"As they’re getting out of the car, they’re aware shots are actually being shot toward them," Douglas County District Attorney Rick Wesenberg just revealed in a press conference. "They were under fire and they ran toward it. "
Kaney and Spingath are detectives, and wear suits, so neither had any body armor as they ran toward Snyder. They saw Harper-Mercer, who'd just murdered nine people and shot nine more, standing near the doorway of a classroom.
The detectives returned fire with their .40-caliber handguns, one of them striking Harper-Mercer in his right side. According to Wesenberg, the wound was serious enough that Harper-Mercer couldn't have made it far. The 26-year-old retreated to the front of the classroom where he'd carried out the killings and committed suicide.
The detectives "knew there were at least 35 students in one of the classrooms," Wesenberg said, explaining that Kaney and Spingath sought a relatively safe vantage point. "They knew that if they shot they risked injuring" those students.
Six days after the worst mass shooting in Oregon's history, this is the most comprehensive account authorities have offered as to where police encountered Harper-Mercer the morning of October 1, and what that encounter looked like. Past news accounts have suggested Harper-Mercer "ran away" when shot by police, but it's now clear he didn't run far. The details came in a brief press conference, the upshot of which was that Kaney and Spingath won't face charges for shooting Harper-Mercer.
"I want everyone to know of the selfless acts of these officers," Wesenberg told reporters. "They had little regard for their own personal safety and they saved many many lives that day. Once the suspect engaged officers, he did not shoot another student."
Kaney's a 23-year Roseburg police officer who served in the US Marine Corps. Spingath has been with the police force for 16 years and served in the US Air Force. The Oregonian reported yesterday both men were involved in a 2005 incident where a man was threatening to shoot his mother. Both Spingath and Kaney received awards for their conduct in that incident.
