EUGENE, Ore. — A Eugene police school resource officer fatally shot a 44-year-old man who was armed with a handgun Wednesday afternoon near Churchill High School, police said.
An initial investigation indicated that the officer stopped the man as he rode a mini-motorcycle along a road near the school, acting police Capt. Scott Fellman said.
At some point after pulling over the motorcycle, the officer called for aid from other officers and ordered a lockdown at the school, Fellman said. A call of “shots fired” came a short time later, The Register-Guard reported.
The officer did not suffer any “significant injuries,” Fellman said.
The dead man was not immediately identified.
Police did not identify the officer by name but the newspaper said Officer Aaron Johns is assigned to the school.
Churchill High junior Austin Fisher, 16, told the newspaper he was about to exit a nearby school building when a teacher ran toward him in the hall. Fisher said he looked out a window and saw Johns with his gun drawn.
“I watched him kind of put his gun down on the ground, then go to a car in front of him and put his head down,” Fisher said. He characterized Johns as “a good guy who’s always out there looking out for the safety of the school.”
The student said he and other students were then ordered back into their classrooms in a lockdown that lasted nearly an hour.
A nearby middle school and elementary school were also briefly locked down.
At least 20 officers swarmed to the school after the shooting.
Churchill Vice Principal Morgan Christensen told a Eugene School Board meeting on Wednesday evening that school officials “responded swiftly and appropriately.”
He told board members the school was ready for Thursday classes.
A Lane County interagency team was investigating the shooting.
