A teenage gunman armed with a rifle entered a high school outside of Portland, Oregon Tuesday morning and fatally shot a student and injured a teacher before he likely killed himself, police said.
The gunman, whom police have not publicly identified, was found dead in a bathroom at Reynolds High School in Troutdale. It was not clear how he died.
Officials used a robot with a camera to investigate the scene before determining the suspect was dead, police said.
Troutdale Police Department Chief Scott Anderson confirmed the deaths and called the events a “tragic day” for the community.
Troutdale Police Sgt. Carey Kaer told Fox News that the shooter was a teenage boy, but it was not immediately clear whether the gunman was a student at the school.
His victim was identified as freshman Emilio Hoffman, who was “loved by all,” Anderson said at a Tuesday news conference. He said Hoffman was found in the boys’ locker room.
A girl who used to be Hoffman’s girlfriend said he was “a good kid” and a “down-to-earth guy.”
“He was very caring, he loved to joke around,” said Savannah Venegas, 16.
Hoffman lived with his mother and had an older brother and two younger sisters, both in elementary school, Venegas said.
Anderson said he spoke with Hoffman’s family, saying they had a difficult road ahead and sought privacy.
Hoffman didn’t have enemies and “didn’t stir up trouble,” Venegas said.
“They wouldn’t have just picked him,” she said. “It had to be, just, random.”
Anderson said authorities are in the process of notifying the gunman’s family.
The teacher, Todd Rispler, had injuries that weren’t life-threatening, and he was treated at the scene. Rispler, a 50-year-old physical education instructor and former track coach, went to the office and initiated the school lockdown, Anderson said. The attack panicked students and they were told to go quietly to their classrooms.
About 2,800 students attend the school, located in a quiet tourist town of 15,000 near the Columbia River, about 16 miles east of downtown Portland.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said authorities responded to reports of shots fired at the school around 8:07 a.m. local time, on the next-to-last-day of classes.
Students told The Associated Press they were informed over the intercom that there was a lockdown and to quietly go to their classrooms.
Freshman Morgan Rose, 15, said she was hunkered down in a locker room with another student and two teachers.
“It was scary in the moment; now, knowing everything’s OK, I’m better,” she said.
The wife of a vice principal at the school also told KPTV that she had received a text message from her husband that said there was an active shooter.
Around 100 police and sheriff’s units arrived at the scene in addition to medical personnel and the FBI, according to KOIN 6.
Doug Daoust, the mayor of Troutdale, told Fox News that SWAT teams evacuated classrooms one at a time. TV news broadcasts showed students being escorted away from the school with their hands on their heads, The Associated Press reports.
Freshman Daniel DeLong, 15, said after the shooting he saw a physical education teacher with a bloodied shirt.
“I’m a little shaken up,” DeLong told The Associated Press. “I’m just worried.”
He said he was texting friends to make sure they were all OK.
“It just, like, happened so fast, you know?” he said.
Parents reunited with students at the Fred Meyer supermarket in Wood Village. A reporter from The Oregonian, who was at the supermarket, tweeted that employees brought out water and cookies for parents.
Mandy Johnson said her daughter called from a friend’s phone.
“I thank God that she’s safe,” said Johnson, who has three younger children. “I don’t want to send my kids to school anymore.”
Linda Florence, the superintendent of Reynolds School District, said this day is “one that I had hoped would never, ever be part of my experience.”
Daoust believes that an active shooter drill that students went through earlier this year helped save lives in this situation.
The Oregon violence came less than a week after a gunman opened fire on a college campus in neighboring Washington state, killing a 19-year-old man and wounding two others.
The Tuesday shooting was the first fatal school shooting in Oregon since May 1998 when 15-year-old Kip Kinkel killed two students and wounded 25 others at Thurston High School in Springfield near Eugene. He killed his parents prior to the attack and is serving an 111-year prison sentence.
Reynolds is the second-largest high school in Oregon, with about 2,800 students. Its students come from several communities.
