Police have identified the gunman in Tuesday’s deadly shooting at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon as Jared Michael Padgett, a 15-year-old freshman at the school.
On Wednesday afternoon, police told reporters that Padgett arrived at the school Tuesday morning on a school bus carrying a guitar case and a duffel bag. Police said they believe the case and bag contained the weapons found with the shooter’s body -- an AR-15 rifle, a semi-automatic handgun and a large knife, along with nine loaded ammunition magazines “with the capability of holding several hundred rounds.”
Police said only the AR-15 rifle was used during the attack and that Padgett was also wearing a “non-ballistic vest used for carrying ammunition and other items” and a camouflaged helmet.
According to Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson, after arriving at the school, Padgett entered the gym and went into the boys’ locker room, where he shot and killed 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman, also a freshman.
“We have not established any link between the shooter and the victim,” said Chief Anderson.
Anderson said after killing Hoffman, Padgett hit Reynolds High School gym teacher Todd Rispler with a “grazing wound” to the hip. According to police, Rispler then fled the locker room and made his way to the school’s office to tell his colleagues what was happening and initiate the school’s emergency lockdown procedure.
Commending Rispler and his police force, Anderson said, “I cannot emphasize enough the role that Mr. Rispler and the responding officers played in saving many, many lives yesterday.”
After leaving the gym, Padgett encountered responding officers in a school hallway, according to Anderson, and he exchanged gunfire with at least one of them before hiding in a bathroom. That is where Padgett was found by authorities dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
“The shooter obtained the weapons from his family home,” Anderson told reporters. “The weapons had been secured, but he defeated the security measures.”
“At this time it would be inappropriate to discuss a possible motive for the murder,” he added.