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Police kill armed man at Oregon school amid custody dispute

Posted at 4:56 PM, Jan 11, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-11 18:34:53-05

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Police fatally shot a man Friday who showed up with a gun at an Oregon middle school amid a custody dispute, but no one else was injured, authorities said.

The man was being escorted from Cascade Middle School in the city of Eugene when he began struggling and pulled out a gun, police Lt. Jennifer Bills told reporters. She initially said the shooting was inside the school.

Students were locked in classrooms, and the school was locked down for nearly four hours while police investigated in the city about 110 miles (177 kilometers) south of Portland and home of the University of Oregon.

By Friday afternoon, officers were escorting small groups of children to a church across the street where parents had gathered.

Yellow crime scene tape surrounded the school’s main parking lot and a yellow tarp covered the suspect’s body, which lay just a few feet from one entrance.

“No students were harmed whatsoever. All the students are safe,” Bills said.

Parent Stephanie Martin waited for her two children at the church. She said her son, who is in sixth grade, called her to say he was OK and so was his sister, who is in the seventh grade.

“The kids are all safe, that’s all we know. But that’s all I care about,” Martin said. “It’s crazy, the world is crazy.”

The area saw one of the first school shootings to seize the national spotlight.

More than 20 years ago, then 15-year-old Kip Kinkel killed his parents before fatally shooting two students and wounding 26 others at Thurston High School in nearby Springfield. Kinkel remains in prison.

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Flaccus reported from Portland.