Police fatally shot a man outside an Oregon middle school while responding to a report of a custody dispute.
The man, identified as 30-year-old Charles Landeros, was being escorted from Cascade Middle School in Eugene on Friday morning when he pulled out a gun and began struggling with police, reports The Register Guard. His daughter is a student at the school.
Eugene Police Lieutenant Jennifer Bills says two officers were involved in the shooting, which occurred just outside the entrance to the school.
The incident is currently being investigated by the Interagency Deadly Force Investigation Team, which responds to all officer-involved shootings in Lane County.
The middle school and two other nearby schools, Willamette High School and Malabon Elementary School, were put on lockdown.
Cascade remained on lockdown for approximately three hours before being downgraded to a lockout, meaning the school’s exterior doors remained locked but students were able to freely move about the building.
Students were released at the end of the school day and escorted in small groups by police to parents waiting at nearby Saint Mark’s Catholic Church.
Some parents praised the school’s response while others were frustrated that information about the incident wasn’t shared sooner and that it took so long for them to be reunited with their children.
Bethel School District spokesman Pat McGillivray says parents were notified of the shooting through the school and district website and an email and text messages about 20 minutes after the shooting.
“In a situation like today, there’s a lot of moving parts, there’s a lot fluidity and there’s a tremendous amount of responsibility being shared by a few people, and we wanted to make sure we were sending the right information out,” he said.
McGillivray added that officials decided against releasing students early due to the active crime scene where police cordoned off the entire front of the school.
McGillivray declined to provide more information about the custody dispute but said a parent with custody of a student can notify the school when he or she files a restraining order to prevent the other parent or another family member from contacting the student.
There are several safeguards schools should put in place to protect students from potential custody disputes, including:
- Thorough visitor management processes
- A staff that is well-versed in understanding child custody paperwork and terms
- Comprehensive protocols for signing out students
- Making all visitors wear identification badges
In the video below, Guy Grace, the director of security and emergency planning for Littleton Public Schools in Colorado, talks with Campus Safety‘s Robin Hattersley about how his district handles child custody issues.