The Man Who Went Hunting For Humans

It was late Wednesday afternoon when a man walked into McDonald’s.

“I’m going hunting…hunting for humans.”

Armed with guns and hate in his heart, James Oliver Huberty fatally shot 21 people and wounded 19 others in one of America’s worst massacres.

The background of a killer

James Huberty was born on October 11, 1942, in Canton, Ohio, and contracted polio at the age of three. Earl Huberty, James’ father, said that his entire nervous system was affected by polio and that the sickness made him “quick-tempered” due to the discomfort and spasms he experienced. He was also left with chronic walking issues as a result of his illness.

Then, to make a tough childhood even worst, Isel, James’ mother, felt “called” to become a Christian missionary when James was just seven years old. She abandoned her family, leaving James with severe psychological scars. A clergyman remembers James blaming God for his mother’s separation from him.

As he grew older, James attended Malone College in his early twenties, where he met Etna, whom he eventually married in 1965 and later had two children. He went on to study embalming at another school after graduation.

However, despite having an embalmer’s license, James did not pursue the profession and instead began his career as a welder’s apprentice at the Babcock and Wilcox utility plant.

Don Williams, the owner of a funeral home at which Huberty had trained as an embalmer, would later state, “He was a good embalmer but just didn’t relate to people. That’s why he was better as a welder. He could just put that mask down and be by himself.”

In keeping with the story so far, married life did not come easy for James either. Because, in addition to being generally unsociable, James had grown up with a fixation with weapons.

When Etna later reflected on her relationship with James, she confessed, “I always figured there was a strong chance he’d kill me one day.” Considering he once pointed a gun at her, she was right to be worried.

‘I didn’t become afraid for the girls until after February,’ Etna said when her husband got angry with their eldest daughter Zelia.

‘She went flying into her bedroom with an Uzi pointed at her,’ Etna confessed.

The same Uzi James would later use in the massacre. Etna claimed, however, that he never mistreated the girls.

However, those outside of the family had a different view of James. Huberty was seen by his neighbors and coworkers as a sad, irritable, and paranoid guy preoccupied with firearms and kept a mental record of every setback, insult, or general source of frustration — real or perceived — against himself or his family.

On several occasions, James’ neighbors were alarmed when they heard gunshots coming from the Hubertys’ basement, where James had set up a makeshift shooting range. “No Trespassing” signs were posted all around the house, and he also had a security dog. One of James’ neighbors informed him that his dog had damaged his car, and within minutes, James had taken the dog to the back of the house and shot it dead. The neighbor was furious and told James that there was no need to do what he did. James said, “I believe in paying my debts, both good and bad.”

A call for help

James knew there was something wrong with him. He even told his wife, Etna, on July 15, 1984, that he felt he had a mental illness. Two days later, on July 17, James placed a call to the San Ysidro Health Center’s mental health unit requesting an appointment.

But, for reasons only James knows, he refused to reveal the nature of his problem to the receptionist. He spoke with a pleasant, non-urgent tone and stated that he had never been hospitalized for mental health issues before and was not on medication or a treatment plan. Huberty was informed that the clinic would call him back within hours after leaving his contact information with the receptionist.

According to his wife, James remained silently beside the phone for several hours, waiting for a return call before abruptly stepping out of the family home and riding his motorcycle to an unknown destination.

When Mrs. Huberty attempted to follow up, fearful that her husband would shoot someone, a clinic clerk told her that there was no record of his call. Due to a clerical error, the receptionist had misspelled Huberty’s name as “Shouberty.” Furthermore, with his demeanor over the phone transmitting no feeling of urgency to the receptionist, James’ call was filed as a “non-crisis,” to be handled within 48 hours. Unfortunately, that call would be 24 hours too late for his many victims.

The day of the massacre

The day of the massacre started normal enough. A recently unemployed James, his wife, and their two children went to the San Diego Zoo on July 18, 1984. James confided in his wife during their stroll in the zoo that he believed his life was over, and would eerily remark, “well, society had their chance,” referring to the mental health clinic’s inability to return his phone call the day before.

The Huberty family returned home after having lunch at a McDonald’s in San Diego’s Clairemont area.

James stepped into his bedroom later that afternoon, wearing a maroon T-shirt and green camouflage slacks, as his wife relaxed on their bed. “I want to kiss you goodbye,” he whispered as he leaned in close to Etna. Etna kissed her husband and then inquired where he was going, indicating that she would be preparing the family meal shortly. “I’m going hunting… hunting for humans,” Huberty said quietly.

At the time, Mrs. Huberty didn’t take her husband’s words seriously as such outbursts were not uncommon from James.

The massacre

James pulled into the McDonald’s parking lot on San Ysidro Boulevard, two miles from the Mexican border, just before 4:00 p.m. Inside the restaurant, a total of 45 patrons were present.

He was armed with a long-barreled Uzi, a pump-action shotgun, and a handgun.

When the gunfire started, school friends Omar Hernandez, David Flores, and Joshua Coleman, all 11 years old, ran for their bicycles in the parking lot. Each of them was shot by James Huberty. Hernandez and Flores were both killed. Coleman, who was injured, pretended to be dead.

Staff member, Alicia Gracia was in the middle of making french fries. She dashed downstairs with two other kitchen staff to the cloakroom.

Others weren’t as lucky.

James yelled for everyone to get on the floor.

Customers and staff alike did as instructed. James Huberty then began shooting those on the floor after a staff member picked up the phone to contact the police. As he proceeded past the prone people, he shot systematically. James shot the bloodied people on the floor again when they moaned.

James Huberty was cruel and unmerciful with his killing.

He approached six ladies and children huddled together and started picking them off one by one. James fatally shot nine-year-old Claudia Pérez in the stomach, cheek, thigh, hip, leg, chest, back, armpit, and head with his Uzi after killing 19-year-old Mara Colmenero-Silva with a single gunshot to the chest. Pérez’s 15-year-old sister Imelda was subsequently shot in the hand with the same weapon, and Aurora Peña, 11, was shot with his shotgun. Pena would later survive, having been sheltered by her pregnant aunt, Jackie Reyes.

James shot people fleeing the scene and at people in the restaurant’s parking area. He left the restaurant and went outside to kill victims lying in the parking lot and showed signs of life. Some people took refuge behind vehicles.

The shooting lasted a total of 77 minutes before James Huberty was shot and killed by SWAT team sharpshooter Chuck Foster.

At the time, the massacre was the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history.

Who were the victims?

Neighborhood kids, vacationers, shoppers, a truck driver about to retire, and teenage McDonald’s employees were among the deceased. The youngest of the victims, Carlos Reyes, was eight months old, while Miguel Victoria-Ulloa, the oldest, was 74.

Jackie Wright Reyes, a housewife from San Ysidro, was 18 years old. She dropped out of Southwest High School in her senior year to care for her eight-month-old baby, Carlos. Jackie, her niece Aurora Peña and a group of friends went wedding shopping for a cousin’s wedding. Jackie rarely took Carlos shopping, but she did on this particular day. During the shooting, Aurora was wounded in the leg but would escape death after being sheltered by her heroic pregnant aunt. James Huberty used the Uzi to shoot Jackie Reyes 48 times. When eight-month-old Carlos Reyes sat up and cried beside his mother’s dead body, James Huberty yelled at the boy, then shot him in the back with a single gunshot.

Trucker Lawrence Herman Versluis, 62, was known as the ‘Captain.’ He was an army veteran, having been stationed at Pearl Harbor during World War II. At McLean Trucking Co., he progressed through the ranks to become the senior man in a crew of 30 drivers. After 38 years with the organization, he had intended to retire that week to spend more time with his wife Isabel, camping, hunting, and fishing. His retirement party had been planned for that week.

Wendy Flanagan, 17, returned to the register after getting ice when she heard what she believed was a firecracker, and her world turned upside-down. Maggie, a coworker, grabbed her hand and exclaimed, “Run, run!”

“We were running, we were holding hands, and she fell, and I let go of her, and she died.”

Wendy and a group of others, including moms and newborns, entered a closet.

“We stayed in there, we listened to gunfire. I would hear people beg for their lives, babies crying, and the rapid gunfire, and then the moms screaming, and quiet again.”

The aftermath

In the aftermath of the massacre, some criticized the local police and argued that more lives could have been saved if they had acted quicker. While the police contend that all of the killings were done in the first 5–10 minutes, a few survivors dispute such claims. One such survivor said that "bullets whistling by me, at other people, one hour or so later."

In response to the criticism, Police Chief Bill Kolender said that any attempt by officers to rush the restaurant or use tear gas to drive the gunman out would have ended in the deaths of multiple officers.

‘Nine people walked out with no injuries and 11 were taken out wounded and they survived … Also, we would have had some dead cops. If police had overreacted, in my opinion, many innocent people could have been killed.’

Huberty’s wife and two daughters received several death threats in the weeks following the massacre, prompting them to relocate. For nine months, all three would attend counseling sessions, and the girls would enroll in school under false names.

Etna Huberty tried unsuccessfully to sue McDonald’s for $5 million, claiming that her husband’s rampage was prompted in part by eating too many Chicken McNuggets. She also attempted to sell her narrative to a Hollywood studio. However, due to widespread public opposition, the proposal was shelved.