The teenage gunman in last week's Oregon school shooting swiped the murder weapon from his older brother, who is in the Army Reserves, according to search warrants made public Thursday.
A small arsenal was found in Jared Padgett's home: two .22-caliber rifles, a Winchester rifle, a shotgun, a .22-caliber revolver, a pellet gun, boxes of ammunition, knives and a sword, the documents show.
Padgett's older brother, Lucas, told detectives that after he learned of the June 10 shooting at Reynolds High School, he went to the parking lot where parents were being reunited with students to look for the 15-year-old.
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When the younger boy did not turn up, the brother went back home where he discovered an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle was missing from the bedroom they shared, court documents show.
Police say that Jared Padgett opened fire with the rifle in the school locker room, killing 14-year-old Emilio Hoffman and wounding a teacher before committing suicide in a bathroom.
A classmate told police he saw Padgett get off the bus with a guitar case that seemed to be weighed down by a "suspicious" item and that the suspect ignored his attempts to speak to him. Padgett was also carrying his brother's military-style duffle bag.
The motive for the shooting remains a mystery. Police seized Padgett's computer, along with a journal titled "Operation Military Kids," the search warrants said.
"We are at a loss as to how and why this tragedy unfolded," Padgett's parents said in a statement this week.
"Our family does not condone and has never promoted violence or hatred toward anyone."
