On March 10, 2009, Michael Kenneth McLendon, 28, fatally shot ten people and wounded six others between the communities of Kinston, Samson, and Geneva, Alabama.

His aunt escaped the shooting uninjured because she was inside the house, while the neighbor's four-month-old daughter survived her gunshot wounds.

[9] He drove along Highway 52 toward Geneva, continuing to shoot from his car, and eventually led police on a chase that ran 24 miles (39 km).

[citation needed] Law enforcement officers at one point used the PIT maneuver on the suspect's car, but he shot at them with a rifle, wounding Geneva police chief Frankie Lindsey in the arm, and kept going.

[10] When law enforcement found McLendon dead from a gunshot, it was initially unclear whether the shot was self-inflicted.

Only the four-month-old Ella Myers, who was wounded, survived McLendon's shooting of the people sitting on the porch.

The suspect was killed in the Reliable Products warehouse in Geneva by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

After his parents divorced, he was largely raised by his aunt and maternal uncle, Phyllis and James White, of Samson, Alabama.

He worked briefly with the police department in Samson, but failed to complete basic training at the state academy, washing out after a "week and a half.

[9] Most recently, McLendon worked at Kelley Foods, a sausage factory in Elba, but quit the job abruptly the Wednesday before the shootings.

[17] Witnesses said that McLendon was disturbed by his parents' divorce years ago, and had been depressed about his failure to start a career and disappointed that he had failed to qualify for the U.S. Marines or law enforcement.

[17] The Alabama Bureau of Investigation noted that none of the people named in the list were among those he killed,[9] but police were trying to determine if he had intended to attack them.

The investigators "found dozens of ammunition boxes, military and survival gear and medical supplies at McLendon's Kinston home".