William Bryan Cruse (November 21, 1927 - November 29, 2009) was an American mass murderer who killed six people and wounded ten others in Palm Bay, Florida on April 23, 1987.
Shooting[edit]
On April 23, 1987, at about 6:30 p.m., William Bryan Cruse (59-years-old at the time), armed with a Ruger Mini 14 .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle with 5 30-round magazines, which he purchased from Oaks Trading Post in Melbourne on March 21, 1987 (even though the store owner and manager declined to discuss the matter), a Winchester 20 gauge shotgun, with its origin unknown, and a .357-caliber Ruger Blackhawk revolver, which he had purchased at a Norwood, Ohio, gun shop in 1964, first shot a 14-year-old kid who was playing basketball in his driveway accross the street, and then got into his white 1970s late-modeled Toyota Tercel and headed for the nearest Publix supermarket.
He killed three people in the parking lot, two Kuwaiti students and a woman, but was unable to get into the store to kill more. Cruse got back into his car and headed for the nearby Winn-Dixie supermarket. As he started firing at the store, a cop arrived at the scene. Cruse sprayed the patrol car with seven rounds mortally wounding the officer.
A second officer unloaded his weapon on Cruse without hitting him. Cruse, on the other hand, first hit him on the leg before finishing him off as the frantic officer desperately tried to reload his weapon.
On a roll, Cruse proceeded into the supermarket shooting at anyone he saw. By the time he was done, Cruse had killed six people and wounded ten others.
As police surrounded the store he took an 18-year-old woman hostage who he found hiding in the women's restroom. After a six-hour siege, he let her go. A little later police swarmed into the store and arrested him.
Victims[edit]
- Emad Mohamiad Al-Tawakuly, 18, of Kuwait, an FIT engineering student
- Nabil Abdul Al-Hameli, 25, of Kuwait, a Florida Institute of Technology engineering student
- Officer Gerald Douglas Johnson, 28, of Palm Bay
- Officer Ronald Midgely Grogan, 27, of Palm Bay
- Ruth Green, of Palm Bay
- Lester Watson, 51, of Palm Bay
==Trial and Imprisonment==Dead now.
External links[edit]
- FLORIDA GUNMAN CHARGED WITH KILLING 6, The New York Times (April 25, 1987)
- GUNMAN IN FLORIDA KILLS 8, WOUNDS 11, The New York Times (April 24, 1987)
- RAGE, ROOTLESSNESS AND GUNS, THE FORMULA FOR A MASSACRE, The New York Times (April 25, 1987)
- SUSPECT IN FLORIDA SHOOTINGS: TORMENTED AND TORMENTING, The New York Times (April 25, 1987)
- Man Convicted in Killing of 6, The New York Times (April 6, 1989)
- Retired Librarian Sentenced To Death for 1987 Shootings, The New York Times (July 29, 1987)
- INDICTMENT NEAR IN SNIPER SIEGE, PROSECUTORS SAY, Miami Herald (May 14, 1987)
- LIST OF THOSE KILLED, HURT IN MASSACRE, Miami Herald (April 25, 1987)
- IN PALM BAY, RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS UNBEARABLE, Miami Herald (April 25, 1987)
- EXPERTS: WARNINGS ARE FEW UNUSUAL BEHAVIOR NOT ALWAYS ENOUGH, Miami Herald (April 26, 1987)
- OLD FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS SHOCKED BY RAMPAGE, Miami Herald (April 26, 1987)
- VALOR IN FACE OF TRAGEDY PARAMEDIC RISKED LIFE TO AID FALLEN, Miami Herald (April 26, 1987)
- EIGHTH-GRADER IS WITNESS TO CARNAGE SHOPPER, 12, SEES VICTIMS SHOT DOWN, Miami Herald (April 24, 1987)
- TERROR SHATTERS AN ORDINARY FLORIDA TOWN, Miami Herald (April 25, 1987)
- Memorials planned for 6 victims of rampage, The Deseret News (April 26, 1987)
- Long Talk Between Hostage, Gunman An Interlude In Horror, The Deseret News (April 26, 1987)
- Flickers of hate finally erupted into killing rage, The Deseret News (April 25, 1987)
- Gunman kills 6, injures 1 4 during Florida shooting spree, The Deseret News (April 24, 1987)
- Two shot at Palm Bay still hospitalized, St. Petersburg Times (May 18, 1987)
- Man who shot at gunman wants gun permit, St. Petersburg Times (December 12, 1987)
- See Clues To Spree, The Bryan Times (April 25, 1987)
- 4 Dead 11 Hurt In Fla. Attack, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (April 24, 1987)
- Amok im Supermarkt: Sechs Tote, Hamburger Abendblatt (April 25, 1987)
References[edit]
INDICTMENT NEAR IN SNIPER SIEGE, PROSECUTORS SAY Grand jury testimony neared conclusion Wednesday against William Cruse Jr., the accused gunman in the Palm Bay massacre, while a motion by his public defender to be removed from the case was put on hold. "In all likelihood he would be served with the indictment late today or early tomorrow, assuming an indictment is returned," State Attorney Norm Wolfinger said Wednesday. Prosecutors remained before the grand jury late in the day. Wolfinger said about 38 witness had been scheduled to testify at the grand jury hearing, which is closed to the public. About 20 witnesses were called on the first day of testimony. Cruse, 59, is held without bond in an isolation cell at Sharpes, charged with six first-degree murders and 38 other crimes in an April 23 rampage in which 12 other people were wounded near his Palm Bay home and at two nearby shopping plazas. The retired Kentucky librarian also allegedly held a Winn- Dixie supermarket clerk hostage until his his arrest at the store, where two Palm Bay policemen were killed during an eight- hour siege. Arraignment usually occurs the day after an indictment, and Cruse was scheduled for a Friday afternoon appearance in the basement court at the Sharpes jail. George McCarthy, a Brevard County assistant public defender, said no hearing would be held on his motion to withdraw from the case until a trial judge is assigned after formal indictment is returned. Brevard County Judge Harry Stein declared Cruse indigent the day of his arrest and and awarded him counsel through the public defender's office. But McCarthy contends the defendant's assets are sufficient to hire a lawyer. Cruse receives income from a $75000 mortgage he holds on a condominium complex in Lexington, Ky., that he sold before moving to Palm Bay two years ago. "We'll proceed with his defense as if the motion was never filed until such time as we hear otherwise," McCarthy said. "We'd just prefer the circuit judge who's going to have to live with the decision through trial hear the motion." Two of the Palm Bay people wounded in the shooting remained Wednesday at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne. Helen Norvell was in serious condition and Benjamin Pelliccio was listed as fair, said hospital spokeswoman Debbie DeRoy.
LIST OF THOSE KILLED, HURT IN MASSACRE These are the victims of the massacre, according to Palm Bay Police Chief Charles Simmons and Holmes Regional Medical Center authorities: The dead: 1. Nobi Abdul Al-Hameli, 25, of Kuwait, a Florida Institute of Technology engineering student shot to death while walking to Publix. 2. Emad Mohamiad Al-Tawakuly, 18, of Kuwait, also an FIT engineering student shot to death while walking to Publix. 3. Officer Gerald Douglas Johnson, 28, of Palm Bay, shot to death in Winn-Dixie parking lot. 4. Officer Ronald Midgely Grogan, 27, of Palm Bay, shot to death in Winn-Dixie parking lot. 1. David Fox, Palm Bay, gunshot wound to chest, critical condition. 2. Helen Norvel, Palm Bay, gunshot wound to stomach, critical condition. 3. Faisal Al-Mutairi, 19, FIT student from Kuwait, gunshot wound to left shoulder, fair condition. 4. Benjamin Fellucio, Melbourne, gunshot wound to posterior, serious condition. 5. John Rich, 14, Palm Bay, gunshot wound to posterior, fair condition. 6. Donna Gallo, Hollywood, Fla., gunshot to right side, satisfactory condition. 7. Najib Abdul-Samad, Melbourne, an FIT student from Kuwait, gunshot wound to back, satisfactory condition.
IN PALM BAY, RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS UNBEARABLE In the weird half-light of reason following the Palm Bay horror, the man called me in angry anonymity to express to somebody the outrage he felt. "Now what do you think about the gun nuts, with all those people dead at Palm Bay? Don't you think we've had enough? Must we have this right, this stupid right, to bear arms when it's causing so much wrong? "Listen, we're all looking for the good, right? Freedom is good. But maybe old Erich Fromm was right when he wrote that if you're going to be free, you earn it. . . ." I let him ramble. It wasn't wholly coherent, but then. neither is the subject matter. The 7 1/2-hour Palm Bay rampage of William Bryan Cruse, 59, leaving six dead and 14 injured, is another of those explosive insanities; the ticking time bomb, suddenly gone off. nd what an irony it was. The Palm Bay horror erupted during this same week when presumably sane men and women of the Florida House voted overwhelmingly to decimate local handgun control laws in this state, to let virtually anybody buy a gun and vastly expand the numbers of people entitled to carry them concealed, by permit.
Dade County had its one-man bloodbath in 1983, when the demented schoolteacher Carl Brown walked into a Hialeah machine shop and coldly executed eight people with a rifle over a measly $21 debt before pedaling off on his bicycle, to be slain by pursuers.
And last year's carnage at Edmond, Okla., when a maddened mailman, Patrick Sherrill, started shooting up the local post office and didn't stop until 14 were dead and six wounded.
Then he killed himself. And the worst day of all was in 1984 at San Ysidro, Calif., when James Oliver Huberty burst into a McDonald's restaurant armed with a shotgun, a pistol and an automatic rifle and opened fire. Twenty-one died, 19 were wounded in the nation's worst one-man rampage. We're baffled, seeking rational causes for irrational deeds. In this day of technological miracles, why can't we anticipate these things and prevent them? Is the quirky madman so difficult to identify? "Society is caught in the middle," Miami psychiatrist James Sussex has told me. Sussex did an intensive follow-up study of the Carl Brown massacre here. "Society says you can't lock people up because of something they might do without strong reason to believe they will do it. If we lock up everybody who might commit an act of violence, then we'd probably all be behind bars." But Friday's man on the telephone wasn't thinking from that perspective. He was thinking of the bloody mess that's been made of America's absolute right to bear arms, and wondering if this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind. "Things change. Listen, we're not fighting the British any more. Sociologists tell us we're experiencing a social lag, that man's behavior is behind his technology and his times. Well, damn it, how long do we have to wait for the social lag to catch up? "People are dying out there, just so every nut can have his gun and shoot it."
