[ Human Events ] [ Shootings ]

Worship Shootings


1986 September 6th. - Turkey, Istanbul: two terrorists attacked worshippers at a synagogue with machine-guns and hand grenades; 23 people (including the assailants) died.

1994 February 25th - Israel, Hebron: a fanatic Jew entered a Moslem prayer site and opened fire; 29 people died, more than 100 were injured

1999 September 15th - USA, Texas, Fort Worth: a gunman opened fire in a Baptist church. The shooting during a prayer service claimed the lives of 7 persons including 3 teenagers. 8 others were injured, some critically.

2003 July - Pakistan, City of Quetta: attackers armed with machine guns and grenades stormed a Shia mosque; at least 50 people died.

2004 March 2nd - Pakistan, City of Quetta: a grenade and shooting attack on a procession of Shia Muslims in the city's shopping district; the crowd was commemorating the holy day of Ashura, the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammad who was killed at Karbala by army of Caliph Yazid in the year 680 A.C.; 43 people (including at least 5 police officers) died.

Homes, businesses , cars and a mosque used by Sunni Muslims were torched by rioters following the attack. Pakistan has a history of clashes between radical groups among its Shia minority and majority Sunnis. About 97% of Pakistan's population is Muslim, and Sunnis outnumber Shias by a ratio of about four-to-one.

2005 March 12th – USA, Wisconsin, Brookfield: during a weekly meeting of the Living Church of God at a Sheraton hotel in suburban area 10 miles west of Milwaukee a 44-year-old man opened fire on the fifty to 60 people that were at the service.

The buttoned-down churchgoer walked into the room and fired 22 rounds from a 9mm handgun. He even dropped a magazine and reloaded another.

After killing seven people and wounding four others, the attacker took his own life.

The assailant was not known to have threatened anyone and had no criminal record and lived in a modest two-story home with his mother and adult sister. He has left no suicide note and no explanation for the attacks.