Wash. teacher killed outside school before classes

AP – Forensics investigators view the blanket-covered body of a special education teacher who authorities …

TACOMA, Wash. – A man who shot and killed a special education teacher Friday as she walked into her Tacoma, Wash., elementary school recently made bail after being arrested for violating a protective order she obtained in September 2008.

Tacoma Police spokesman Mark Fulghum says the two had apparently known each other since college, when they worked together at a cafeteria at Seattle Pacific University.

Fulghum says the man had been bothering the teacher for some time, but he did not know specifically what prompted the woman to obtain the protective order.

Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer says the suspect was killed in a shootout with a deputy a short time later about 10 miles away.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A man shot and killed a special education teacher as she walked into her Tacoma, Wash., school Friday, shortly before students began arriving for school.

The suspect was killed in a shootout with a deputy a short time later about 10 miles away, said Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.

The 30-year-old teacher had recently gone to court to get an anti-harassment protection order against the suspect, said Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum. The two knew each other, but their relationship was unclear.

Fulghum said it "sounds like he had infatuation with her."

The school has about 400 students in grades K-5. Classes were called off for the day. The district had not made a decision about Monday's classes.

The shooter was waiting for the teacher when she arrived at 7:35 a.m. and shot her a number of times as she was trying to enter Birney Elementary, Fulghum said.

Omar Moreno, 22, who lives across the street from the school, said he heard three gunshots.

"I heard a teacher screaming at the top of her lungs — just screaming," he said. "I looked out my window and I saw the guy. He started running down the middle of the street and got in his car."

Moreno said the man, who was wearing a white snow cap and white gloves, drove off in a tan car. Soon after, Moreno said, a custodian barreled out of the school screaming for someone to call the police.

Moreno said he rushed over to the school, where he saw the victim laying on the ground, bleeding from the mouth.

It was clear to him she had died, he said.

School District spokesman Dan Voelpel said the teacher worked in the language resource center helping students one-on-one with reading problems. She had been with the district since 2004 and at the school since 2007.

The deputy pulled over the suspect's car in the parking lot of a daycare, and he came out firing a handgun, Troyer said. The deputy returned fire and killed the man. That shooting forced the evacuation of a daycare.

"We're lucky our guy's OK. The guy did have semi automatic and did fire a round," Troyer told KCPQ-TV.

The shooting occurred three days after a 32-year-old man with a history of mental illness opened fire in a middle school parking lot in Colorado, wounding two students.