SALEM, Ore. — All lanes of northbound Interstate 5 reopened north of Salem on Monday evening, hours after Oregon State Police shot and killed a suspected gunman along the roadway.
According to OSP, a trooper had stopped just before 8:45 a.m. on Monday to assist the driver of a disabled semi-truck on I-5 near the North Santiam Highway interchange. He arrived to find the truck driver being held at gunpoint by a male suspect, the agency said.
"The trooper immediately encountered gunfire from the suspect, and the trooper returned fire," OSP continued. "The suspect fled from the scene, running eastward into the tall grass line along the interstate."
The suspected gunman, later identified as 31-year-old Felipe Amezcua Manzo had been hit in the exchange. Troopers found him wounded in the shrubbery along the roadway, OSP said.
Police and paramedics gave Manzo first aid, according to OSP, but he died at the scene.
The trooper who exchanged fire with Manzo, identified as Andrew Tuttle, was injured during the incident but "did not require further medical attention," OSP said. The cause of his injuries is still under investigation.
OSP said that it found a handgun next to Manzo. A photo provided by the agency appears to show the words "Clay County Sheriff" engraved on the gun's slide. A vehicle associated with Manzo was found at the scene and searched after investigators obtained a warrant.
All northbound lanes were closed near the interchange with Highway 99E and Oregon Route 22 following the shooting. Police reopened one lane before noon, but others remained closed until the early evening.
The Marion County Major Crimes team was activated, OSP said, and the Salem Police Department will be the lead investigating agency. Trooper Tuttle has been placed on administrative leave, which is standard practice during a deadly force investigation.
According to OSP, Tuttle has been with the agency since August of 2016. Prior to that, Tuttle served six years in the U.S. Navy, four of those years as a military police officer.
Driver encounters suspected gunman
Katherine Wallace, a Salem resident who was driving in the left lane on I-5 Monday morning, told KGW that she saw traffic slowing down, heard a sound that may have been a gunshot and then saw a man standing in the road and pointing a handgun at multiple motorists, including her.
"There was a man on foot and he was in that far right lane and he had a handgun in his hand, and it was aimed at a brown pickup truck in front of me," she said. "As soon as he sees me coming past that blockade of cars, he immediately points his gun at me."
Wallace said she was momentarily blinded by what appeared to be a blue laser attached to the gun, but then the man shifted it downward and she saw a blue light on her chest and the gun pointed at her.
She estimated that the man was standing 15 to 20 feet away and kept the gun pointed at her for about three seconds, making eye contact as she drove past.
"After two seconds I put my hands up like this — I'm like, 'If it goes through bone it'll slow down before it gets to anything major,'" she said. "As soon as there's some space in front of me, I goose it and keep going down."
Wallace said it was a surreal experience because people tend to imagine someone with a gun in a crowded area rather than on an interstate during the morning commute. She said she worried that her car might injure or kill someone else if she got shot and lost control.
"I haven't quite cracked it open yet. I'll do that when I get home after work," she said. "I'll definitely probably be taking different roads for a while, to be quite honest, as my nerves settle."
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