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Luigi's Restaurant shooting

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Coordinates: 35°04′37″N 78°57′14″W / 35.0769°N 78.9539°W / 35.0769; -78.9539
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Luigi's Restaurant shooting
LocationFayetteville, North Carolina, U.S.
Coordinates35°04′37″N 78°57′14″W / 35.0769°N 78.9539°W / 35.0769; -78.9539
DateAugust 6, 1993 (1993-08-06) (UTC−04:00)
Attack type
Mass shooting, mass murder, hate crime
Weapons
Deaths4
Injured8 (including the perpetrator)
PerpetratorKenneth Junior French
MotiveOpposition to President Bill Clinton lifting the ban on homosexuals to serve in the military, as well as anger over the acceptance of women and black people into the military

On August 6, 1993, 22-year-old Fort Bragg soldier Kenneth Junior French, armed with two shotguns and a rifle, opened fire inside a Luigi's restaurant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, killing four people and injuring seven others. The case was featured in the 1997 documentary film Licensed to Kill.[1][2]

Shooting

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At around 10 p.m., French drove to the restaurant in a black truck. Wearing shorts and a fishing vest, French exited the truck carrying a pump-action shotgun. French then entered the restaurant through the kitchen at the back of the building and then began to yell about politics and homosexuality before opening fire indiscriminately. Four people were killed, and seven injured. French was then shot and wounded by police lieutenant Bill Simons.[3][4][5][6]

After the shooting, French remarked:

"I don't believe there's anywhere in our Constitution that gives anybody the right to be accepted by anybody else. When the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, people automatically assumed that they had a right to many different things. Women, blacks, now carrying into gays. They feel that they have a right to be accepted? Who--who do they need to accept them?"

Victims

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The victims that were killed were:

  • Wesley Scot Cover, 26
  • James F. Kidd, 46
  • Pete Parrous, 73 (the restaurant owner)
  • Ethel Parrous, 65 (Pete's wife)

Trial

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The accused was sergeant Kenneth French, a 22-year-old US Army mechanic stationed at nearby Fort Bragg. He was charged with four counts of capital murder, and a further eight counts of assault. French's defense attorney said French was drunk at the time of the shooting, and held life-long anger, saying French's father had raped a family member.[7]

French was convicted for all four murders and eight assaults. The jury deadlocked on whether he should face the death penalty. French was sentenced to four consecutive life terms for the murders, with a further 35 years imprisonment for the assaults.[7]

References

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  1. ^ "Soldier Kills 4 People and Hurts 6 In a Restaurant in North Carolina". The New York Times. August 8, 1993. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  2. ^ "PHOTOS: 25th anniversary of the Luigi's restaurant shooting". The Fayetteville Observer. August 6, 2018. Retrieved November 2, 2019.
  3. ^ "Army Sergeant on Rampage Kills 4, Hurts 7". Los Angeles Times. August 8, 1993.
  4. ^ "4 Killed, 7 Hurt when Gunman Opens Fire in N.c. Restaurant". August 8, 1993.
  5. ^ "Case 2: Kenneth Junior French | High School Curriculum on the Death Penalty". deathpenaltycurriculum.org.
  6. ^ "Hero cop retires from Fayetteville police force". WRAL-TV. August 28, 2009. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Life term given in 4 slayings". The Buffalo News. April 16, 1994. Archived from the original on April 28, 2022. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
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