GRESHAM, Ore. (AP) - The Latest on the deaths of two young girls and their father (all times local):
1:50 p.m.
Authorities say two young girls taken from their Oregon home by their suicidal father were likely already dead when police shot at the man.
Police say the 42-year-old had threatened to harm the girls, ages 8 and 11, and set the car on fire as officers approached him in the city of Gresham, near Portland.
Police Sgt. John Rasmussen said Wednesday that “initial indications” show the girls were dead before the officers showed up.
Rasmussen says at least one officer shot at the man in the moments after he set the fire. He died at the scene, though it wasn’t clear if he was hit by police gunfire or if he shot himself.
Autopsy results on all three are expected Thursday. Their names haven’t been released.
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12:24 p.m.
Police say a suicidal Oregon man who had threatened to harm his two daughters lit his own car on fire when police approached him.
Gresham police Sgt. John Rasmussen says at least one officer shot at the 42-year-old man in the moments after he set the fire. The man died at the scene, though it wasn’t clear if he was hit by the police bullet or if he shot himself.
Officers then found his two young daughters, aged 8 and 11, dead in the backseat of the vehicle.
Their cause of death wasn’t immediately known. No names have been released.
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11:45 a.m.
Authorities have blocked off an area around an Oregon parking lot where a man was killed in a shootout with police and whose two young daughters were found dead in his backseat of his car.
Few details on the deaths were released. Police in the city of Gresham, east of Portland, didn’t immediately return calls from The Associated Press.
Earlier Wednesday, police Sgt. John Rasmussen told reporters that the man’s wife reported her husband was suicidal and he and their 8- and 11-year-old daughters were missing.
Police approached the man when they found his car in a gas station parking lot. Rasmussen said the man “engaged” with officers, and at least one officer fired.
The man died at the scene, and the two girls were found in the car.
A mourner left candles and red roses.
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11 a.m.
An Oregon man and his two young daughters have died after police got word he was threatening the girls, leading to a shootout with officers.
Police Sgt. John Rasmussen of the city of Gresham says a Portland woman told authorities early Wednesday that her suicidal husband was missing along with their 8- and 11-year-old daughters.
Rasmussen says an officer spotted the man’s SUV in a parking lot in Gresham, east of Portland. He says the officer got out of his patrol car, and that’s when gunfire erupted.
Police say at least one officer fired. The girls were found dead in the backseat.
It wasn’t immediately clear how or when the girls and their father died. Their identities haven’t been released.
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