Jared Michael Padgett has been identified as the gunman at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon.
Padgett, 15, was a student at the school.
Police chief Scott Anderson said that Padgett went to the school on a bus with a guitar case and a duffel bag.
Inside was an AR-15 rifle, a semi-automatic handgun, a large knife, and nine magazines of ammunition.
Padgett killed fellow student Emilio Hoffman before turning the gun on himself.
(Facebook)
(Facebook)
Hoffman, also 15, was a soccer player and soccer fan who had recently gotten a girlfriend.
“Emilio was a great kid who was loved by all,” said Anderson, on behalf of Hoffman’s family.
Allan Berry, the boys’ soccer coach at the school, said that Emilio was expected to challenge for a position on varsity next season.
“He just seemed to be a nice, quiet young man that got on with life,” he told Oregon Live. “He was one of those kids, you know?”
Randy Olson, a coach with the club team that Hoffman played on, the Total Futbol Academy Barcelona-Oregon, agreed.
“He’s played for us, he’s coached for us, he’s an all-around good kid,” Olson said.
A photo on the club’s Facebook page shows Hoffman surrounded by some younger boys that he coached. “He’s part of our soccer family,” Olson said.
Berry said that the Reynold’s junior varsity and varsity teams will be motivated to play well to honor Hoffman. “I’m sure the boys will choose to make this a season for him,” he said.
Hoffman was the only teenage boy in his house, said Savannah Venegas, who dated him a year ago, “so (his mother) was very protective of him.”
“He was such a good kid, a quiet kid,” Venegas said. “He didn’t stir up trouble. Just a down-to-earth guy.”
Police say that there is no apparent connection between Padgett and Hoffman other than they were both freshman at the high school.
Emilio Hoffman. (Twitter)
Emilio Hoffman. (Facebook)
No one else is believed to have been injured or killed, apart from teacher Todd Rispler, who was grazed by a bullet in the hip area.
Rispler, who was a star athlete when he attended Reynolds years ago, apparently ran to call police after he was shot at.
Padgett was walking down the hallway after killing Hoffman in the locker room when he ran into several officers who had responded to Rispler’s call. After a brief exchange of gunfire, he fled into a restroom and was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Anderson, the police chief, said the action by Rispler and responding officers likely saved numerous lives.
“The shooter obtained the weapons from his family home,” Anderson said. “The weapons had been secured, but he defeated the security measures.”
A classmate’s of Padgett posted on Padgett’s Facebook wall, saying: “I had so many classes with you since 7th grade. We were always talking about guns.”
Perhaps no school district better reflects the changing face of Oregon than the one in Troutdale. This was not a shooting at a school in the posh suburbs or the inner city. Reynolds High School is harder to categorize.
The school draws from a diverse group, including far-east residents of Portland and agricultural families from the Columbia Gorge.
“This is a tragedy that affects our whole community,” Anderson said. “This is not supposed to happen in any school, or to any child.”
Tyler Denney told journalist Matthew Keys that he’s known Padgett “for ever,” and that he and Padgett were close friends.
“What’s your reaction? Seem out of character?” Keys asked.
“I know it was him all along,” Denney said.
Students are arrive by bus to meet their parents and/or family at the Fred Meyer grocery store parking lot in Wood Village, Ore., after a shooting at Reynolds High School Tuesday, June 10, 2014, in nearby Troutdale. A gunman killed a student at the high school east of Portland Tuesday and the shooter is also dead, police said. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens)
Two people comfort each other as they await word about the safety of students after a shooting at Reynolds High School, Tuesday, June 10, 2014, in Troutdale, Ore. A gunman killed a student at the high school east of Portland Tuesday and the shooter is also dead, police said. (AP Photo/The Oregonian, Faith Cathcart)
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Friends Read Free