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2003 John McDonogh High School shooting

2003 school shooting in New Orleans, Louisiana, US

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ6247674
Source-derived summary

On April 14, 2003, a school shooting took place at John McDonogh High School in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Two teenagers shot and killed 15-year-old student Jonathan "Caveman" Williams during a mid-morning gym class in a gang neighborhood retaliation killing.

Details

At 10:30 a.m. on April 14, 2003, two men armed with an AK-47 and a semi-automatic pistol entered the school property via gaps in the fence. Immediately after students and faculty entered the school gymnasium, the two men shot at 15-year-old Jonathan "Caveman" Williams at least 20 times. Three female students were wounded, and a pregnant senior was trampled by a stampede of students. Jonathan Williams died at the scene and the two perpetrators immediately fled the school campus. The injured recovered. Doctor James Taylor did the autopsy and later testified that Williams was struck by 10 bullets, and in addition, a lead fragment left a laceration on the left side of his neck. Taylor also found a pistol in Williams' waistband and determined that there were no drugs or alcohol in his system.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “2003 John McDonogh High School shooting” as 2003 school shooting in New Orleans, Louisiana, US. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2003—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where John, McDonogh and High can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as 2003 school shooting in New Orleans, Louisiana, US. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6247674. Authority coordinates are 29.969, -90.065. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2003.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “2003 John McDonogh High School shooting”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 2003 John McDonogh High School shooting primary sources, 2003 John McDonogh High School shooting archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “2003 John McDonogh High School shooting”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from 2003 John McDonogh High School shooting” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.