TROUTDALE, Ore. (AP) — 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 a 14-year-old
freshman Emilio Hoffman, who was "loved by all," police Chief Scott
Anderson said at a Tuesday news conference. He said Emilio 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 Morgan Rose, 15, said she 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.
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 on-campus 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.
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."
The Reynolds School District issued a statement mourning the loss of one of its students.
Reynolds
is the second-largest high school in Oregon, with about 2,800 students.
The school is about 15 miles from Portland and its students come from
several communities.
During the evacuation of the school,
authorities found another student with a gun and he was taken into
custody. That weapon and arrest were not related to the shooting,
Anderson said.
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. It follows a string
of mass shootings that have disturbed the nation, including one on
Sunday in Nevada that left two Las Vegas police officers and a civilian
dead.
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 a
111-year prison sentence.