Cupertino quarry shooting
| Cupertino quarry shooting | |
|---|---|
| Location | Cupertino, California, United States |
| Coordinates | 37°19′1″N 122°5′31″W |
| Date | October 5-6, 2011 4:00 a.m.-c. 7:30 a.m. (Pacific Time) |
| Target | Co-workers |
Attack type
| Spree killing, massacre |
| Weapons | |
| Deaths | 4 (including the perpetrator) |
Non-fatal injuries
| 7 |
| Perpetrator | Shareef Allman |
On October 5, 2011, an employee, 47-year-old Shareef Allman, walked inside the Lehigh Hanson's Permanente Cement Plant in the San Francisco Bay Area city of Cupertino, California during a safety meeting, and opened fire, killing and wounding several coworkers. He then escaped and shot a 60-year-old woman whose car he was attempting to carjack in a parking lot shortly after the shooting. Allman committed suicide in a violent confrontation with Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies in Sunnyvale on October 6.
Details
At 4:00 a.m., Allman attended a safety meeting inside a trailer of Lehigh Hanson's Permanente Cement Plant and got into a confrontation with his coworkers. He exited outside the trailer to his car and armed himself, and walked back into the trailer. Trapping about a dozen coworkers inside the trailer by placing a piece of plywood and a rope over the door to jam shut it, Allman then opened fire with a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle and a .40-caliber handgun, first shooting the meeting supervisor, then randomly firing at others. Three people died, while six others were wounded. He then escaped, and more than an hour later, just as the manhunt began, Allman contacted the survivors through his walkie-talkie, threatening to come back and kill them, but he never returned to the scene.
At 7:00 a.m., he attempted to carjack a 60-year-old woman five miles away at a parking lot of Hewlett Packard's campus, and shot her in the leg. She was hospitalized in fair condition. Allman then fled on foot in a Sunnyvale neighborhood, where he eluded police in a manhunt that lasted about one day. The shootings caused a variety of schools, such as Lawson Middle School and Stratford Middle School, to go into lock-downs. Fremont High School and Lynbrook High School were also put into "Code Blue". Peterson Middle School, in Sunnyvale, was put on lock-down for several hours and had to hold their students after the end of school. At Peterson, students went into lock down before school began and were sent to their first period classes. Later in the day, Peterson staff had to facilitate things such as students having lunch, students going to the bathroom, and students having recess, as well as student evacuation at the end of the day. Peterson students were released while Allman was still at large in the Sunnyvale area.
On the morning of October 6, at about 7:30 a.m., police confronted a man who fit the description of Allman hiding behind a car parked in front of a house in the Birdland neighborhood of Sunnyvale, bordering Cupertino. Allman was asked to put his hands in the air by officers, and raised his handgun, making a comment asking to have himself killed. Sheriff's officials said Allman made a threatening motion at three sheriff's deputies, who responded with gunfire. It was initially reported that Allman died from the police officers' multiple gunshots, but an autopsy showed that Allman's fatality was caused by his self-inflicted gunshot wound.[1][2][3][4]
The shooter
The shooter, 47-year-old Shareef Allman, worked as a truck driver at the quarry.[5] Allman was an employee of Lehigh Hanson's Permanente Cement Plant, the site of the quarry in the hills to the west of Cupertino. He had worked at the plant for 15 years. Allman married singer Qwen Mejia in July 1989. She is also known as Valerie (or Valeri) Allman.[6] They had a son, Shareef Kawaan Allman, born about 1991. Their marriage was strained by a series of violent incidents perpetrated by Allman against his wife, according to court documents. Mejia obtained a restraining order against Allman in 1992 and divorced him. Allman fathered a daughter, LaShae Allman, who was born in 1993 to another woman. Allman and LaShae's mother then separated; Allman raised LaShae as a single father.
Shareef Allman resided in the Stonegate Apartments of San Jose. He grew up in East Palo Alto, in a troubled family plagued by domestic abuse. Allman had a criminal record that included five convictions for driving on a revoked or suspended license, and misdemeanor convictions for possession of stolen property and disturbing the peace.[7] Friends described him as a community activist and a happy, comedic man, and that they never knew him to be violent and that he would advocate against violence, especially domestic abuse and gang activity. Allman had been a producer for CreaTV, a San Jose-based public access broadcasting company, where he hosted a show entitled "Real 2 Real." In his show, Allman interviewed famous activists and figures such as civil rights activist Jesse Jackson and actor Damon Wayans. He had written a novel, Amazing Grace, about a fictional victim of domestic abuse who overcame her tribulations with the help of God. Allman self-published his novel in 2007. Allman had worked as a bouncer for a nightclub in Sunnyvale and was trained in mixed martial arts. Neighbors and acquaintances of Allman said that he was unhappy about being treated unfairly by co-workers, experiencing racial discrimination, and having his job being moved to a night shift. The weekend prior to the attack, a friend said Shareef Allman visited him in Sacramento and showed him his trunk with an AK-47 inside and said that he had racist co-workers. The friend said that he thought Allman was joking and did not take the statement as a threat.
Victims
Killed
- Mark Muñoz, 59, of San Jose
- John Vallejos, 51, of San Jose
- Manuel Guadalupe Piñon, 48, of Newman, California.
Wounded
- Jesse Vallejos, brother of deceased victim John Vallejos
- Mike Ambrosio, cousin of deceased victim Manuel Piñon
See also
References
- ^ Newman, Bruce; Fernandez, Lisa; Gomez, Mark; Webby, Sean (2011-10-05). "Cupertino quarry shooting suspect who killed 3, wounded 7 still on loose". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
- ^ Webby, Sean; Fernandez, Lisa (2011-10-06). "How Cupertino homicide suspect Shareef Allman eluded huge manhunt for 22 hours". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
- ^ Winter, Michael (2011-10-11). "Calif. quarry killer died from self-inflicted gunshot". USA Today.
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Sulek, Julia Prodis (2011-10-06). "Cupertino cement plant shooting victim recalls bloody morning". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
- ^ Kaplan, Tracey (2011-10-06). "Documents: Cupertino gunman's ex-wife said he had a violent temperament and assaulted her". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2011-10-07. His ex-wife sought a restraining order against him in 1992, accusing him of assaulting her on several occasions, including banging her with a brass lamp and knocking her unconscious in a clash that drew the police -- almost two decades before his deadly rampage at a Cupertino cement plant.
- ^ Fernandez, Lisa; Gomez, Mark (2011-10-06). "Cupertino triple homicide suspect shot and killed". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
- ^ Fagan, Kevin (2011-10-06). "Shareef Allman: from God to guns". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2013-07-31. Allman collected a criminal history that includes five convictions for driving on a suspended or revoked license, and misdemeanor convictions for possession of stolen property and disturbing the peace
- ^ Jump up to:a b de Sá, Karen; Krieger, Lisa M. (2011-10-05). "Victims described as hard-working family men". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
External links
- Blanco, Juan Ignacio. "Shareef Allman". Murderpedia. Retrieved 2013-07-31.
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