, telling the children's parents he would "Get even" with them. Two weeks later, Huberty invited the neighbors over for Cracker Jack's, which his neighbors and Etna found out of character for him, but Huberty and his daughters knew what they were going to get. When one of the neighbors his daughters fought with came to get the Cracker Jacks, Huberty excused himself and went inside his house. Seconds later, Huberty's younger daughter, Cassandra ran out of the house and punched the neighbor right in her eye. The girl's father was very upset with Huberty and asked him why he went this far just to get even with him and his family. Huberty simply answered him saying he paid his debts, good or bad and he also told him it would only be a matter of time until he got even with the rest of his family. Two months later, Huberty was still desperate for revenge against his neighbors, so he started planning for his next revenge move. He told his daughters to hide in a bush as the other neighbor who got into a fight and walked down the sidewalk. As soon as the neighbor got close enough to the bush, the daughters jumped out and punched her just like her sister while Huberty watched in satisfaction, proud of himself and his daughters.

James was a very negative influence on both of his children, but Etna wasn't a positive influence, either. She also encouraged violence and enmity with her daughters. Her older daughter, Zelia physically assaulted one of her classmates because Etna demanded her to, which sparked another rivalry between Etna and the student's mother. The rivalry between the two women got so bad, to the point where Etna threatened to shoot her dead with a 9 millimeter pistol. The horrified women reported Etna to the police, which led to her getting arrested. However, she was never charged and she was released shortly after, and the police never confiscated any of The Huberty Family's guns.

Huberty's troubling life was at an unbearable level at this point and it didn't seem like his life could get any worse, but another issue he struggled with that made his life even more unbearable, was that he was unable to maintain a job. Huberty always had difficulty with employment, but the more Huberty failed with his career, the more he started to blame the government itself for his money issues. Huberty was known to have a huge hatred for The United States. He was a conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed survivalist who believed an escalation of the Cold War was inevitable and that presidents, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and The United States Government were conspiring against him. Convinced of an imminent increase in Soviet aggression, he believed that a breakdown of society was fast approaching, perhaps through an economic collapse or nuclear war. He prepared himself for this non existent society disaster by provisioning his house with ample reserve supplies of non-perishable food and numerous guns, some purchased from co-workers that he intended to use to defend his home during what he believed was an coming apocalypse. According to one of his family's acquaintances, Jim Aslanes, Huberty's home was bedecked with loaded firearms to such a degree that wherever Huberty was sitting or standing within his home, he "Could just reach over and get a gun." Which were all loaded, with the safety catch disabled.". However, Huberty's life in Ohio wouldn't be much longer.

In November of 1982, Huberty was laid off from his welding job at Babcock & Wilcox, causing him to feel despondent over his dire financial situation and general inability to provide for his family. At this point in his life, Huberty was in so much despair, he threatened to kill himself and his family if he was unable to provide for them. He intended to commit suicide and "take everyone with him.". Etna claimed that shortly after her husband became unemployed, he began hearing voices in his head, but she and Huberty never even attempted help or counseling for him.

In early 1983, Huberty's mental state was at an all new low, as he threatened to kill himself by placing a loaded pistol against his temple, which horrified Etna, who managed to dissuade her husband from taking his life. However, he later remarked to her : "You should have let me shoot myself.".

By 1983, Huberty was still unable to find lasting employment, but at this point, he thought Ohio had nothing left for him and his family anymore, so they sold their six-unit apartment building for $115,000 in the spring. Shortly thereafter, Huberty obtained alternate welding employment with Union Metal Manufacturing Company. This employment lasted five weeks before the power plant was closed. A few weeks after he became unemployed, Huberty and one of his daughters were injured in a traffic accident. In the weeks following the accident, Huberty claimed he had an aggravation in neck pains that he had endured since childhood. He also claimed an occasional increasing nerve tremor in his hands and arms.

In the summer of 1983, the Huberty family applied for residency in Tijuana, Mexico, believing the money they obtained from selling their apartment building would financially sustain the family longer in Mexico than in The United States. They also sold their home for just $12,000 in cash in September with the person who bought their home assuming their $48,000 mortgage. Huberty informed family acquaintances of his intentions to relocate his family to Tijuana in search of employment opportunities, confidently stating, "We're going to show them who's boss.".

When Huberty and his family moved from Ohio to Tijuana, in October 1983, he left all but the most essential of his family's possessions in storage in Ohio, bringing his huge collection of guns, ammunition, and survival supplies with him to Tijuana. According to published reports, Etna and Huberty's daughters embraced their new environs and became friendly with their neighbors, although Huberty, who spoke very little Spanish, was sullen and taciturn towards them.

Even though Huberty thought it would've been easier to find employment in Mexico than The United States, it wasn't as easy as he hoped it would be. Huberty was still unable to find employment in Tijuana, which did not help his current mental state or his family. Huberty quickly regretted his decision to move to Mexico and after only three months of living in Tijuana, the family relocated to San Ysidro in January 1984. A largely poor district of San Diego just north of the Mexican-American border which had a population of 13,000 in 1984.

In San Ysidro, the Huberty Family rented an apartment within the Cottonwood Apartments as Huberty was still searching for employment. He was also irritated by the fact that his family were the only Anglo-Americans within his apartment complex, and he acted ignorant to his neighbors. Shortly afterwards, Huberty applied twice to two different companies in a newspaper advertisement offering security guard training in federally funded programs. The first company rejected Huberty's application due to an obvious attitude problem they noticed in him, but the second company accepted his application. He completed the application course on April 12th and he soon obtained employment with a security firm in Chula Vista, assigned with guarding a condominium complex. The money earned enabled the family to have their furniture shipped from Ohio and the family relocated to a two-bedroom apartment with a monthly rent of $450 on Averil Road the same month.

Unfortunately, less than 3 months after he was hired to be a security guard on July 10, Huberty was summarily dismissed from his job. His employers informed Huberty the reasons they dismissed him were because he had poor work performance and because of his general physical instability.

This was the point where Huberty's mental state was at its absolute worst because after he was fired from four jobs, he attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself, but Etna quickly stopped him and begged him not to take his life. Huberty listened to her and tried to calm down with her. Unfortunately, Etna would deeply regret this crucial decision very soon.

It was at this point that Huberty finally realized that there was something deeply wrong with him and he knew he needed help and he needed to speak to a professional therapist. Five days after he was fired from his security guard job on July 15th, Huberty frantically explained his issues with Etna and told her he needed Mental Help. One week after he was fired from his job as a security guard on July 17th, Huberty called a Mental Health Clinic to schedule a mental health appointment later that day. He was incredibly polite on the phone and simply told the clinic receptionist that he needed to speak to a professional therapist. He was warm and kind to the receptionist on the outside, but on the inside, his brain and heart were boiling hotter than the sun's core with thoughts of chaos and mayhem, but he still tried to act as normal as possible on the phone hoping he could finally get the help he needed. The receptionist told Huberty she would schedule an appointment for him later that day and the clinic would call him back later that day, before hanging up. More desperate than he ever was before, Huberty waited by the phone for several hours that day, praying the clinic would call him back. However, the clinic never called Him back and Huberty never knew or understood why no one was helping him.

It was later found out that Huberty never received the phone call or the appointment that day because the receptionist actually misspelled his name as "James Shouberty" When writing it down on her schedule, but she also lied to Huberty when she said he would receive another phone call from the clinic as well as an appointment that same day, when she actually scheduled the phone call and appointment 48 hours later. The reason the receptionist scheduled Huberty's appointment 48 hours after her phone call with him was because she marked it as a "Non Crisis" due to Huberty's polite and calm attitude towards her. Unfortunately, these two mishaps were the final 2 building blocks to what would become one of the most horrific events in all of history that would completely change society.

After several hours of waiting by the phone and pleading for a call from the clinic, Huberty couldn't wait any longer. He then walked outside without saying a word to his family, fired up his motorcycle and drove away from his apartment as Etna heard and watched him drive off. It's unknown where Huberty went that evening, but he returned home in a much better and calmer mood than he was in when he addressed his mental concerns to her and while he was waiting for his phone call that day. Huberty then had dinner with his family before going for a summer family bicycle ride to the park before returning home and putting his daughters to bed. Huberty and Etna then watched a movie together in their living room before they went to bed that night too. It was a big relief for the family that Huberty was in a much better state of mind than he was for the previous days, but unfortunately, this state of mind Huberty was in was rather short lived. What no one on Earth could've predicted was what he would do the very next day later, would be one of the most terrifying and unforgettable events in history...

The day after Huberty made his phone call to the clinic, he was back to his stressful, angry, paranoid state of mind he endured for 41 years. Coming to the chaotic conclusion that no one wanted to help him anymore, Huberty took that as the last straw. He was completely screwed over by society his entire life. He was bullied and always picked on at school, he could never maintain a job, he was a loner most of the time, he had a lot of enemies, he had an unstable mental state and worst of all, no one wanted to help him anymore. Huberty had enough of his life being ruined and he wasn't going to let it happen again. All he could do now was take care of everything himself.

On this day, 39 years ago, on Wednesday, July 18th 1984, a day that would leave a huge and horrifying staple in History, Huberty and his family went to The San Diego Zoo. Huberty acted calm around his family that fateful day, but he was still fed up with his life and he wasn't going to give into it anymore. During their tour at the zoo, Huberty told Etna his belief that due to the mental health clinic failing to help him, his life was effectively over. Huberty said to Etna "Well, society had their chance.". After leaving the zoo, The Huberty Family ate lunch at a McDonald's restaurant in the Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego before they returned home.

After The Huberty Family returned home, James walked into his bedroom wearing a maroon T-shirt and green camouflage slacks as Etna was relaxing on their bed. He leaned toward Etna and said, "I want to kiss you goodbye." Which Etna found surprising because Huberty wasn't a very affectionate Husband. Etna kissed him and asked him where he was going telling her she was soon going to prepare dinner. Huberty calmly replied he was "Going hunting... Hunting for humans.". After saying those words, Huberty walked to his gun collection and grabbed a 12 Gauge Pump Action Shotgun, a brown 9 Millimeter Semi Automatic, a 9 Millimeter Uzi Carbine, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition which he placed in a checkered blanket. Right before Huberty walked out of his house forever, he glanced toward his older daughter, Zelia as he walked toward the front door of the apartment and said to her : "Goodbye. I won't be back.". After saying those final words, Huberty left his house that day, never to return again...

Etna Huberty never attempted to prevent James from walking outside carrying those guns, nor did she call the police despite how dangerous her Husband looked and sounded that day. There was unfortunately nothing that could be done to stop Huberty who was about to commit one of the worst and most mortifying events of all time.

After leaving his house for the last time in his life, Huberty then drove down San Ysidro Boulevard. According to eyewitnesses, he first drove to a Big Bear supermarket, then toward a U.S. Post Office branch, before entering the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant only 200 yards from his Averil Road apartment. And no one at all was prepared for what he was about to do that eye widening day.

On this day, 39 years ago, at 3:56 PM on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 18th 1984, James Huberty drove his black Mercury Marquis Sedan Sedan into the parking lot of the McDonald's restaurant on San Ysidro Boulevard with 45 customers inside the building. He angrily got out of his car and stepped towards the restaurant carrying his guns and ammunition. Huberty then forcefully pushed the door open, sounding off the bells as he entered the restaurant as one final hopeless warning to everyone, which caused everyone to start screaming in panic as everyone looked at Huberty and the guns he was carrying. He first aimed his shotgun at a 16-year-old employee named John Arnold from fifteen feet away. As Huberty aimed his gun at the teen, the assistant manager, Guillermo Flores, shouted to Arnold : "Hey, John, that guy's going to shoot you!" Huberty then pulled the trigger of his gun, but nothing was fired from it, which at first made everyone think Huberty was just pulling an illegal joke. As Huberty inspected his gun, the manager of the restaurant, a 22-year-old woman named Neva Caine, walked toward the service counter of the restaurant in the direction of Arnold, as Arnold began to walk away from Huberty. Unfortunately, Huberty was not pulling an illegal joke as his gun only jammed. He then fired his shotgun toward the ceiling before aiming the Uzi at Caine and shot her beneath her left eye. Caine was dead within minutes.

Immediately after shooting Caine, everyone started screaming in fear as they realized Huberty wasn't pulling a joke and began running and screaming out of the restaurant for their lives. Huberty fired his shotgun at Arnold, wounding the teenager in the chest and arm, before shouting at everyone in the restaurant : "Everybody on the ground!". Huberty called everyone in the restaurant : "Dirty swine, Vietnam assholes." Before telling them he had "Killed a thousand" And that he was going to "Kill a thousand more.". After hearing Huberty's profane rant and seeing Caine and Arnold shot, a 25 year old customer named Victor Rivera, tried to calm Huberty down and help him, but no one could tell Huberty what to do now except for himself. In response to Rivera trying to calm him down and help him, Huberty shot Rivera fourteen times, repeatedly shouting "Shut up!" As Rivera screamed in pain.

As staff and customers tried to hide beneath tables and service booths, Huberty walked towards six women and children huddled together, first shooting and killing 19 year old María Colmenero-Silva with a single gunshot to the chest. He then fatally shot a nine-year-old girl named Claudia Pérez in the stomach, cheek, thigh, hip, leg, chest, back, armpit, and head with his Uzi. Huberty then shot Pérez's 15 year old sister, Imelda in the hand with the same weapon. Huberty then shot 11 year old Aurora Peña with his shotgun. Peña was wounded in the leg, but her pregnant aunt, 18 year old Jackie Reyes dove right in front of her to protect her niece. In response, Huberty shot Reyes 48 times with the Uzi. An eight month old toddler named Carlos Reyes was wailing beside his mother's body, only for Huberty to shout at the child, then kill him with a single pistol shot to the center of his back. Huberty then shot and killed a 62 year old trucker named Laurence Versluis, before shooting a family sitting near the play area of the restaurant who had tried to protect their son and his friend beneath the tables. Thirty-one-year-old Blythe Regan Herrera was blocking her 11 year old son, Matao, beneath one booth, as her husband, Ronald, protected Matao's friend, 12 year old Keith Thomas, beneath a booth directly across from them while Ronald Herrera urged Thomas not to move. Sadly, the family's efforts were pointless as Huberty shot Thomas in the shoulder, arm, wrist, and left elbow. Thankfully though, he was not seriously wounded. Huberty then shot Ronald Herrera six times in the stomach, chest, arm, hip, shoulder, and head but he was also lucky enough to survive. Unfortunately, his wife, Blythe, and his son, Matao, were both killed by numerous gunshots to the head.

Nearby, three women also attempted to hide underneath a booth. Twenty four year old Guadalupe del Rio lay against a wall as she was shielded by her friends, 25 year old Gloria Ramírez, and 31 year old Arisdelsi Vuelvas Vargas. Thankfully, Del Rio was hit several times, but was not seriously wounded, and Ramírez was unhurt. Unfortunately, Vargas was not so lucky, as she received a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, which she died from the next day. She was the only person in the massacre fatally wounded who lived long enough to reach a hospital. At another booth, Huberty shot and killed a 45 year old banker named Hugo Velázquez Vasquez with a single shot to the chest.

Not long after Huberty began his killing spree, the first of many emergency calls to the police was made shortly after 4:00 p.m. The police were notified of the shooting by a child who had been taken to a post office on San Ysidro Boulevard. Police were immediately sent out to the restaurant where Huberty was, but the dispatcher mistakenly directed responding officers to another McDonald's two miles from the San Ysidro Boulevard restaurant. This error delayed the imposition of a lockdown by several minutes, and the only warnings to civilians walking, riding, or driving toward the restaurant could be given by nearby pedestrians. Shortly after 4:00 PM, a young woman named Lydia Flores drove into the parking lot to pick up some food. Stopping at the food-pickup window, Flores noticed shattered windows and the sound of gunfire, before looking up and spotting Huberty horrifically shooting at everything in the restaurant. Flores reversed her car until she crashed into a fence, and hid in some bushes with her two-year-old daughter until the shooting ended.

At 4:05 PM, a Mexican couple named Astolfo and Maricela Félix drove toward one of the service areas of the restaurant. They noticed the shattered glass windows, but Astolfo made the terrible mistake of assuming there was renovation work inside the restaurant. Huberty, who was striding toward their car, was a repairman. Huberty immediately fired both his shotgun and Uzi at the couple and their four-month-old daughter, Karlita, striking Maricela in the face, arms and chest, blinding her in one eye and permanently rendering one hand unusable. Her baby was critically wounded in the neck, chest and abdomen, and Astolfo was wounded in the chest and head. As Astolfo and Maricela staggered away from Huberty's line of fire as he went back inside. Maricela handed Karlita to Astolfo, who handed the shrieking child to a young woman named Lucia Velasco as Maricela collapsed against a car. Velasco rushed Karlita to a nearby hospital as her husband assisted Astolfo and Maricela into a nearby building. All three members of the Félix family were fortunate enough to survive.

Three 11 year old boys named Joshua Coleman, Omarr Alonso Hernandez, and David Flores Delgado rode their bikes into the west parking lot to purchase sundaes, having no clue about the terror that was happening inside the restaurant. Hearing a member of the public yell something unintelligible from across the street, all three stopped and hesitated, before Huberty quickly shot the three boys with his shotgun and Uzi. Coleman was critically wounded in his back, arm, and leg as he fell to the ground. Coleman later recalled looking toward his two friends and realizing that Hernandez was on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds to his back and had started vomiting when he saw what happened to him. Delgado had received several gunshot wounds to his head. Coleman was the only member of his trio to survive, while Hernandez and Delgado both died instantly. Huberty then noticed an elderly couple, 74 year old Miguel Victoria Ulloa, and 69 year old Aida Velázquez Victoria, walking toward the entrance of the restaurant unaware of the danger inside. As Miguel reached to open the door for his wife, Huberty immediately fired his shotgun at the couple, killing Aida with a gunshot to the face and wounding Miguel. An uninjured survivor, Oscar Mondragon witnessed Miguel cradling his wife in his arms and wiping blood from her face, shouting curses at Huberty, who then approached the doorway, swore at Miguel, then killed him with a shot to the head.

Ten minutes after the police were first called, they finally arrived at the correct McDonald's restaurant. The first officer to arrive on the scene, Miguel Rosario, rapidly determined the location and cause of the actual disturbance and relayed this information to The San Diego Police Department as Huberty, who wasn't worried at all that the police were here, fired shots at Rosario's patrol car. Officers deployed immediately imposed a lockdown on an area spanning six blocks from the site of the McDonald's as they also established a command post two blocks from the restaurant and deployed 175 officers in numerous strategic locations. These officers were joined within the hour by several SWAT team members, who also gathered around the restaurant with the police. It was a really big scene.

As Huberty was firing rapidly and alternating between firearms, police initially were unaware how many individuals were inside the restaurant. Furthermore, because most of the restaurant's windows had been shattered by gunfire, reflections from shards of glass provided an additional difficulty for police focusing inside the restaurant. Initially, police were concerned there were multiple shooters inside, and they might have been holding hostages as well, until one individual who had escaped from the restaurant informed police Huberty was alone with no one held hostage, but he was shooting any individual he encountered.

One hour after the shooting began at 5:05 PM, all responding law enforcement personnel were authorized to kill Huberty whenever they got a clear shot of him.

Huberty then walked toward the service counter to adjust a portable radio, to search for news reports of his shooting spree, before selecting a music station and continued shooting everyone in the restaurant while he danced to the music. Shortly after, Huberty searched the kitchen area, discovering six employees hiding. Huberty then shouted : "Oh, there's more. You're trying to hide from me!" In response, one of the female employees, begging for their lives screamed in Spanish, "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!" Before Huberty shot at them, killing 21 year old Paulina López, 19 year old Elsa Borboa-Fierro, 18 year old Margarita Padilla, and critically wounding 17 year old Albert Leos. Immediately before Huberty had begun shooting, Padilla grabbed the hand of her friend and colleague, 17 year old Wendy Flanagan, before the two began to run for their lives. Padilla was then fatally shot by Huberty as soon as they started running. Flanagan, four other employees, and a female customer hid inside a basement utility room, and Leos hid with them after he had crawled into the room after being shot five times. When a fire truck drove down the boulevard, Huberty opened fire and repeatedly pierced the vehicle with bullets, slightly wounding one of the firemen. Huberty then heard a wounded teenager, 19 year old Jose Pérez, moaning in pain. Without thinking twice, Huberty shot Perez in the head as the teen slumped dead in the booth alongside his friend and neighbor, 22 year old Gloria González, and a young woman named Michelle Carncross. At one point, a child named Aurora Peña, who was lying wounded beside her dead aunt, baby cousin and two friends, noticed a lull in the firing, but it didn't last long. Opening her eyes, she saw Huberty nearby, staring in her direction. He then swore and threw a bag of french fries at Peña before retrieving his shotgun and shot the child in the arm, neck, and jaw. Aurora Peña survived, although she would take the longest time out of everyone in the restaurant to recover in the hospital. The terrifying shooting felt like it went on forever.

The mass shooting lasted for a total of 77 minutes, until it finally came to an end at 5:17 PM. Huberty walked from the service counter toward the doorway close to the drive-in window of the restaurant, when a 27 year old police SWAT named Chuck Foster was sitting on the roof of a post office directly opposite to the restaurant with an unobstructed view of his body from the neck down through his telescopic sight. Foster fatally shot Huberty by firing a single round from 35 yards. The bullet entered Huberty's chest which severed his aorta just beneath his heart and exited through his spine leaving an exit wound one inch square and sending Huberty sprawling backwards onto the floor directly in front of the service counter, killing him almost instantly and putting an end to his disastrous killing spree once and for all.

Immediately after shooting Huberty, Foster reported to everyone he had killed the perpetrator and that his focus remained on the motionless suspect. Everyone then walked to the restaurant to examine the whole scene. Even though so many rounds had been expended from different firearms within the restaurant, police were not completely certain Huberty was dead or not. Entering the restaurant one minute later, a police sergeant pointed his gun upon Huberty as he noticed a wounded girl. When he asked if Huberty was the shooter, the girl nodded her head in response.

During the entire 77 minute long shooting inside the restaurant, Huberty fired a minimum of 257 rounds of ammunition, killing 22 people and wounding 20 others, one of whom was pronounced brain dead upon arrival at hospital and died the following day. Eighteen of the victims were killed inside the restaurant and four in the immediate vicinity. Only 10 individuals inside the restaurant were uninjured, six of whom had hidden inside the basement utility room. Several victims tried to tanch their wounds with their own napkins, often in vain. Of the fatalities, 14 died from gunshot wounds to the head, seven from gunshots to the chest, and eight-month-old Carlos Reyes, was the only victim to die from a single 9 Millimeter gunshot to the back. The victims, whose ages ranged from four months to 74 years, were predominantly, though not exclusively, of Mexican or Mexican-American ancestry, reflecting local demographics. During the nightmarish massacre, Huberty also shouted accusations or insults at his victims. On one occasion, he shouted that he himself did not deserve to live, which he was "Taking care of.". Although Huberty had repeatedly shouted throughout his shooting spree that he had been a Veteran of The Vietnam War, he had never actually served in any military branch. Initial reports issued by The San Diego Police Department following the massacre indicated that everyone injured or killed within the restaurant was shot by Huberty in the initial minutes after he had first entered the restaurant. However, this claim was hotly disputed by survivors, who stated Huberty had shot both wounded and unwounded people over 40 minutes after he had first opened fire. Regardless however, 22 people lost their lives on that horrific day, and there was nothing else that could be done about them anymore. At the time, The San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre was the deadliest single gunman massacre in U.S. History. An event that shook and terrified society and still continues to haunt the lives of many people today. However, the man responsible for the massacre, James Huberty was also dead, but no one knew why he committed the heinous act. No one knows what made him go to such terrible lengths to take the lives away from 22 people that day.

The day after The San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre on July 19th, reporters visited James Huberty's 73 year old father, Earl in Mount Eaton, Ohio, to garner further information about his son. Discussing his son's childhood and the family's religious background, Earl Huberty pointed to a painting of a lost sheep by the Jordan River before he started to sob, telling reporters : "Yesterday was the worst day of my life. I feel so sorry for those people.". McDonald's temporarily suspended all television and radio advertisements in the days following the massacre to pay respect for the massacre victims. In an act of solidarity, Burger King also temporarily suspended all forms of advertising.

Huberty's body was cremated four days later on July 23rd 1984. No religious service was performed for him, and his ashes were returned to Etna, who interred the ashes in his home state of Ohio.

In the weeks following the massacre, Etna and her daughters received numerous death threats that forced them to temporarily reside with a family friend. The three would attend counseling sessions for the next nine months. Etna Huberty and her daughters moved from San Ysidro to Chula Vista, where Zelia and Cassandra enrolled in school under assumed names. One year later, the family moved to the community of Spring Valley.

Because of the large number of 22 victims, funeral homes had to use The San Ysidro Civic Center to hold wakes for each victim. The local parish, Mount Carmel Church, were forced to hold back to back funeral masses in order that each of the dead could be buried in a timely manner.

Several police officers who were at the scene of The San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre suffered several symptoms including sleep withdrawal, loss of memory, and guilt in the months following the tragedy. A study commissioned by The National Institute Of Mental Health and conducted by the chief psychologist of the San Diego Police Department in 1985 concluded several officers suffered post traumatic stress as a result of the horrifying massacre.

The San Ysidro McDonald's massacre prompted the city of San Diego to assess the tactical methods by which they responded to incidents of this nature and the firearms in the possession of responding officers. The police department increased training for special units and purchased more powerful firearms in order to better equip law enforcement to respond to scenarios of this magnitude. One officer, who confessed to having felt "inadequate" because he possessed a 38-caliber revolver on the day of the massacre said : "The time had come where you had to have a full-time, committed and dedicated, highly trained, well-equipped team... Able to respond rapidly, anywhere in the city.".

A few weeks after the massacre on August 2nd 1984, San Diego Police Chief William Kolendar held a press conference to disclose the results of The San Diego Police Department's inquiry into their response to the massacre, and the fact 73 minutes had elapsed between the time the first police officer had arrived at the restaurant and Huberty's death. The results of this internal inquiry found that although the arrival of SWAT team members was delayed by rush-hour traffic, the police acted appropriately in their method of response. Kolendar stated any suggestion police should have stormed the restaurant was "ludicrous", adding that officers had been unable to obtain a clear view of the gunman because windows had been destroyed by bullet holes, making visibility difficult in direct sunlight. He also emphasized the eight-minute delay between the passing of the instruction authorizing all law enforcement personnel to kill Huberty and his death made no difference to the final death toll. Kolendar finished his report by stating : "I believe the operation was handled the way it should have been handled.".

When questioned in regards to the actual motive behind Huberty's murder spree, Kolendar dismissed any notion of a racial or discriminational motive behind the massacre. Kolendar simply informed reporters: "He didn't like anybody.".

Two days after The San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre, the restaurant had been refurbished and renovated. The restaurant planned to again open for business in the hope that the building would become "Just another McDonald's." As one employee said. Following discussions between community leaders and executives however, they decided on July 24th, the day after Huberty was cremated, that the restaurant would not reopen. The renovated restaurant was demolished at midnight two months later on September 26th.

Following the closure and demolition of the restaurant, McDonald's donated the ground to the city, with the stipulation that no restaurant would be constructed upon the site. For over four years, alternate plans to convert the site into either a memorial park or a shrine to the dead victims were considered. The land was sold in February of 1988 to Southwestern College for $136,000, with the agreement that a 300-square-foot area in front of the campus extension the college intended to construct be set aside as a permanent memorial to the 21 victims. McDonald's later constructed another restaurant two blocks from the site of the massacre upon West San Ysidro Boulevard. The restaurant chain also announced a commitment to donate $1 million to a survivors' fund, with the widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc also adding a personal contribution of $100,000 to assist with burial costs, financial aid for relatives of the deceased, and counseling for survivors. The total of donations received by this fund would exceed $1.4 million. Amidst impromptu protests from some San Ysidro residents and donors, Etna Huberty received the first payout from this fund.

A permanent memorial to those killed in the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre was made six years later in 1990. The memorial was made out of 21 hexagonal white marble pillars ranging from 1 to 6 feet long each bearing the name of a victim. The sculpture was designed by a former Southwestern College student named Roberto Valdes, who explained his inspiration for the design : "The 21 hexagons represent each person that died, and they are different heights, representing the variety of ages and races of the people involved in the massacre. They are bonded together in the hopes that the community, in a tragedy like this, will stick together, like they did.".

Each anniversary of The San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre, people often decorate the monument with flowers. On the three days people of Mexican heritage observe The Day Of The Dead, candles and offerings are also brought for the victims.

Several family members, along with survivors of the massacre, filed lawsuits against McDonald's and The San Diego Police Department, which were dealt with in The . All lawsuits were consolidated and later dismissed before trial on a defense motion for summary judgment. The plaintiffs appealed this ruling.

Three years after the massacre on July 25th 1987, The California Court Of Appeal affirmed summary judgment for the defendants, ruling McDonald's or any other business has no duty of care to protect patrons from an unforeseeable assault by a murderous madman, and the implemented security measures typically used by restaurants to deter criminals, such as guards and closed-circuit television cameras, could not possibly have deterred the perpetrator, as he did not care about his own survival. Furthermore, The San Diego Police Department were also exonerated of any culpability or negligence, with the appellate panel ruling : "In view of the sheer horror of the ordeal, it is difficult to imagine anything the police could have done or failed to do which would have made the risk any greater than that to the victims were exposed before the police arrived.". The final lawsuits were dismissed in August 1991.

Even though Etna Huberty was sorry and remorseful for the mass shooting, not only did she never attempt to stop her husband from committing it, nor did she call the police to stop him, but she also tried to profit off of the terrifying event. 2 years after the massacre in July 1986, Etna filed a lawsuit against both McDonald's and her husband's longtime former employer, Babcock & Wilcox. This civil suit seeked $5 million in damages, as she believed the chicken nuggets were the motive for her husband's murder spree because of their poor health, and her husband worked around highly poisonous metals without adequate protection over the course of many years. The lawsuit she filed against Babcock & Wilcox was because Huberty was always stressed out due to his difficulty maintaining employment.

The suit specifically cited that no traces of either drugs or alcohol had been discovered in Huberty's body at his autopsy negating any possibility of his actions being influenced by any of McDonald's chicken nuggets or the metal he used to work with, and the alleged accrual of the high levels of lead and cadmium discovered in Huberty's body at his autopsy had most likely accumulated by an ongoing exposure to the fumes inhaled during the 13 years he had been employed as a welder by Babcock & Wilcox, and that a combination of Huberty's exposure to these chemicals with his ingesting high levels of monosodium glutamate in the staple McDonald's chicken nuggets food he regularly consumed had induced delusions and an uncontrollable rage with him. This lawsuit was dismissed in 1987. Etna Huberty died of breast cancer on October 1st 2003 at the age of 60.

One of the massacre's survivors, Albert Leos, later became a police officer. He served in several police departments in The South Bay Region of San Diego County and he later joined The San Diego Police Department.

Four years after the horrifying massacre in 1988, the movie "Bloody Wednesday" was based on the event, and 32 years after the massacre in 2016, director Charlie Minn made a documentary about the massacre called "77 Minutes". Even though it has been 39 years since that horrifying day, The San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre and its 22 victims that were taken that day will always be remembered forever and ever.

However, the most crucial person involved with this story, was its perpetrator, James Huberty. His motive for committing the massacre was never clear to anyone, but because of how much of a broken man he was, it's easy to say that he hated his life and wanted it to end in the only way he thought was right. All James Huberty wanted was a happy and fun life with friends and family. Unfortunately, his limp, parents divorcing, bullying, unable to maintain employment, obsession with violence and revenge, and nobody wanting to do anything to help him, were all the perfect recipe to turn his life into a life of chaos and insanity. His life struggles made his life a living Hell for 41 years and he lost all hope as his life never seemed to get any better. In the end, all he could do was end his nightmarish life in the only way he thought was right. Committing one of the worst mass murders in History. James Huberty knew he would've been killed that fateful day, but he also knew he could no longer bear with his life where nothing was right for him.

To this day, 39 years later, The Story Of James Huberty and The San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre remains as one of the most horrifying mass murders of all time, and a staple in History. It serves as a warning that something so terrifying could happen at any time at any place, and a man so calm and quiet could be so chaotic. It's a story that will always be remembered and never forgotten by anyone.

The end.