Tyrone Mitchell grew up in south-central Los Angeles. In 1977 his parents, four sisters, and a brother, all members of the Reverend Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple, traveled with the cult to Jonestown, Guyana. Mitchell, not an ardent of a supporter of the group, stayed behind.
All of Mitchell’s family perished in the mass murder-suicide at Jonestown on November 18, 1978. The infamous incident committed on another continent may have been the catalyst for the twenty-eight-year-old Mitchell’s attempted mass murder across the street from his home.
Tyrone Mitchell
At 2:23 p.m. on February 24, 1984, as approximately one-hundred children of Los Angeles’ 49th Street Elementary School emerged from their classrooms for recess on the school’s playground, Mitchell opened fire from the window of his house across the street. Although police were nearby and responded immediately upon hearing the shots, Mitchell was able to fire thirty-nine rounds from an AR-15 rifle and eighteen rounds from two shotguns before they arrived.
When the barrage of gunfire ceased after approximately five minutes, twelve children and two adults had been shot.
Injured Children Being Treated
Ten-year-old Shala Eubanks had been shot on the school playground. A schoolyard supervisor attempted to reach her, but he was forced to take cover in the hail of gunfire. Police officers were able to reach the wounded girl and move her to a classroom on the other side of the school away from the gunfire. Paramedics did everything they could but were unable to save her as she died on the classroom floor.
Shala Eubanks
The school was evacuated and Mitchell’s house was surrounded. A siege ensued during which his fiance, Mary Lou Hill, attempted get him to surrender.
Her repeated pleas, as well as those of negotiators, fell on deaf ears.
A Sniper Outside Mitchell’s Home
After three-and-a-half hours, police threw at least sixteen canisters of tear gas into the home and a SWAT team stormed in. Mitchell was found lying face up on the floor of his second-story bedroom. Dressed in camouflage pants, he had killed himself with a shot to the head from a twelve-gauge double-barreled shotgun.
Los Angeles County Coroner Officers
Transporting Mitchell’s Body
Twenty-four-year-old Carlos Lopez, had been walking past the school on his way to a nearby park when the ambush erupted. He suffered gunshot wounds to the abdomen and underwent surgery but died eight weeks later on April 13. I could not find a picture of him.
With the exception of one student losing a kidney, all of the other schoolchildren and the teacher wounded in the shooting made full recoveries.
Mourners At The Funeral For Carlos Lopez
Tyrone Mitchell was a known drug-user, but an autopsy found no drugs and only trace amounts of alcohol in his system. Although his motive for the rampage is not clear, Mary Lou, who had also been a member of the People’s Temple, said he had suffered a nervous breakdown resulting from his family’s mass suicide in Guyana over five years earlier.
When Mitchell opened fire on the school, Mary Lou she believed her fiance was reliving the Jonestown horror.
The Ghosts of Jonestown
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/256616005/shala-eubanks#
SOURCES:
- Los Angeles Times
- New York Times
I remember this.
My family lost friends and family there.
I’ve been to Oakland many times.
It’s also why my mom jumped off a second floor balcony holding me. Her letter said come home or go home to God. So much evil came from Jim