Qualla: 1988 Oakland Elementary School Shooting

1988 Oakland Elementary School Shooting: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Tequila Thomas and Shequila Bradley were small children eating lunch in a school cafeteria in Greenwood, South Carolina. It was September 26, 1988, a Monday. Both girls were eight years old. Both died from gunshot wounds inflicted by a 19-year-old named James William Wilson Jr., who had walked into Oakland Elementary at lunchtime with a stolen revolver and hollow-point bullets he had bought that morning at a discount store in Abbeville. Shequila died on the scene. Tequila lived three more days at Self Memorial Hospital. Their names should be the first thing anyone learns about this day.

1988 Oakland Elementary School Shooting: Lunchtime

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The cafeteria at Oakland Elementary was full when Wilson entered. He stood quietly for a moment before he began shooting, choosing his victims - children and adults - at random. Witnesses described a look of rage on his face. Three students and a first-grade teacher were wounded ...

1988 Oakland Elementary School Shooting: Tequila and Shequila

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Of the nine people wounded, two did not survive. Shequila Bradley was killed in the cafeteria. Tequila Thomas was rushed to Self Memorial Hospital, where she fought for her life for three days before she died. Both were second-graders. Both had families - parents, siblings, grand...

1988 Oakland Elementary School Shooting: A System That Failed

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

James William Wilson Jr. was 19, unemployed, living with his paternal grandmother, and had been a patient at psychiatric hospitals since he was 14. His family knew he was dangerous. His prescriptions disappeared in days rather than months. Four years before the shooting, his gran...

1988 Oakland Elementary School Shooting: The Memorial Garden

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Wilson was convicted, sentenced to death by electric chair on the murder counts and to 175 years on the lesser charges. He remains at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. He has been on death row since May 1989. Greenwood has carried the day differently. Survivor...