1997 Heath High School shooting

Mass shooting in West Paducah, Kentucky

The Heath High School shooting occurred at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, United States, on December 1, 1997. 14 year old Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of students, killing three and injuring five.

On December 1, 1997, Carneal wrapped a shotgun and a rifle in a blanket and took them to school, passing them off as an art project he was working on. He carried a loaded Ruger MK II .22 caliber pistol in his backpack. Carneal rode to school with his sister and arrived at approximately 7:45 a. m. When he arrived, he inserted earplugs into his ears and took the pistol out of his bag. He fired ten rounds in fast succession at a youth group of students. Three girls later died and five other students were wounded. Brittney Thomas, a survivor, said that when she turned around during the shooting, she was "kind of facing down the barrel of the gun." A member of the group, Benjamin Strong, testified that Carneal dropped the gun of his own accord after the shooting. Carneal placed his pistol on the ground and surrendered to the school principal, Bill Bond. After dropping the gun, Carneal said to Strong: "Kill me, please. I can't believe I did that."

Nicole Hadley was a fourteen year old freshman who played in the school band and on the freshman basketball team. She was kept alive until 10:00 pm the evening of the shooting. Her family had moved to Paducah from Nebraska the year before. Her parents were praised for donating her organs. President Bill Clinton cited this "courageous decision" in his Proclamation 7083 on National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week in 1998. Jessica James was a seventeen year old student and member of the marching band. She died in surgery at Western Baptist Hospital the afternoon of the shooting. Kayce Steger was a fifteen year old sophomore, a clarinetist in the school band and a member of the Agape Club and softball team. She died at Lourdes Hospital in Paducah about 45 minutes after the shooting. She was an honor student and member of Law Enforcement Explorers Post 111 who hoped to be a police officer.

According to reports, Carneal had been bullied by other students and had anxiety, depression, and severe paranoia. His paranoia was manifested in habits such as covering up vents and windows while in bathrooms, because he believed he was being watched. Following the shooting, Carneal was diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder and dysthymia. Kathleen O'Connor, who treated Carneal while he was incarcerated at the Northern Kentucky Youth Development Center, initially agreed with this diagnosis but later determined that Carneal had paranoid schizophrenia. Dewey Cornell and Diane Schetky, who evaluated Carneal after the shooting, later changed their diagnosis to schizophrenia.

Carneal had in his locker at the time a copy of Stephen King's novel Rage, first published in 1977 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. After this shooting, King requested his publisher to allow it to go out of print, fearing that it might inspire similar tragedies. Rage for a time continued to be available in the United Kingdom in The Bachman Books collection, although the collection now no longer contains Rage.

In October 1998, a plea of guilty from Michael Carneal was accepted due to his mental illness. Under a plea arrangement, the judge agreed to accept the pleas on condition that Carneal would receive a life sentence with the possibility of parole in 25 years (2022). According to prosecutor Tim Kaltenbach, the plea allows Carneal to receive mental health treatment during imprisonment as long as this is necessary for him or until he is released. Carneal was transported to the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange when he turned 18 where he remains. Prior to that he was held in at Northern Kentucky Youth Development Center, a Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice facility in Crittenden. Carneal's Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC) ID is 151127. Carneal began serving time with KDOC on June 1, 2001. In 2007, Carneal filed an appeal claiming that he was too mentally ill to plead guilty to the shooting at Heath High School. He asked the Kentucky Supreme Court for a re trial. Prosecutors appealed and the Kentucky Supreme Court rejected his request. In 2012, he attempted to withdraw his plea claiming he was mentally ill at the time he made it. Later in the year the U. S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request, stating he should have acted sooner. However, his hearing was rescheduled and began on September 19, 2022.

On September 26, 2022, the parole board unanimously denied Carneal's bid for parole and ordered him to serve out the remainder of his life sentence. The "serve out" ruling, under Kentucky law, means the inmate in question cannot be considered for any future parole hearings (though commutation or a pardon from the governor is still possible). This means Carneal's life with parole sentence is now effectively a life without parole (or "whole life") sentence.

The families of the deceased have agreed to a $42 million settlement from Carneal. At the time of settlement Carneal had no assets and his family's insurance company, Kentucky Farm Bureau, has insisted repeatedly through court motions that it is not liable for his actions.

In early 1999, the parents of three victims represented by Jack Thompson filed a $33 million lawsuit against two Internet pornography sites, several computer game companies and makers and distributors of the 1994 film Natural Born Killers and the 1995 film The Basketball Diaries. They claimed that media violence inspired Carneal and therefore should be held responsible for the deaths that occurred. Both Thompson and United States Attorney General John Ashcroft claimed Carneal's proficient marksmanship was due to practice in violent video games. The case was dismissed in 2002, with the 6th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that it was "simply too far a leap from shooting characters on a video screen to shooting people in a classroom."

Family of victims organized a 20th anniversary service to commemorate the victims, and open a memorial for the victims placed across the street from the school. The memorial was built in a circle to symbolize the prayer circle that was targeted, with five benches representing the five surviving victims.