Police Say School Suspect Pulled Knife on Officer

A boy accused of gunning down his classmates in a high school cafeteria shooting spree pulled out a hidden knife after his arrest and lunged at a police officer, city officials said Saturday.

The boy, 15-year-old Kipland P. Kinkel, was subdued with pepper spray, the Springfield Police Department said in a statement. There were no reported injuries.

According to officials, Kipland had a standard Buck knife taped to his leg at the time he was taken into custody following the Thursday morning shooting of his parents and 23 students at Thurston High School.

The boy was in an interview room, his hands handcuffed behind his back, while an officer left the room to secure his gun. When he returned, Kinkel had wriggled his hands back in front of him and was holding the knife. Police said Kinkel lunged at the officer with the weapon.

Two students died in the cafeteria attack. The gunman walked into the room, crowded with about 400 students, and opened fire with a rifle, unleashing 51 rounds of ammunition before students wrestled him to the ground.

Teresa Miltonberger, 17, the daughter of a Lane County sheriff’s deputy, remained in critical condition Saturday with a head injury, her condition unchanged two days after the shootings. Also in critical condition was Tony Case, 16, who was scheduled for a new round of surgery for gunshot wounds to his chest, abdomen and leg. Four other students were in serious or fair condition at two hospitals.

At a news conference Saturday, Lane County sheriff’s officials said one of five bombs found in a crawl space at the Kinkel residence accidentally detonated while deputies were attempting to defuse it, but there were no injuries.

In all, investigators found 20 explosive devices, ranging from a grenade to fairly large, sophisticated homemade bombs, Sheriff Jan Clements said.

“In terms of the devices, we cannot conclude that they were either set, or not set, to go off,” he said.

The bodies of local high school Spanish teachers William P. Kinkel, 59, and Faith M. Kinkel, 57, were removed from separate rooms at the home Friday. Medical examinations Saturday morning concluded they both died of gunshot wounds, Clements said.

However, sheriff’s officials said they could not confirm local press reports that William Kinkel was shot several hours before his wife, who was said to have returned to the residence later Wednesday.

The time of death could have been any time between 5 p.m., when Kinkel returned home with his son, and 8 the next morning, when Kipland drove in his parents’ Ford Explorer to school and allegedly walked into the crowded cafeteria carrying three guns.

The boy had been suspended the previous day for carrying a stolen gun to school and faced criminal charges of possessing a gun on campus.

“The only thing I know that would suggest that [the parents were killed at different times] is they were found in different locations in the house,” Clements said. “I can say there was blood in the house,” but he would not say whether there were any signs of a struggle, or how many shots had been fired.

The community held a candlelight vigil Friday night outside City Hall, where community leaders paid tribute to the dead and to the resilience of their children.

“This is a safe school. We are a closed campus, we have fences, we have surveillance cameras, we have hall monitors. Never would anybody have thought this would happen, not in our school, not in our community,” said Thurston’s student body president, Sadie Wilson, in a quavering voice.

“But our innocence has been taken away. Now, we have to learn how to feel safe in the classroom every time an unfamiliar person walks by, how we can feel safe in the cafeteria.” But she added, “We are a good group of people. Our parents know that, our community knows that, we know that.”

Fire Department officials distributed hundreds of blue ribbons as a testimonial against the widening wave of school violence, declaring that the growing crop of ribbons attached to trees, car antennas and shoulders across Springfield will be the beginning of a national affirmation: “Let it end here,” said Fire Chief Dennis Murphy.

At the close of the ceremony, Mayor Bill Morrisette broke down as he read a note passed to him from the audience, scrawled by an 8-year-old girl with a relative injured in Thursday’s shooting.

“I believe in angels, that they’re always near,” the note said. “I believe that the kids we lost are now angels. They will be with us, to show us how to love each other and protect us from danger.”

Kinkel is scheduled to be arraigned June 16. A grand jury will be asked to return an indictment with several charges in addition to the four counts of aggravated murder filed by the district attorney on Thursday. Under Oregon law, he will be tried as an adult but cannot face the death penalty.