Teacher shot and killed at Tacoma, Wash., elementary school, shortly before children arrived

Teacher shot and killed at Tacoma, Wash., school

TACOMA, Wash. — 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, Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

Tacoma Police spokesman Mark Fulghum (FUL’-jum) said the 30-year-old teacher had recently gone to court to get an anti-harassment protection order against the suspect. 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 says school may or may not resume on Monday.

Fulghum said 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.

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 working at the school since 2004.

Troyer says 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.

AP Writer Donna Blankinship contributed to this story from Seattle.