© Faith Cathcart/The Oregonian/APTwo people comfort each other in Troutdale, Ore., after a gunman killed one student.
The gunman was also later killed, police said, although it was not clear if he was felled by police bullets or by his own hand.
What was clear is that once again an American school where kids are supposed to be safe was transformed by a gun-toting maniac into a crime scene.
It was the 74th shooting at a school since the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. - and the 37th just this year, according to a tally by Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
"This is a very tragic day, one that I hoped wouldn't be part of my experience," schools superintendent Linda Florence said. "We feel very sorry for our parents."
© Samisarcastic via TwitterDogs search through students' belongings at Reynold's High School in Oregon
The shooter, who was reportedly clad in black and wearing a helmet of some kind when he barged into the school, was found dead in a bathroom, officials said.
Students reported the killer was trying to plant a bomb of some kind.
While the Multnomah County Sheriff's Department did not confirm those reports, in a Twitter message they said the shooter was dead and that the situation at the school in Troutland, Ore., had been "stabilized."
"We are still checking the building," Sue Strickland of the Troutland Police told USA TODAY. "We have about 40 to 50 units out there. We have several SWAT teams in the building right now and they are checking to make sure that they've got things under control. A semiautomatic weapon was used."
Freshman Daniel DeLong, 15, said he saw a gym teacher at the school with a bloodied shirt. He was believed to be Todd Rispler, who was wounded in the hip.
"I'm a little shaken up," DeLong told the Associated Press. "I'm just worried."
DeLong said he was texting friends to make sure they were all safe.
"It just, like, happened so fast, you know?" he said.
Freshman Morgan Rose, 15, said she was hunkered down in a locker room with another student and two teachers.
"It was scary in the moment now knowing everything's okay," she said.
Initial reports were that the gunman was armed with an AR-15 rifle, the same kind of weapon Adam Lanza used to slaughter 20 students at six staffers at the Sandy Hook school.
It was 8 a.m. on the next-to-last day of classes when the shooting started.
Immediately, teachers began herding their 2,800 students into classrooms and locking the doors.
When they were given the sign, the teachers began evacuating their charges from the school.
"Get out! Get out!" the more panicked teachers cried out.
Soon students were seen marching out of the building with their hands over their heads - and with terrified
© Justin TuckerStudents evacuate Reynolds High School after a shooter opened fire.
Waiting further on were hundreds of worried parents - some of them still in their pajamas - frantically looking for their kids.
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 Oregon violence was the latest in a string of school shootings, most recently last week at a Christian college in Seattle that left one dead and two wounded.
But it 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 his high school near Eugene.
Kinkel also killed his parents and is serving an 111-year prison sentence.
With Nina Golgowski
csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
School shootings in the U.S. since the 12/14/2012 massacre in Newtown, Conn.:
1 1/8/2013 Fort Myers FL Apostolic Revival Center Christian School
2 1/10/2013 Taft CA Taft Union High School
3 1/15/2013 St. Louis MO Stevens Institute of Business & Arts
4 1/15/2013 Hazard KY Hazard Community and Technical College
5 1/16/2013 Chicago IL Chicago State University
6 1/22/2013 Houston TX Lone Star College North Harris Campus
7 1/31/2013 Atlanta GA Price Middle School
8 2/1/2013 Atlanta GA Morehouse College
9 2/7/2013 Fort Pierce FL Indian River St. College
10 2/13/2013 San Leandro CA Hillside Elementary School
11 2/27/2013 Atlanta GA Henry W. Grady HS
12 3/18/2013 Orlando FL University of Central Florida
13 3/21/2013 Southgate MI Davidson Middle School
14 4/12/2013 Christianburg VA New River Community College
15 4/13/2013 Elizabeth City NC Elizabeth City State University
16 4/15/2013 Grambling LA Grambling State University
17 4/16/2013 Tuscaloosa AL Stillman College
18 4/29/2013 Cincinnati OH La Salle High School
19 6/7/2013 Santa Monica CA Santa Monica College
20 6/19/2013 W. Palm Beach FL Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts
21 8/15/2013 Clarksville TN Northwest High School
22 8/20/2013 Decatur GA Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy
23 8/22/2013 Memphis TN Westside Elementary School
24 8/23/2013 Sardis MS North Panola High School
25 8/30/2013 Winston-Salem NC Carver High School
26 9/21/2013 Savannah GA Savannah State University
27 9/28/2013 Gray ME New Gloucester High School
28 10/4/2013 Pine Hills FL Agape Christian Academy
29 10/15/2013 Austin TX Lanier High School
30 10/21/2013 Sparks NV Sparks Middle School
31 11/1/2013 Algona IA Algona High/Middle School
32 11/2/2013 Greensboro NC North Carolina A&T State University
33 11/3/2013 Stone Mountain GA Stephenson High School
34 11/21/2013 Rapid City SD South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
35 12/4/2013 Winter Garden FL West Orange High School
36 12/13/2013 Arapahoe County CO Arapahoe High School
37 12/19/2013 Fresno CA Edison High School
38 1/9/2014 Jackson TN Liberty Technology Magnet HS
39 1/14/2014 Roswell NM Berrendo Middle School
40 1/15/2014 Lancaster PA Martin Luther King Jr. ES
41 1/17/2014 Philadelphia PA Delaware Valley Charter HS
42 1/20/2014 Chester PA Widener University
43 1/21/2014 West Lafayette IN Purdue University
44 1/24/2014 Orangeburg SC South Carolina State University
45 1/28/2014 Nashville TN Tennessee State University
46 1/28/2014 Grambling LA Grambling State University
47 1/30/2014 Palm Bay FL Eastern Florida State College
48 1/31/2014 Phoenix AZ Cesar Chavez High School
49 1/31/2014 Des Moines IA North High School
50 2/7/2014 Bend OR Bend High School
51 2/10/2014 Salisbury NC Salisbury High School
52 2/11/2014 Lyndhurst OH Brush High School
53 2/12/2014 Jackson TN Union University
54 2/20/2014 Raytown MO Raytown Success Academy
55 3/2/2014 Westminster MD McDaniel College
56 3/7/2014 Tallulah LA Madison High School
57 3/8/2014 Oshkosh WI University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh
58 3/21/2014 Newark DE University of Delaware
59 3/30/2014 Savannah GA Savannah State University
60 4/3/2014 Kent OH Kent State University
61 4/7/2014 Roswell NM Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell
62 4/11/2014 Detroit MI East English Village Preparatory Academy
63 4/21/2014 Griffith IN St. Mary Catholic School
64 4/21/2014 Provo UT Provo High School
65 4/26/2014 Council Bluffs IA Iowa Western Community College
66 5/2/2014 Milwaukee WI Marquette University
67 5/3/2014 Everett WA Horizon Elementary School
68 5/4/2014 Augusta GA Paine College
69 5/5/2014 Augusta GA Paine College
70 5/8/2014 Georgetown KY Georgetown College
71 5/8/2014 Lawrenceville GA Georgia Gwinnett College
72 5/21/2014 Milwaukee WI Clark Street School
73 6/5/2014 Seattle WA Seattle Pacific University
74 6/10/2014 Troutdale OR Reynolds High School
Reader Comments
This is just the tip of the iceberg, for changes due to ObamaCare are kicking in.
Most, if not all, of the 'shooters' have a history of mental illness. Now, take away their meds on the excuse that some meds are being abused, and you have a recipe for societal disaster. Those in pain will suffer, but those who are unstable will go berserk. The denial of meds has begun.
Obviously, they were told to keep their hands over their heads, which must have added to their feelings of bewilderment and terror. This is insane. They are not murderers, they are victims of and witnesses to a school shooting. And they are treated like fodder. Disgusting. Dogs searching through students' belongings?? What?
We are never, ever allowed to forget that we are living in a police state and this lesson is being taught at schools. The PTB just want to rub it in our face.
I'm not sure why this is missing the part about Obama and a bunch of other things that are in the original article...
“This is not acceptable, this is not normal,” he [Obama] said in a Tumblr chat. “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.”
Gee, Barky, I wonder why that is. How can there be 74 school shootings in 2 years, right? Well, maybe if you weren't the only president in the world that routinely invades sovereign countries, sponsors terrorist groups worldwide, and has military bases in [more than] 74 countries, maybe these kids in your country wouldn't do the same kind of crap you do in the world, you know?
You might look at it as kids looking up to their president, if you like. Think about that.
Most of this data has already been debunked, I mean really when CNN backtracks out of a anti-gun story you know it has to be bad. For example your 34th issue in Rapid City SD, is a professor committing suicide. Talk about misleading readers. How does that qualify for a 'school shooting?'
According to CNN,
Everytown says on its web site that it gleans its information from media reports and that its list includes school shootings involving a firearm discharged inside or on school grounds, including assaults, homicides, suicides and accidental shootings.
CNN determined that 15 of the incidents Everytown included were situations similar to the violence in Oregon — a minor or adult actively shooting inside or near a school. That works out to about one shooting every five weeks.
Some of the other incidents on Everytown’s list included personal arguments, accidents and alleged gang activities and drug deals.
Of those 15 instances only ONE would be classified as a mass shooting with 4 or more victims. In some of the instances listed by Everytown, school was not even in session.
You know its bad when CNN is calling you out for a pro-gun control story.