Three die in Oregon farm shooting; suspect arrested

BEND, Ore. – A lone gunman killed two men and a woman and critically wounded another man on a farm Monday in northwest Oregon, then fled before he was captured on an interstate highway in the Columbia River Gorge, law enforcement officials said.

Marion County sheriff’s deputies were called to the farm in a bucolic setting in the Willamette Valley. There, they found a chilling scene: Two men were already dead, and a man and a woman were gravely injured. The woman later died in a hospital.

Within a short while, law enforcement flocked to the farm compound consisting of a half-dozen buildings wedged in among plowed fields and shaded by trees. The compound is just east of the town of Woodburn.

The deputies obtained descriptions of the suspect and the vehicle he fled in, and broadcast the information to all local police agencies. About 2 1/2 hours later, Oregon State Police, assisted by the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office, stopped the suspect as he drove through the scenic Columbia Gorge 80 miles away and took him into custody without incident, Oregon State Police Capt. Bill Fugate told the Associated Press.

The arrest happened at milepost 71 on Interstate 84, Fugate said, which puts the location just outside the town of Mosier, where a train carrying oil derailed on June 3, starting a large fire and forcing evacuations.

Lt. Chris Baldridge of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said the deputies had found two dead men, a wounded man and a wounded woman, and later issued a statement that said “tragically the female has died at the hospital and the male remains in critical condition.”

The Sheriff’s Office said it is for the time being withholding information on the victims and the shooter.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office thanked the Oregon State Police, Woodburn Police Department and Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office for assisting.