The 2004 Beslan Attack: The Worst School Shooting in Human History

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

Think of something about which you feel passionate. Maybe you or someone you love was done wrong by the government or some big corporation. Perhaps you feel that you have been persecuted based upon your race, station, or means. What would you feel justified in doing to right that wrong?

I’m a pretty level-headed guy. It’s tough to make me angry. I’ve got Jesus in my heart, and I try to treat others the way I would like to be treated. I really cannot fathom a set of circumstances under which I might go full-bore nuts and start hurting people.

However, not everybody looks at life the way I do. Entire swaths of humanity are stark raving lunatics. On 1 September 2004, thirty-two of these lunatics approached School Number One (SNO) in Beslan, North Ossetia, an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus in Russia. What followed was the most egregious school attack in the history of the planet.

School shootings are in vogue these days, but they’re nothing new. The first school shooting in America took place in 1764. However, while not new, they are becoming tragically more common.

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School Shootings

American school shootings are most typically the result of an isolated madman. Some loser who lives in his mother’s basement just wakes up one day convinced that the fact that he sucks at life is somehow everybody else’s fault. To his warped sense of reality, the way to make that right is to arm up and wreck as many lives as possible before gloriously ending his own. These people are literally humanity’s lowest form of filth.

That’s undeniably ghastly, but that’s just crazy. In any large population, a certain small percentage of folks just aren’t wired correctly. They are the reason I carry a gun every time I am not asleep or in the shower. However, on that fateful day in Beslan, these 32 monsters were driven by something deep, dark, and strange. The true motivation of these 32 scumbags never was established with certainty. They claimed that their goal was UN recognition of Chechnya and Chechen independence. However, at the end of the day it really just looked like they wanted to watch the world burn.

The Making of a Proper Monster

No offense to my Muslim brothers, but radical Islam seems to have a corner on this market. I just call it like I see it. It never seems to be the Baptists, Methodists, Buddhists, or Copts who: throw gay people off of tall buildings, cut folks’ heads off to make snuff videos, beat women to death for not dressing in a tent when it is 110 degrees outside, fly airplanes into skyscrapers full of civilians, or blow themselves up because their dark god “told them to.”

I have many Muslim friends whom I genuinely love, admire, and respect. However, the sorts that strolled into the Beslan SNO that fateful day were fit only to be gunned down like dogs. Regardless of their satanic motivations, you can’t fault their dedication.

These animals came loaded for bear. They packed military-grade automatic weapons, grenade launchers, and copious explosives, both factory-made and DIY. They had schemed out their target in exhaustive detail. Like most of their ilk, none of them expected to get out alive.

The Beslan Assault

The Beslan SNO was right next to the local police station. These animals planned their attack for the first day of school, something locally known as “First Bell” or Knowledge Day. They chose this day because, in addition to literally hundreds of innocent little kids, the school would also be full of beaming parents, teachers, and administrators. I’d conjure some more disparaging way to describe these guys, but honestly, the limitations of the language prevent me from doing so. Hitler and Heydrich only wished they were as evil as this foul mob.

The extremists hit the school guns a ‘blazing. They fired into the air and quickly had everyone rounded up in the tight confines of the school gymnasium. During an initial exchange with local police, and–interestingly enough–local armed civilians, two terrorists were killed and another wounded. About fifty civilians escaped in the chaos. A few hostages perished, but the actual number was lost in the ensuing violence. When the initial smoke cleared the terrorists held 1,100 hostages packed into a space roughly 10 by 25 meters. The Russian government mobilized quickly and established a cordon around the area.

Demented Terrorists At Beslan

Of the 32 terrorists, two were female. Many of the extremists wore explosive vests or, believe it or not, had plastic explosives crammed into their underwear. They were brutal with the hostages, commanding adults and kids alike to get down on the floor and be quiet. One father, Ruslan Betrozov, stood up to repeat their demands in the local language so everyone would understand the instructions. The terrorists let him finish his reassuring diatribe and then shot him through the head.

The terrorist leader identified the twenty most fit-looking male hostages and directed them into a hallway with the two female insurgents. He then detonated one of the women’s explosive belts remotely. It was later determined that he had done this because the women had objected to seizing so many children. Terrorists then moved in and machine-gunned those not killed outright with automatic rifles. One man miraculously survived.

Terrifying Days

The terrorists soon had the entire space rigged with IEDs. One large bomb was suspended on cords above the crowd for maximum effect. They threatened to execute 50 hostages for every terrorist killed by police and another 20 for every terrorist wounded. Now that the world could tell they were serious, they settled in for the long haul.

A lot of stuff happened in that Beslan school over the next couple of days. The Russians lied about everything both at the time and since, so nobody knows the behind-the-scenes machinations even today. Chains of command were intentionally muddled as commanders maneuvered not to be held responsible if things went further sideways. In short order, the FSB Alpha counter-terrorist team was onsite along with Spetsnaz troops, T-72 tanks, APCs, and at least one Mi-24 Hind gunship.

Throughout it all, the scumbag terrorists didn’t allow the hostages, even the little kids, any food or water. They threatened to kill mothers with infants if they couldn’t keep their miserable dehydrated children quiet. Some hostages drank their urine in desperation.

How Not to Assault an Occupied School:

On day 2, a Russian Army general negotiated the release of 11 nursing mothers and 15 infants. The terrorists listened to hard rock music on portable stereos, specifically the industrial metal group Rammstein, to keep themselves sharp. They had also taken drugs in anticipation of the attack. By day 3 the drugs had worn off, leaving them even grouchier than usual. That’s when Russian forces hit the gym with thermobaric weapons.

Nobody knows what the logic was there. Maybe they hoped to blow the roof off as a diversion. Perhaps they were just stupid. Their performance in Ukraine speaks to the latter eventuality. Regardless, the Russians opened up with RPO-A Shmel infantry rockets as well as RPG-26s, RPG-27s, and RPG-7s. As a result, the roof caught fire and collapsed, killing roughly 160 people. Many to most of the victims were children. Believe it or not, that’s when things got even worse.

A BTR-80 opened up with its KPV 14.5mm machine gun, cutting through the thin walls and tearing up both hostages and terrorists alike. One T-72 tank added some seven 125mm main gun rounds to the terrible mix.

The tank commander later admitted that the first round was a blank intended to be a diversion. The other six were high-explosive antipersonnel rounds. Amidst all this, the terrorists were clacking themselves off and rocking and rolling with their Kalashnikovs. The result was horrible beyond all reason.

The Aftermath

Some of the terrorists escaped in the chaos and had to be hunted down. This was a rural area, so lots of locals had shown up with privately owned weapons. One terrorist was captured alive only to be lynched on the spot by justifiably enraged townspeople.

13 surviving terrorists made it to a nearby two-story building. However, by this point, the Russians had lost their patience. They simply burned the building to the ground with flamethrowers. The rest of the extremists were hunted down via helicopters. One terrorist was captured alive.

A 24-year-old Chechen named Nur-Pashi Kulayev was positively identified by survivors and brought to trial. In March 2006 he was sentenced to life in prison. He subsequently disappeared into the Russian prison system and hasn’t been heard from since. Somebody probably ate him. I can only hope…

Casualties

333 Russians died–186 children, 111 parents and friends, 17 teachers, and 6 civilian rescue personnel. 13 members of the police and military perished. The Beslan attack was the worst school shooting in human history.

The backlash was fearsome and widespread. Putin briefly visited the survivors in-hospital but mostly stayed quiet. His official statement was, “We have showed ourselves to be weak. And the weak get beaten.” I’m sure that made the grieving parents feel better.

Conclusion On The Beslan School Shooting

Moscow police launched a “terrorist hunt” that bagged some 10,000 suspects. There’s no telling how many of them were terrorists or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Colonel Magomed Tolboyev, a revered cosmonaut and Hero of the Russian Federation was brutally beaten by Moscow cops because his name sounded Chechen.

READ MORE: Dr. Dabbs – America’s First School Shooting

Three local policemen were arrested and put on trial for not stopping the attack. They were later granted amnesty. A large group of angry local women rioted in response and destroyed the courtroom when the announcement was made.

All people are bad, but some are worse than others. In early September of 2004, the absolute worst of humanity attacked a school full of children for reasons the world still does not well understand. In response, a bunch of heavily-armed apes blew the living crap out of everything. When the dust settled in Beslan, 186 children were dead along with over 100 adults. Ours is a violent species, filled with hate and evil. Only unceasing vigilance can keep that darkness at bay.

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