Geneva County massacre

On March 10, 2009, a domestic homicide followed by a mass shooting occurred when a gunman opened fire on four separate occasions across various locations in and around the Dothan metropolitan area, located in southeastern Alabama, United States. That afternoon, 28-year-old Michael Kenneth McLendon embarked on a spree killing, where he shot and killed 10 people and wounded six between the communities of Kinston, Samson, and Geneva, Alabama. McLendon first killed his mother, then set fire to her house. Traveling to Samson, he fatally shot his maternal grandmother, an uncle, two cousins, and the wife and infant daughter of a Geneva County Sheriff's Deputy. When law enforcement reached him, McLendon committed suicide. He was reportedly depressed about a lack of work; in a note, he said that his mother's family was not providing him or his mother with adequate support. McLendon's shooting spree remains the deadliest mass shooting in Alabama's history, as well as the worst mass murder in Alabama, surpassing the 2002 Ball Family Murders.

Events

Murder of Lisa McLendon

McLendon began his attacks sometime before 3:30 p.m. (CST) on March 10, 2009, at his mother's private residence where they lived in the town of Kinston, a small town in Coffee County, Alabama. McLendon first shot his mother Lisa and their three dogs, stating in a note that he had to put down the dogs because there would be no one left to care for them, before setting the interior of the house on fire, using paint thinner that he stuck a bayonet into, thus burning the living room.