At approximately 3:30 p.m. on March 10, McLendon shot and killed his mother at the house they shared in Kinston, then set the interior on fire. He drove to his uncle's house in Samson, where family members and neighbors were gathered on the porch. He opened fire, killing his uncle, two cousins, and a neighbor. The neighbor's four-month-old daughter was also shot but survived. His maternal grandmother, who lived next door, was killed as well. His aunt survived only because she was inside the house at the moment of the attack. McLendon then drove along Alabama State Route 52 toward Geneva, firing from his vehicle at people along the road and killing strangers who had no connection to him whatsoever. Law enforcement attempted a PIT maneuver to stop his car, but McLendon shot at officers with a rifle, wounding Geneva police chief Frankie Lindsey in the arm.

McLendon's final destination was Reliable Building Products, a facility owned by Ruskin Company in Geneva where he had worked in 2003. He entered the building and engaged in a shootout with pursuing officers before taking his own life. When law enforcement found him dead at 4:17 p.m., the entire spree had lasted less than an hour. The amount of ammunition recovered from his vehicle suggested he had planned to kill far more people. Investigators later found a handwritten list at his Kinston home identifying people from previous jobs with notations about perceived slights, described as individuals who had disciplined him or reported him to supervisors. A letter found at the scene stated he had killed his mother and planned to die. He wrote that he and his mother had "suffered enough" and referenced a dispute with his mother's family over a family Bible.

McLendon was born on September 19, 1980, in southern Alabama. After his parents divorced, he was largely raised by his aunt and uncle, Phyllis and James White, in Samson, the same family members he would later target. Witnesses said he had been disturbed by the divorce for years. He had tried and failed to qualify for the U.S. Marines and for law enforcement careers, and he struggled to hold steady employment. Those who knew him described him as quiet and deeply familiar with firearms. Investigators found dozens of ammunition boxes, military and survival gear, and medical supplies stockpiled at his home. The combination of long-simmering resentment, personal failure, and isolation had been building toward violence that the people closest to him never anticipated. He was 28 years old.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley traveled to Geneva County the following day, pledging state support to the shattered communities. The Andalusia radio station WAAO-FM organized a fundraising drive with a goal of $10,000 to benefit the victims' families. The response overwhelmed the organizers: more than $47,000 in cash poured in, along with donated caskets and concrete burial vaults for each of the victims, pushing the total value of contributions past $100,000. In towns where annual household incomes are modest and population counts are measured in hundreds, the scale of the giving reflected something deeper than charity. Samson, Kinston, and Geneva had lost neighbors, and the surviving neighbors answered in the only way they knew how. The shootings remain the worst mass killing in Alabama history, a distinction no community would choose to carry, but the response that followed has become part of the story too.