Kip Kinkel

Kip Kinkel
Born	Kipland Philip Kinkel (1982-08-30) August 30, 1982 Springfield, Oregon United States
Criminal penalty	111 years in prison, without the possibility of parole
Details
Date	May 20–21, 1998
Location(s)	Springfield, Oregon United States
Killed	4
Injured	24
Weapons	9 mm Glock 19 pistol, .22LR Ruger 10/22 rifle, .22LR Ruger MK II pistol

Kipland Philip "Kip" Kinkel (born August 30, 1982) is an American spree killer. In May 1998, at the age of 15, he murdered his parents and engaged in a school shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, that left two students dead and 25 others wounded. He is serving a 111-year sentence, without the possibility of parole.

Background

Kinkel was born in Springfield, Oregon to William Kinkel and Faith Zuranski. He has an older sister, Kristin. His parents were both Spanish teachers. Faith Kinkel taught Spanish at Springfield High School, and William Kinkel taught at Lane Community College after retiring from Thurston High School. According to all accounts, Kinkel's parents were loving and supportive. His sister was a gifted student. The Kinkel family spent a sabbatical year in Spain when Kip was six, where he attended a non-English-speaking school. His family said that he struggled with the curriculum. When Kinkel returned to Oregon, he attended Walterville Elementary School in Springfield. His teachers considered him immature and lacking physical and emotional development. Based on the recommendation of his teachers, Kinkel's parents had him repeat the first grade. In the fourth grade, he was diagnosed with dyslexia and was placed in extensive special education classes.

Kinkel had an interest in firearms and explosives from an early age. His father first denied this, but later enrolled him at gun safety courses, buying him a .22 caliber Long rifle and eventually a 9mm Glock handgun when Kip was 15. His classmates described him as strange and morbid. He constantly talked about committing acts of violence. He told friends that he wanted to join the Army after graduation to find out what it was like to kill someone. When one of his classmates talked about a trip to Disney World, Kinkel told her he wanted to shoot Mickey Mouse. He once even gave a "how to" speech in bombmaking to his speech class and set off "stink bombs" in the lockers of classmates. Kinkel's parents enrolled him in anger management and had him evaluated by psychologists. Shortly before his murder, Kinkel's father confided to a friend that he was "terrified" and had run out of options to help his son.

Events leading to shooting

Expulsion

On May 20, 1998, Kinkel was suspended pending an expulsion hearing from Thurston High School for being in possession of a loaded, stolen handgun. A friend of Kinkel's had stolen a pistol from the father of one of his friends and arranged to sell the weapon to Kinkel the night before. Kinkel paid $110 for the Beretta Model 90 .32-caliber pistol loaded with a 9-round magazine, which he then placed in a paper bag and left in his locker. When the father discovered he was missing a handgun, he reported it to the police and supplied the names of students he believed might have stolen the firearm. Kinkel's name was not on the list. The school became aware of his possible involvement and questioned him. When he was checked for weapons, he reportedly stated: "Look, I'm gonna be square with you guys; the gun's in my locker." Kinkel was suspended pending an expulsion hearing from Thurston High School, and he and his friend were arrested. Kinkel was released from police custody and driven home by his father.

Murder of parents

At home that afternoon, Kinkel was told by his father that he would be sent to military school if he did not change his behavior.

According to Kinkel's taped confession, at about 3:00 p.m. his father was seated at the kitchen counter drinking coffee. Kinkel retrieved his .22 rifle from his bedroom and ammunition from his parents' bedroom. He then went to the kitchen and shot his father once in the back of the head, then dragged his body into the bathroom and covered it with a sheet

Kinkel further stated that his mother arrived home at about 6:30 p.m., and that he met her in the garage, told her he loved her, then shot her twice in the back of the head, three times in the face, and once in the heart. He then dragged her body across the floor and covered it with a sheet.

Throughout that morning Kinkel repeatedly played a recording of "Liebestod", the final dramatic aria from Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde, on the family's sound system. The recording was featured in the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, and included on the compact disc (CD) of the soundtrack from the film. When police arrived at the residence they found "opera music" from the soundtrack playing loudly with the CD player set to continuous play.

In a note Kinkel left on a coffee table in the living room, he described his motive for killing his parents thus: "I just got two felonies on my record. My parents can't take that! It would destroy them. The embarrassment would be too much for them. They couldn't live with themselves." But as the note continues, he attempts to describe his mental state: "My head just doesn't work right. God damn these VOICES inside my head. ... I have to kill people. I don't know why. ... I have no other choice."

Thurston High School shooting

On May 21, Kinkel drove his mother's Ford Explorer to the high school. He wore a trench coat to hide the five weapons he carried: two hunting knives, a 9mm Glock 19 pistol, a Ruger .22-caliber semi-automatic rifle, and a .22-caliber Ruger MK II pistol. He was carrying 1,127 rounds of ammunition.

He parked on North 61st Street, two blocks from the school, then jogged to the campus, entered the patio area and fired two shots, one fatally wounding Ben Walker and the other wounding Ryan Atteberry. Kinkel went to the cafeteria and, walking across it, fired the remaining 48 rounds from his rifle, wounding 24 students and killing 17-year-old Mikael Nickolauson. Kinkel fired a total of 50 rounds, accumulating 37 hits, and two fatalities.

When Kinkel's rifle ran out of ammunition and he began to reload, wounded student Jacob Ryker tackled him, assisted by several other students. Kinkel drew the Glock and fired one shot before he was disarmed, injuring Ryker again as well as another student. The students restrained Kinkel until the police arrived and arrested him. A total of seven students were involved in subduing and disarming Kinkel.

Nickolauson died at the scene; Walker died after being transported to the hospital and kept on life support until his parents arrived. The other students, including Ryker, were also taken to the hospital with a variety of wounds. Ryker had a perforated lung, but he made a full recovery.

Trial and imprisonment

At the police station, Kinkel lunged at officer Al Warthen with his knife, screaming, "Shoot me, kill me!" The officer repelled Kinkel with pepper spray. Kinkel later said that he wanted to trick the officer into shooting him, and that he had wanted to commit suicide after killing his parents but could not bring himself to do so.

At his sentencing, the defense presented experts on mental health to show that the assailant was mentally ill. Jeffrey Hicks, the only psychologist who had treated Kinkel before the shootings, said that he was in satisfactory mental health. He had seen Kinkel for nine sessions, after which the boy's parents terminated the therapy.

On September 24, 1999, three days before jury selection was set to begin, Kinkel pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder, forgoing the possibility of being acquitted by reason of insanity. In November 1999, Kinkel was sentenced to 111 years in prison without the possibility of parole. At sentencing, Kinkel apologized to the court for the murder of his parents and the shooting spree.

Appeals

In June 2007, Kinkel sought a new trial. He said that his previous attorneys should have taken the case to trial and used the insanity defense. Two psychiatrists testified that Kinkel exhibited signs of paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the shooting. In August 2007, a Marion County judge denied him a new trial. Kinkel appealed, arguing among other things that he had had ineffective assistance of counsel during the trial proceedings. On January 12, 2011, the Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court judgment, denying his motion for a new trial. Kinkel is currently appealing his sentence in both federal and state courts. In federal court he claims his guilty plea should not have been accepted without a prior mental health evaluation. In state court Kinkel is challenging the validity of the virtual life sentence he was given, citing Miller v. Alabama.

Kinkel is incarcerated at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, Oregon. He received his GED while serving a portion of his life sentence at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in Woodburn, Oregon. On June 11, 2007, Kinkel, nearing his 25th birthday (maximum age to be held as a juvenile in Oregon), was transferred from the Oregon Youth Authority, MacLaren Correctional Facility, to the Oregon State Correctional Institution, Oregon Department of Corrections.

External links

• CourtTV article on Kinkel
• New York Times article on Jacob Ryker