Steve Brantley Spence (born August 18, 1989) is a convicted felon and former college football linebacker from East Carolina University. On December 3, 2018, Spence was taken into custody while brandishing two handguns on the grounds of Ben L. Smith High School in Greensboro, North Carolina. Earlier that morning, Spence had strangled a romantic partner in Virginia Beach, Virginia, who survived, and stolen her SUV. He drove this vehicle to the high school, where he planned to murder another former partner. Arresting officers recovered a document which detailed plans to kill individuals across at least four states. On December 8, 2020, Spence was convicted on federal charges of interstate domestic violence and use by brandishing of a firearm to commit the same. He was sentenced to a total of 114 months (9 years and 6 months) in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Biography
Early life
Spence grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, where he attended Ruffner Middle School and Maury High School and played varsity football all four years, earning all-district honors as a junior and senior. He was recruited by East Carolina, Delaware, and James Madison, and became interested in playing for ECU after attending football camps there.
College
Spence was enrolled in East Carolina University (ECU) in Greenville, North Carolina, from 2007 to 2010, where he graduated with degrees in business management and marketing. He signed for ECU in February 2007, and was redshirted that year.
Careers
After obtaining his degrees from ECU, Spence attended grad school at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana where he used his last year of eligibility and played football. He worked in Muncie, Indiana and Fort Worth, Texas, before returning to Virginia in February 2013. In 2012, he sat and passed the Series 6 and 63 securities licensure exams from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He was arrested on January 11, 2014, on felony unlawful possession of firearm charges in Philadelphia by Officer Robert Bonino of the Philadelphia Police Department. According to FINRA filings, Spence admitted to the substance of the allegations, which arose from a 9mm handgun found in his car after a traffic collision; the charges were dismissed in June 2016 following the completion of a diversion program and payment of fees. Those filings also show that he was terminated from employment at the end of August 2016 at MML Investors Services "in connection with sales practice of traditional life insurance products," in the words of the firm.
Spence subsequently worked as an assistant football coach for Norfolk County Schools, coaching varsity football teams at Maury, Norview, and Oscar Smith High Schools in Hampton Roads; he also served as a substitute teacher for the system.
Rampage
Planning
According to an arrest warrant filed in Guilford County, Spence allegedly handwrote a one-page plan of action, including at least six planned murders across three states. The document included time to rest and calculated travel times.
Virginia
Police in the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, allege that Spence was responsible for "brutally beating his current girlfriend," and stealing her automobile on the morning of Monday, December 3, 2018, near the 4700 block of Alicia Drive. Spence was nowhere to be found when officers responded. At the time that he was arrested in North Carolina, he was wanted by the Virginia Beach Police Department for several charges regarding the morning's incident, including grand larceny (regarding an iPhone X), grand larceny of a motor vehicle (a Mercedes-Benz ML350 SUV), strangling another causing wound or injury, and assault on a family member.
North Carolina
Attempted shooting at Smith High School
At 12:40 PM on December 3, 2018, Patrick Jordan, a behavior intervention specialist employed at Ben L. Smith High School, a public high school in southern Greensboro, North Carolina, observed a suspicious man moving towards the cafeteria, where students were eating lunch. Noting that the man was not a badged visitor (as is required for all visitors) or a staff member, Jordan followed the man into the B building and into its cafeteria, calling out to him. After Jordan "sped up my steps and increased the volume of my voice," the man brandished a handgun while widely grinning.