FACEBOOKEmilio Hoffman, was identified by KGW.com as the victim of the shooting at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon.
Not again.
A lone gunman armed with an assault rifle invaded an Oregon high school Tuesday and opened fire in a gym locker room, fatally shooting 14-year-old freshman Emilio Hoffman and wounding a popular teacher before killing himself.
It was the 74th shooting at a U.S. school since the December 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School — and the 37th just this year, according to a tally by Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
President Obama, whose attempts to stiffen gun control after Sandy Hook were thwarted by the powerful gun lobby and its allies in Congress, vented his frustration upon hearing about the latest school shooting in Troutdale, Or.
“This is not acceptable, this is not normal,” he 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.”
Gun violence in America, Obama said, is “off the charts.”
KPTVTodd Rispler, a teacher and coach at Reynolds High School, is being praised as a hero after initiating the school's lock down despite suffering a gunshot wound at the scene.
“This has becoming the norm and we take it for granted in ways that, as a parent, are terrifying to me,” he said. “If public opinion does not demand change in Congress, it will not change.”
While some people say mental illness is the problem, Obama said, “the United States does not have a monopoly on crazy people.”
The problem, Obama said, is availability of guns and “this country has to do a lot of soul searching.”
Police did not identify the teenage gunman and would not say who he was targeting at Reynolds High School.
Witnesses, however, said the gunman was seen chasing after Todd Rispler, a gym teacher and track coach who was shot in the hip.
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Despite his wounds, the gym teacher managed to make his way to the office and initiate the school's lock down, earning him praise from Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson.
Police said Rispler had “non-life threatening injuries.”
Anderson described Hoffman as shot and killed in the boy's locker room while the shooter's body was recovered in a restroom.
“I met with Emilio's parents this afternoon, and I can tell you how devastated they are by the news. They want you to know that Emilio was a great kid, loved by all,” said Anderson.
Hoffman was a freshman soccer player who idolized Manchester United forward Wayne Rooney, he tweeted just minutes before he was killed.
TWITTERAlyssa Karm, who is listed as Emilio Hoffman's girlfriend on Facebook, publicly expressed her anguish following Tuesday's tragedy, writing, 'please don't be true...'
“Lets just end school with a bunch of stressful test... yay..” the freshman wrote.
After the shooting, Hoffman’s girlfriend sent out her own heartbreaking tweets.
“I love you so much and I always will,” she wrote. “You were my first kiss and the first guy I truly loved. I miss you so much.”
Located in a Portland suburb, the high school remained on lockdown as SWAT teams combed through the classrooms one last time to make sure everyone was accounted for.
“This is a very tragic day, one that I hoped would not be part of my experience,” schools superintendent Linda Florence said. “We feel very sorry for our parents.”
TWITTERAlyssa Karm went on to reveal that Emilio was her first kiss and first love.
Florence said the school will remain closed until further notice.
Police also arrested a student who was found to be packing heat but played no role in the deadly shooting.
“In the evacuation process, a gun was found on one person,” said Troutdale Police Chief Scott Anderson, who did not identify the student. “This is not believed to be part of the incident. That person was taken into custody.”
Sue Strickland of the Troutland Police identified the murder weapon as a “semi-automatic” rifle.
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.
But the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department, which is leading the school shooting investigation, has neither confirmed nor denied those reports.
It was 8 a.m. on the next-to-last day of classes at Oregon’s second-largest high school when the shooting started.
Immediately, two school resource officers raced toward the gunfire while teachers began herding their 2,800 students into classrooms and locking the doors.
Paul Csea was with his pals in the school cafeteria when the school went into lockdown.
“We thought it was fake because we never heard of anything like this,” Csea told the Portland Oregonian newspaper. “Everyone thought it was a joke.”
President Obama On Guns At Tumblr White House Event
President Obama On Guns At Tumblr White House Event
Then, said Csea, they heard the screaming and realized this was no joke.
Freshman Daniel DeLong, 15, said he realized something was terribly wrong when he saw a gym teacher at the school with a bloodied shirt.
“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.
@SAMISARCASTIC VIA TWITTER
JUSTIN TUCKER
At left, dogs search through students' belongings at Reynold's High School in Oregon. At right, students evacuate the school.
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.
When they were given the sign, the teachers began evacuating their charges from the school.
“Get out! Get out!” some of the panicked teachers cried out.
Soon students were seen marching out of the building with their hands over their heads — and with terrified looks on their faces — towards heavilly armed state police and FBI agents who patted them down before letting them go.
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"It was very hard to see all these kids I've known walking with their hands above their heads," Michaela Littrell, 16, told The Oregonian.
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.
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.
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