‘I’m Going Hunting for Humans’ – The Chilling Story Behind The ’77 Minutes’ Documentary

It was a sunny unsuspecting weekday afternoon in California. Families ordered burgers. Children ate Happy Meals. Teenagers clumped around the counter for milkshakes. Retirees sipped coffee at the booths. To any observer, this McDonald’s on San Ysidro Boulevard was a completely ordinary, even unremarkable, place.

For a few minutes, it was every bit the typical, nondescript, working-class Latino neighborhood on the San Diego border. Within minutes, that everyday, forgettable restaurant would become the scene of one of the worst mass shootings in American history, and the story behind the documentary 77 Minutes.

The Killer and His Delusions

James Oliver Huberty was a 41-year-old unemployed welder who became obsessed with survivalism and suffered from a deranged mental state. His prolonged unemployment, mental illness and belief in a government conspiracy to take everything from him dominated his thoughts. Earlier that day, Huberty said to his wife something that should have been clear as day: “I’m going hunting. Hunting humans.” She thought he was joking. He wasn’t. At least, not in a figurative way. Huberty put on black pants and a maroon T-shirt. He loaded a 9mm Uzi carbine, a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun, and a Browning pistol. Then, the madman drove to the local McDonald’s with a heart full of hate and a head full of delusions, armed to the teeth.

Huberty burst into the restaurant at around 3: 56 p.m on July 18th 1984. One teenager had just gotten up from the counter after lunch. He looked over at a young man walking in with a family. Huberty raised his shotgun and started shooting. He fired off the first several rounds at the teenager, who collapsed immediately. People began to scream and run. Sadly, the madness was just beginning. Huberty moved slowly from table to table and booth to booth, taking aim at children, adults, senior citizens, strangers, customers, employees and everyone in between. He shot and killed a man who was kneeling and protecting his young child with his own body. At one point, he shot and killed a mother who was holding her 8-month-old baby in her arms. When the baby started crying, Huberty walked around the booth, aimed, and shot her too. Survivors said Huberty did not change expression as he methodically gunned down customers.

Law Enforcement’s Deadly Delay

The mayhem and carnage didn’t stop there. Huberty had all the time in the world due to a delayed police response. Several witnesses later reported acts of inexplicable savagery. He reportedly laughed at his victims, making fun of the people begging for their lives. He took the time to reload between bursts. There was even a 78-year-old man was shot multiple times while shielding his wife with his own body. Groups of children were hiding in the play area as Huberty walked back and forth. When he entered, they huddled together in fear and were gunned down. It was not only a mass shooting. It was a massacre.

Officers were dispatched quickly but police response was delayed by confusion, communication issues, and tactics that were quickly becoming obsolete. One 911 call was sent to a McDonald’s on the other side of town. When SWAT finally arrived and realized the scope of what was happening, officers were afraid to enter because they were sure it would lead to more deaths. For more than an hour, law enforcement could do nothing but listen to gunfire coming from the restaurant as helplessly as possible. Officers ducked behind cars and windows as people staggered out injured and bloodied. Others laid motionless on the ground inside. After a lengthy delay, a police sniper was able to take up a position on a nearby roof. At 5: 17 p.m., after 77 minutes of absolute horror, he fired one round into the chest of James Huberty. It was over. The madman was dead.

The Community Left Behind

The neighborhood of San Ysidro never recovered. The McDonald’s was torn down months later. Today, a garden of remembrance has replaced the building. A 21-foot-long walkway of 21 white marble columns stands on the site of the former fast food restaurant, with one column for each person who died. For all its horror, the San Ysidro massacre also disappeared from national conversation too quickly. The massacre was at that time the deadliest mass shooting in United States history. At that time, no other mass shooting in California history had even come close in scale. Weeks passed with new news developments eclipsing the shooting and the American public let it fall from memory. The San Ysidro families who lost loved ones in the shooting and the San Ysidro community at large have not let it go. The San Ysidro tragedy altered police mass shooting response tactics and influenced SWAT techniques development as well as current active shooter training curricula. In some ways the bloodshed has helped save lives in later tragedies.

Forty years later, we are still asking ourselves the questions. Could it have been stopped? Why did no one believe Huberty was serious when he began making threats about hunting humans? Why was the police response so slow? Why do some mass shootings sear into our collective memories and others are quickly forgotten? The San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre should never be remembered and never be forgotten. Not because it was the worst mass shooting until that time. Not because it took a large number of victims or weapons, but because it ended innocent lives and irrevocably altered the lives that it didn’t.