Jared Michael Padgett: Police search for motive in Oregon school shooting
There appears to be no link between deceased gunman Jared Michael Padgett and the student he killed at an Oregon high school on Tuesday, Troutdale police reported today.
Padgett opened fire at Reynolds High School at around 8 a.m. yesterday, killing 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman, and injuring a teacher. Padgett shot himself in the head about an hour later inside a school bathroom.
Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson told Fox News that Padgett came to school on June 10 with a duffel bag and guitar case carrying an AR-15-style weapon, a semi-automatic handgun, a knife, and enough ammunition to fire several hundred rounds.
The 15-year-old entered the gym locker room and shot and killed Hoffman, a popular soccer player. Other than the fact that both Padgett and Hoffman were freshman at the school, Anderson reported that police cannot find a connection between the boys. It appears that Hoffman was killed at random.
Physical education teacher and track coach Todd Rispler was shot in the hip as he was fleeing Padgett, but made it to the school's office and initiated a lockdown. He is being called a hero.
"I cannot emphasize enough the role of Mr. Rispler and responding officers played in saving many, many lives yesterday," Chief Anderson told Fox News.
During the school evacuation, a boy was found carrying a handgun, but police say he is unrelated to Tuesday's events.
The Reynolds High School attack was the 37th school shooting this year, and the 74th shooting since the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.
President Obama decried the frequency of American school shootings.
"This is not acceptable, this is not normal," he wrote on Tumblr yesterday. "We're the only developed country on Earth where this happens and it happens now once a week and it's a one-day story.
"There's no advanced, developed country on Earth that would put up with this. This is becoming the norm and we take it for granted in ways that, as a parent, are terrifying to me... If public opinion does not demand change in Congress, it will not change."
