Every shooting at a school in May 2025

Dozens of shots were fired during prom, track meet, and fight at graduation. Plus, a possible cover-up of a lunchtime shooting on campus in South Carolina and averted attacks in Texas and California.

Students dressed in suits and prom dresses were gathered at MLK High School in Detroit on May 29 when 20 shots were fired during a fight in the school parking lot. The shooting happened despite the presence of multiple police officers at the pre-prom photo event. Luckily, nobody was injured.

Early in May, at least 20 shots were fired on the sidewalk next to the 4th and 5th grade track meet for DC public schools at 2pm on May 20. Elementary school students described running and hiding behind trees as classmates had panic attacks. An adult man was killed and three suspects fled from the area before police arrived.

In Minneapolis on May 30, two people (teen and student’s father) were shot during a fight at the end of Wayzata High School’s graduation ceremony on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

Fights that escalate into shootings continue to be the most common reason for shootings in all types of public spaces from schools to shopping malls. Back on April 26, 11 people were shot during a fight between high school students in Myrtle Beach, SC as the summer vacation crowds started to pick up in this popular beach town. A month after the shooting, police believe the confrontation started all the way back at the Marlboro County vs. Scotland High School football game on September 6, 2024. This is a reminder that schools need to communicate with local police departments about ongoing disputes between groups of students who might meet off campus.

Shooting Cover-up?

On April 30, a student was injured in the parking lot of Ridge View High in Columbia, SC during lunch. The school immediately released a statement that a student was injured by a toy air gun and there was no threat to students.

A month later, the student’s family has filed a lawsuit against the school claiming a “spin campaign” from the school's staff aimed at downplaying the severity of the incident. The suit seeks damages from claims of negligence against the district.

Hospital records show the student’s injuries are consistent with a .22 bullet that fragmented. This would not happen from a round BB pellet fired from an air gun (pictured above is the difference between an air gun BB on the left and a .22 bullet on the right). The lawsuit also claims that three students were found with handguns on campus during the incident.

According to the report, the injured student told police that he'd been walking toward a group of students in the senior parking lot when he "heard a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot," then felt pain in his finger and abdomen."

The alleged gunshot, described as a negligent discharge, came through the window of a car the student was standing near, according to the lawsuit. All three of the car's occupants were students, and all three had handguns, the suit alleges.

"It was foreseeable to (Richland Two) that weapons would be brought onto the premises of RVHS by students, and that this would cause an increase in violence on the premises of RVHS," the complaint reads, asserting the existence of a "culture of indifference" at the school.

Averted plots in Texas and California

On May 16, a 14-year-old and 15-year-old student were arrested for plotting to kill their parents and then commit a Columbine-style school shooting and bombing at Evergreen Institute of Excellence in rural Cottonwood, CA (pop. 7,100).

Their plot was reported to police by an online gamer in Tennessee. In their written plans, they intended to kill 100 students (nearly everyone at their 140 student k-12 school). Firearms and improvised explosives were found inside their homes.

Both boys were charged with suspicion of making criminal threats, possession of a destructive device, manufacturing a destructive device, and conspiracy to commit a felony. This plot was detected the same week that a Texas mother was arrested for buying ammo and tactical gear for her 13-year-old son who was plotting a school shooting:

On Monday, a Texas middle school student told his grandmother he was "going to be famous" before being picked up by his mom and taken to school. The grandmother then looked through the boy's bedroom, where she found magazines loaded with live rifle ammunition and pistol magazines loaded with live ammunition, the affidavit said. She also found an "improvised explosive device" -- a mortar-style firework wrapped in duct tape -- among the boy's belongings, the affidavit noted.

The explosive device had the words "For Brenton Tarrant," referencing the shooter in the 2019 mosque attack, along with multiple "SS" symbols and "14 words" -- referencing white supremacy -- written on it, according to the affidavit. Along with the weaponry, the grandmother found a handwritten note referring to previous mass shootings, mass shooting suspects and the number of victims in each incident, the affidavit said.

Ashley Pardo, 33, was arrested on Monday and charged with aiding in commission of terrorism after she allegedly provided ammunition and tactical gear to her son, whose behavior demonstrated plans for "mass targeted violence" aimed at Rhodes Middle School in San Antonio. Back in January, Pardo's son was first contacted in reference to "drawings of the local school he currently attended," the affidavit said.

These drawings included a map of the school -- labeled "suicide route" -- and the name of the school written beside a rifle, the affidavit said. The affidavit noted that Pardo was purchasing the gear and ammunition for her son in exchange for babysitting his younger siblings.

Charging the student’s mother with material support to terrorism is a legal framework that I wrote about in March 2024 when the Oxford, MI school shooter plead guilty to terrorism charges. If a student is charged with terrorism, the student’s parents can be charged federally with “material support to terrorism” if they provided firearms training or access to weapons. These federal felony charges are an option even when local or state laws don’t require safe storage of firearms.

Trends

Socioeconomic Analysis

Here is a chart with the zip codes for the locations of the shootings in May:

The majority fall below the national median household income of $78,538. For example, 63113 (St. Louis, MO), 10459 (Bronx, NY), and 19141 (Philadelphia, PA) all are around half the national median. About a third are moderately below the national average ($10k–$20k below national median. Only a few ZIP codes like 07652 (Paramus, NJ) and 20002 (Washington, DC) significantly exceed the national median.

Following my previous articles about Unforgiving Places, shootings happen most often at the poorest schools in the country where the surrounding community (which is the tax-base for public schools) is well below the national average.

School vouchers that transfer tax dollars from public schools to subsidize private suburban schools and cutting federal education funding from lowest income areas of the country only makes these gun violence problems worse.

Every shooting in May 2025

Date: 2025-05-30

School Name: P.S./M.S. 004 Crotona Park West

• City: Bronx

• State: NY

• Location: Playground

• Time Period: Afternoon Classes

• Summary: Man was fatally shot on the playground behind the school by two men in ski masks