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 Police said an autopsy of the suspect, Jared Michael Padgett, 15,
confirmed that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after
exchanging fire with police inside Reynolds High School in
Troutdale, a Portland suburb.
The shooting, which ended with Padgett's body being found in a
bathroom stall of the gymnasium building, marked the third outbreak
of deadly gun violence to shake a U.S. high school or college campus
in less than three weeks.
Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson declined at a news conference
to offer an explanation for what may have driven Padgett to walk
into a boy's locker room and shoot a fellow freshman, 14-year-old
Emilio Hoffman.
"We have not established any link between the student and shooter,"
Anderson said. "At this time it would be inappropriate to discuss a
motive."
But he credited a school gym teacher, Todd Rispler, with preventing
further loss of life. Rispler was grazed by gunfire as he
encountered Padgett but made his way to the school office to warn
administrators of the attack and initiate a lockdown, Anderson said.
Anderson said Padgett opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle and also
was carrying a semiautomatic handgun that he did not use, as well as
a large knife and nine loaded ammunition magazines with a capacity
for several hundred rounds.
The youth arrived at the school on Tuesday morning by school bus,
carrying a guitar case and a duffel bag. When confronted in the
locker room by the teacher, the boy wore a vest used for carrying
ammunition and other items and a camouflage-colored athletic helmet,
Anderson said.
"The shooter obtained the weapons from his family home," the chief
said. "The weapons had been secured, but he defeated the security
measures."
Police have not said whether the firearms were legally owned or
registered by family members.
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A statement released by Hoffman's family described him as an avid
soccer player who also enjoyed science and history and whose
laughter was infectious. "You couldn't be around Emilio without
laughing," his mother, Jennifer, wrote.
The Portland Oregonian newspaper reported that Padgett was active in
the Mormon church as well as the Junior Reserve Officer Training
Corps, with a strong interest in guns and aspirations to follow his
older brother into the military.
One fellow member of his JROTC class, Agustin Guzman, 16, told the
newspaper that Padgett had a rigid side.
"He was one of those organized people who liked order, liked
everything to be really perfect," he said, recounting that Padgett
became "really irritated if we messed up" when folding the American
flag.
Another friend, Kaylah Ensign, recalled Padgett losing his temper
when other disagreed with him during a class presentation on a book
he read about Adolf Hitler.
(Reporting by Shelby Sebens in Portland; Writing by Steve Gorman;
Editing by Jim Loney and Jonathan Oatis)
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