TROUTDALE, Ore., (Reuters) – A gunman walked into an Oregon high school gym with a rifle and shot a student to death yesterday before he was found dead in a bathroom stall, in the third outbreak of gun violence to shake a U.S. high school or college campus in less than three weeks.
Reynolds High School in the middle-class Portland suburb of Troutdale was immediately locked down, then evacuated room by room as law enforcement converged on the campus of 2,800 students, which had been scheduled to hold its last day of classes on Wednesday before the summer break.
“A gunman entered the high school this morning, shot one student. Unfortunately, that student has died,” Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson told a news conference. “The gunman was located and the gunman is also deceased.”
Authorities identified the victim as 14-year-old high school freshman Emilio Hoffman.
Gym teacher and track coach Todd Rispler was grazed by a bullet but made his way to the school’s office to initiate the lockdown, possibly saving lives, Anderson said.
Authorities have not publicly named the gunman nor said how he died, but USA Today cited a police spokesman as saying the shooter was a teenager who shot himself to death in a bathroom stall following the attack.
