Mass murderers who spared people

Just thought to compile a list of mass murderers who "spared" people during their massacres. I know the definition of being spared is up for debate, how I see it is that a person who the mass murderer could've easily killed if they wanted to but either decided against it or moved onto bigger targets.  

Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold: Brooks Brown, John Savage, Bree Pasquale, Valeen Schnurr and Evan Todd (Probably forgetting alot of others).

Anders Breivik: 11 year son of Trond Berntsen(One of Ander's first victims on Utøya) and Adrian Pracon.

Robert Steinhäuser: Rainer Heise.

Nikolas Cruz: Chris McKenna.

Mutsuo Toi: Apparently spared a family amid way during his massacre.

Christopher Harper-Mercer: Spared by person, also gave them several papers and a thumb drive.

Dimitrious Pagourtzis: Spared some people that he liked and some others so his "story can be told".

Michael Ryan: Susan Godfrey's (his first victim) children, also reported to have shouted at children playing on his street to get inside before he started shooting on South View and Fairview Road.

Charles Whitman: Cheryl Botts and Don Walden.

John Samir Zawahri: Spared a 41-year-old woman who he forced to drive across town towards Santa Monica College campus.

Dylann Roof spared a woman named Polly Sheppard. He asked here 'Did I shoot you yet?' to which she replied 'No'. Dylann then said 'You're going to tell the story.'

Derrick Bird: Told a family of four who offered him assistance when his tyre deflated to leave.

Dylan klebold spared a friend named Timothy in the hallways, he also spared some kid named Aaron under a table

Martin Bryant was said to spare somebody, although this is unconfirmed.
One of the CMR suspects could have easily targeted someone who had suffered torment before, but for some reason he didn't.

Ahmed Ibragimov mostly those who were Chechens in his rampage, and only killed Russians.

UncontinuedProcess wrote:

Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold: Brooks Brown, John Savage, Bree Pasquale, Valeen Schnurr and Evan Todd (Probably forgetting alot of others).

You want to get really technical about things you could also count every person they saw but didn't shoot at.

Pekka Eric Auvinen spared A student's mother during the start of the shooting

eyutytuheu wrote:

Dylann Roof spared a woman named Polly Sheppard. He asked here 'Did I shoot you yet?' to which she replied 'No'. Dylann then said 'You're going to tell the story.'

I believe more in his own explanation, which is that he didn't shoot her because she looked at him in the eyes.

Neah wrote:

eyutytuheu wrote:

Dylann Roof spared a woman named Polly Sheppard. He asked here 'Did I shoot you yet?' to which she replied 'No'. Dylann then said 'You're going to tell the story.'

I believe more in his own explanation, which is that he didn't shoot her because she looked at him in the eyes.

This reminds me that James Holmes said he spared someone hiding in-between a couple of seats for much the same reason. 

Randy "King of Cringe" Stair - Kristan Newell

QuestionMark wrote:

UncontinuedProcess wrote:

Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold: Brooks Brown, John Savage, Bree Pasquale, Valeen Schnurr and Evan Todd (Probably forgetting alot of others).

You want to get really technical about things you could also count every person they saw but didn't shoot at.

You could but that'll take forever plus the people, thought the ones I originally listed were basically face to face with E&D during the massacre and are more well known to have been spared by them.

QuestionMark wrote:

Neah wrote:

eyutytuheu wrote:

Dylann Roof spared a woman named Polly Sheppard. He asked here 'Did I shoot you yet?' to which she replied 'No'. Dylann then said 'You're going to tell the story.'

I believe more in his own explanation, which is that he didn't shoot her because she looked at him in the eyes.

This reminds me that James Holmes said he spared someone hiding in-between a couple of seats for much the same reason. 

not just by looking at Holmes in the eyes but weirdly enough smiling at him which even James Holmes thought was confusing as hell.

Apparently one of the Suzano shooters spared a canteen worker:

"The person who had contact with the shooter was the canteen worker. She was behind a refrigerator and said the shooter entered the room. She was praying and begged for the shooter not to kill her. The shooter passed his hand in the worker's head and said he was going to do nothing with her and exited. She saw him reloading his firearm."

Source: https://noticias.uol.com.br/reportagens-especiais/historias-dos-sobreviventes-do-massacre-de-suzano-sp/

Enesbrietchvonfrederitch wrote:

Apparently one of the Suzano shooters spared a canteen worker:

"The person who had contact with the shooter was the canteen worker. She was behind a refrigerator and said the shooter entered the room. She was praying and begged for the shooter not to kill her. The shooter passed his hand in the worker's head and said he was going to do nothing with her and exited. She saw him reloading his firearm."

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

They also spared the sister of the third person involved in the massacre that aided them in planning.

Dylann Roof spared a woman named Polly Sheppard.

The Charlie Hebdo shooters spared a woman because she was a woman.

Here is Wolinski's wife writing about it in her book "Darling I'm going to Charlie":

Henry DeWitt spared James Williamson

Faisal Hussain spared a witness named Jaspal Singh.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

William Atchison spared everyone except two students and himself.

Anton Lundin Petterson spared a lot of people during his rampage. He even notoriously took a pic with two of them (after he had already mortally wounded one victim).

Kip Kinkel spared a student who knew him as he walked into the school, telling him to get out of there because something bad was gonna happen

Dylann Roof, the AME Church Shooter spared Polly Sheppard, who was in the church during the shooting (obviously) after he asked her if he shot her yet, to which she said no. After she replied he said something along the lines of "I'll leave you here to tell the story."

Jason Dalton spared a bunch of people. He even gave them a ride in his Uber.

TheOne99 wrote:

Pekka Eric Auvinen spared A student's mother during the start of the shooting

He also entered a classroom full of students and only fired two shots, one aimed at a TV and the other at a window.

As David Sonboly finished loading his Glock 17 in the bathroom of the Mcdonalds he shoot up he was suprised by a young boy walking in on him. Instead of shooting him tho he just pointed his pistol on him and said "Peng" before walking past him to the table with his first 5 victims.
Im not sure if he just did that to not draw attention to himself so earlie or maybe because he actually didnt want to kill anyone so young but i would consider him to have spared the child.

George Hennard spared a mother and daughter

David Katz spared the person he lost to.

The 2017 London Bridge Attackers spared an unknown man. The unknown man even got into a conversation with Rachid Redouane.

Examiner2 wrote:

Randy "King of Cringe" Stair - Kristan Newell

Yep and it's kind of odd because he was so obsessed with infamy. Four murders as opposed to three would have gone a long way towards that. We'll never know why he didn't kill her. Maybe he saw that she wasn't aware the shooting was underway because of the headphones/earphones she was listening to music on, and he figured he could move on and kill the others or shoot at stuff and then come back for her and by the time he came back she had heard the shots and hid.

.

The 2019 Dyke Industries stabber, Antwann Brown (failed mass killer) stabbed 5 people and told one woman “I’ll spare you this time”.

The Driver who drove Kretschmer arround didnt get killed by him,so i guess this count as "sparing". Lanza didnt kill the Girl who was hiding in the Bathroom in Room 8. Edit: I guess that Lanza didnt even know that the Girl was alive After he shot so many children in Room 8,so he doesnt count.

One of the Charlie Hebdo shooters spared Sigolène Vinson because she was a woman and told her to convert to Islam.

Albert Wong spared the lives of all veterans at the Yountville Veterans Home before he killed 3 clinicians and himself.

N/A

Omar Thornton spared two handicapped employees.

Chris Harper Mercer spared one student's life so he(the student) could deliver Mercer's package to the police.

Gilbert Twigg spared a group of boys before he went on his rampage because he "had no desire to hurt them".

Marc Lepine spared all the males in the class.
Jon Romano passed Mr. Talowsky by because he liked him.
Tim Kretschmer threatened the person whose car he hijacked but did not hurt him.
Anthony "T.J." Solomon shot low so he would only injure, not kill.
Sulejmen Talovic seems to have spared someone, from the official report. Can't be certain he just didn't see her, though: I can only imagine how high stress a shooting must be from everyone's perspective.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Nathan Chiasson: Spared a man who said he was Muslim and said a prayer.
Anders Breivik: Encountered a civilian holding a bunch of roses when walking away from his car bomb. He decided he was not a threat and let him live, but only after considering whether he should kill him or not.

Micheal Ryan: Dorothy Smith("Ryan was chastised by 77-year-old Dorothy Smith for "scaring everybody to death" for making noise, although he did not shoot her.")

Bai Ningyang spared the life of a child who’s parents he knew during the Shiguan Kindergarten gasoline attack.He let him leave the room before he lit the gasoline he had poured onto the floor of the room,which would cause the death of 12 children.It’s quite a brutal yet fascinating story.It’s a shame there isn’t much out there about it but thats China for you.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Payton Gendron: Spared a white victim and apologized for shooting him.
Tobias Rathjen: Spared a Turk who had blue eyes.
Jennifer San Marco: Forced an employee to give her his identification badge at gunpoint and then told him to leave.
Jake Davison: Spared a passing resident who he told "nothing to worry about, mate."