OREGON SCHOOL SHOOTING
Teen injures teacher before likely suicide
Teen gunman kills 14-year-old student and injures teacher at Oregon high school. Afterward, suspect’s found dead of likely suicide.
TROUTDALE, Ore. — A teen gunman armed with a rifle shot and killed a student Tuesday and injured a teacher before he likely killed himself at a high school in a quiet Columbia River town in Oregon, authorities said.
After the shooting stopped, police spotted the suspect slumped on a toilet in a bathroom at Reynolds High School but couldn’t see what was happening with him.
Officers used a robot with a camera to investigate and discovered the suspect was dead and that he had likely killed himself, Troutdale police spokesman Sgt. Carey Kaer said.
The victim was identified as 14-year-old freshman Emilio Hoffman, who was “loved by all,” police Chief Scott Anderson said at a Tuesday news conference. He said Hoffman was found in the boys’ locker room.
Authorities have tentatively identified the gunman but his name is being withheld until his family is notified, Anderson said.
The teacher’s injuries weren’t life-threatening, and he was treated at the scene. He was identified as Todd Rispler, a 50-year- old physical education instructor and former track coach and quarterback at the school.
Anderson said Rispler went to the office and initiated the school lockdown procedure.
The attack panicked students after a lockdown was ordered and they were told to go quietly to their classrooms.
Freshman Daniel DeLong, 15, said after the shooting that he saw a physical education teacher at the school with a bloodied shirt. He said he was texting friends to make sure they were all OK.
“It just, like, happened so fast, you know?” he said.
Anderson said two oncampus police officers were the first to respond to reports of a shooting. The officers and a tactical team sent to the school “brought this to a conclusion,” the chief said, without elaborating.
Anderson said he was sorry for the family of the slain student. “Today is a very tragic day for the city of Troutdale,” the chief said.
Gov. John Kitzhaber added in a statement: “Oregon hurts as we try to make sense of a senseless act of violence.”
The first reports of shots fired came at 8 a.m. on the next-to-last-day of classes. Police initially seemed uncertain about whether there was a live shooter in the school.
Students were eventually led from the school with hands up or on their heads. Parents and students were reunited in a supermarket parking lot.