All right, thank you uh everyone for joining us. My name is Mike Benner, public information manager for the Portland Police Bureau. I'm joined by uh Chief Day, uh Chief Johnson from fire, as well as Dr. Kimberly Armstrong, the superintendent of the Portland Police Bureau. We have Detective Sergeant John Bard and Sergeant Jim Defrain here as well from the explosive uh disposal unit. Uh before hearing uh from the folks behind me, I wanted to provide a brief recap of yesterday's incident, including a clarification uh based on our further uh investigative um actions. On Tuesday morning at approximately 8:30, Portland Fire and Rescue, followed shortly thereafter by Portland police officers, responded to Benson Polytenic High School in Northeast Portland after receiving a report of a student experiencing a medical emergency. Responders uh found a 15-year-old student suffering a medical emergency in the school cafeteria. He was treated at the scene and transported to a local hospital for further emergency care. While initially in critical condition and in grave danger of losing his life, I am relieved to share uh that this individual is expected uh to survive. Our initial information indicated that the student had brought numerous chemicals from home and mixed them together at school. this morning. We still believe that piece to be true. But as our investigation has continued, we have determined that the student did not ingest the chemicals by drinking the mixture. Instead, he ingested these chemicals by inhaling the gases that were produced by the chemical reaction. Again, I want to repeat that uh we do not believe that the student uh drank this uh chemical concoction, if you will, but instead he ingested these chemicals by inhaling the gases produced by the chemical reaction. And because of this potential danger posed by the chemicals, the school was evacuated. Students were moved to the athletic fields where they were reunited with their families while Portland fire and rescue uh work to safely neutralize the chemicals in the cafeteria. Dozens of students, staff, and faculty members were assessed by emergency personnel, and Chief Johnson will elaborate on that momentarily. Our Metropolitan Explosive Disposal Unit responded to examine the materials and ensure the scene was safe. In addition, PPB's homicide unit responded to investigate and they have been doing uh that ever since. I want to turn it over now to Chief Day to share more on our detectives efforts and findings as well as some personal observations. Chief, >> thanks Mike. Morning everyone. Uh, we just heard a bunch of facts and we're going to talk a little bit more about facts, but I just want to pause and and recognize first and foremost this student and their well-being and wishes for their safe recovery as well as their family that we don't lose sight of the humanity and the sanctity of life as we have this conversation in this investigation. I al want to also want to recognize fellow students and staff at Benson High School. We've heard of some truly heroic efforts by uh staff there yesterday. uh students engaged. We just are really thinking of the Benson family as well as all of PPS. We know that I'm just grateful for Dr. Armstrong and her leadership. We have been in communication uh over the years and I know that safety is a priority for her and appreciate how her team has shown up. A special thank you to the Portland Police Bureau, Portland Fire, AMR. We have received assistance from our federal partners, both um ATF and the uh Federal Bureau of Investigations, the FBI. once again demonstrating a holistic approach to public safety here in the city of Portland, which I think is critical to emphasize for our community. They can have confidence in the safety system for all of our uh all of our community members. Our specific shout out to our Metro Metro Disposal Unit, as Mike mentioned, uh these are the same folks that showed up at the Mulnom Athletic Club. Really a specialized team that lean in to these high complex investigations. Uh this is a collaborative effort with representatives from around the region um that Portland Police Bureau uh leads in that regard and Sergeant Defrain is here from them and as well as Sergeant Billard is here from our homicide detective unit. And just for all the Benson families um we just appreciate everybody's patience and understanding. We know yesterday was terrifying, chaotic, and the ability to evacuate a school, to create reunification, things like that. Um really uh just grateful for everybody's willingness to work with us. Our detectives have been working tirelessly since this event unfolded yesterday, including overnight into the early morning hours. Excuse [clears throat] me. And really the focus on this is the intent. Trying to understand the intent of this young man, the reasoning and the decision making. We understand the visibility and the severe threat that occurred not only to him but to the students around. So, we're taking this at the highest level of seriousness um in using all PPB resources to the best of our ability as well as our federal partners through the morning early morning hours. Um we've been following up on numerous tips. We've done numerous interviews. We've been obtaining and reviewing surveillance footage. We've executed search warrants. We've seized numerous electronic devices and chemicals. All of these things are feeding into the investigation at this time. I want to thank those detectives and investigators who worked all night and are still on the job today as we try to figure out uh the reasoning behind the decisions that were made yesterday. There are still some really important questions we need to answer, particularly regarding intent. We're not going to speculate at this time while the investigation is ongoing, but everything is on the table. We're looking at all aspects of this event as to see how we can understand both the intent as well as mitigate uh the risk of any potential uh in the future. This event itself we believe the individual acted alone that there is no current threat to community. I want to emphasize that information at this point is that uh the student acted alone and that the uh there is no further threat to the community. So students and parents and families and staff should feel confident in uh returning to classes tomorrow. Dr. Armstrong will identify uh address that in a moment. But from a police bureau's perspective, we're going to continue with the investigation. Uh we understand that there's a lot of questions out there. We understand there's a lot of information floating around on social media as to be expected. We would ask that anything that is out there that might be helpful to the investigation, please contact the Portland Police Bureau. Um, we know that we don't have all the information and we would like to have whatever is available. So, if you see or know of something that you think could benefit us and benefit the investigation and providing clarity and answers, please make sure that is shared with us. Our commitment is to continue just to follow the evidence, follow the path as this goes forward, to continue to work with all of our safety partners as well as Portland Public Schools to make sure that we one get answers to the best of our ability to yesterday's actions, but also to ensure that um we have a safe and thriving school for students return to tomorrow. With that, I'll turn it over to Chief Johnson from Portland Fire. >> Thanks, Chief. Good morning, everyone. Yesterday's incident at Benson High School was an unusual and complex call for our crews. It involved hazardous materials, a full school evacuation, and all of the challenges that come with coordinating the safety of hundreds of students and staff at once. Any emergency involving students raises the stakes for our responders and our hearts, like Chief said, are with the school district, staff, students, and their families as they recover from the event. I want to start by saying how proud I am of our department and our partner agencies that responded yesterday. Everyone came together and it's important to note the actions, the early actions of the high school staff. Their quick thinking, putting themselves at risk to move the student and others to safety to start rendering medical aid very quickly. They gave the student and everyone nearby the best possible chance at a positive outcome. And their actions made a real difference yesterday. I also want to note that the that I understand the concerns that we've heard from the community asking for more information about the chemicals involved that both the chemicals and the the contents and the combination of those chemicals are still unknown to us at this time. And it's important for you to know that fire crews used air monitors throughout the response yesterday to check the environment and to ensure its safety before we left the scene. The gases present um are very pungent, which means people can smell them at very low concentrations, well below levels that would cause harm. And that strong odor actually works in our favor. It naturally drives people to leave the area, which is a protective response. So the key message here is this. Smelling the gas does not mean that you inhaled a dangerous amount or a harmful amount. The initial incident commander from fire quickly called for additional units that included hazardous materials responders and medical crews. Our hazmat team made multiple entries into the area to ensure that it was safe and to assist Portland police with their investigation. At the same time, our EMS battalion chief and fire crews worked alongside AMR to medically evaluate more than 100 students and staff. And I want to be clear that through that evaluation process, we did not identify anyone who is sickened by this incident and no one required transport to the hospital other than the one student that you know about. A couple of members of school staff and students sought treatment later on their own out of an abundance of caution. This was a well-coordinated multi- agency response and I'm grateful for the professionalism of everyone involved. And I want the public to know that our department is always ready to respond to difficult incidents like this one whenever and wherever they occur. And as we do after every significant incident, we'll conduct a thorough review. That's simply how we operate. We look for what worked well and what we can improve and we apply those lessons moving forward. We also share them with our partner agencies. This incident will be no different. Thanks for your time this morning. I'll turn it over to Dr. Armstrong. Thank you, Chief. First, our thoughts center on the student and all those impacted by the incident. It is a difficult time and we don't like to be before you in these situations. I do want to say thank you to the Benson High School staff and Principal Wilson for their quick reaction and evacuation of the school. Their actions helped to keep our students safe and take care of the injured student until help arrived. I also want to thank our Benson students for their orderly evacuation. I want students to know that their safety is always our highest priority and the way they handled themselves was remarkable. Yesterday, Portland Fire and Rescue killed cleared the building for occupancy. The hazardous material was cleaned up and the air was tested to ensure it was safe. Although classes were cancelled today, students were permitted to pick up their belongings as well as staff and classes will resume normally tomorrow. We want our family and students to know that there is help if they want to talk about this incident or need further support. Our trauma intervention program will be available over the coming days for voluntary emotional check-ins, consultation, as well as connections to additional services. Finally, importantly, I want to thank Portland police, Portland Fire and Rescue for their quick response and ongoing collaboration during this investigation. Thank you. >> Thank you to Dr. Dr. Armstrong, Chief Johnson, and Chief Day. Uh before we open it up to questions, I just want to remind everyone that uh we do have uh a minor at the center of this. Uh we also have an ongoing investigation that we don't want to jeopardize. Uh so we will be careful in what we uh can respond to. Uh with that, we'll open up to questions. Please identify yourself and who the question is for. Go ahead. >> Uh Jay Holter, KGW. Chief Johnson, you said that it was still undetermined at this time what the contents and what the mixture of the chemicals are. You're still working to figure that out. Who and what and how what's that process like? How are you working to figure out what it was? >> Yeah, I think that's >> Jimdy. Sure. Hey, good or good morning everybody. My name is Jim Defrain. It's D like David. E capital F like Frank R A I N. I am the supervisor of the Metro Explosive Disposal Unit, which is the bomb squad and hazardous device response unit for the five counties surrounding us here. And uh we have members from eight different agencies on our team. We were called out yesterday to assist in this. Uh I'll get the first question which is why is the bomb squad going to this? Uh again, we go to all kinds of hazards uh including chemical which is what this was where we believe there may be a criminal nexus. uh while that's still being investigated, that's how we ended up at the scene. Uh to speak about the the uh chemicals a little bit, I'm not going to get into a lot of details. Again, um but I will tell you that pretty quickly on working with our friends at Hazmat and with the FBI Portland, we had a pretty good theory of what was used there. Uh following that, we expedited a number of samples down to Salem where the 102nd Civil Support Team resides at the Oregon National Guard Base. And they were able to utilize their tools and kind of uh confirm our theory. And without going into too much detail, uh these are are common chemicals that you could buy at the store. There was not some sort of nefarious chemistry going on here. This is pretty common stuff that just gets mixed together and can off gas uh in a way that can make you very sick. >> Too early to disclose. >> Pardon me. >> Too early to disclose. >> Too early to disclose. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Uh I don't know if this is a question for Dr. Armstrong or one of the investigators. Uh just wondering about timeline. So, you know, you talked about when the police were first called, when the choir was first called, but who was the first staff member to approach the student? How did they approach that? Have to wear gloves, masks, anything like that. How does that play out? >> Yeah, I appreciate the question. So, the the incident happened right before the final ba bail of school. So, I would say approximately 8:30. I think once this it was noted that a student was in distress. our vice principal, our medically trained staff member, our school nurse responded and um did life- saving measures to be at the place that we are now. Um does that answer >> they have to wear >> Oh, I you know um I'm not sure what they were all wearing at the time. I know that it was a quick response um as our staff do oftent times. they go right into action immediately. Oftent times thinking and centering the student more than themselves in it and we appreciate uh those efforts and we also want our staff to be safe. So I'm not able at this point to provide any more details on what what they may have had on as I just don't have those details. I just know that they acted quickly and um it was critical in the outcome that we have today. >> Do you know how long a student was down before they approached? No, I I don't have that and I imagine that that would be a part of the ongoing um investigation and timeline as our our partners work through that. Y >> yeah, before we get to you, McKenna, just to to follow up based on uh the investigative work of our detective unit uh through interviews and through surveillance video, um the two individuals from uh the school who approached uh the student did so in what they wore to the building that day. And that goes to show you what sort of people they are, right? They were looking out for this student uh for the student's safety, for the safety of everyone in that building. So, they should be commended for that. As far as timing, I don't have that uh off the top of my head, but again, through uh observing the surveillance video, it was uh very very quickly within um seconds, no more than a minute. McKenna, >> a question for the explosives disposal unit. Um were these chemicals that the student had just you found them only in the cafeteria or after time during the school when you when we searched the area yesterday did you find any other chemicals elsewhere? >> So as soon as we arrived with uh PFP hazmat we did a sweep of the area to make sure there was no additional items. People went out and watched surveillance video to make sure we understood the movements of this person prior to their uh arrival inside the cafeteria. Um, and then we actually had because a fire hazmat is got great equipment, they went in for us and we put them on a FaceTime outside so we could watch and they showed us everything that they had seen. Following that, my folks got into their PPE and they went in and did another interrogation, separated everything out, and then we started sampling. >> Did you find anything other than just >> We found what we expected to find and nothing else anywhere else. Heather with KXL radio. This is a school. Obviously, teenagers have phones. We, one of our reporters that was on the scene yesterday talked to students who had photos of the of kind of what happened. But it also sounds like some students didn't even realize what was going on, even those that were in the cafeteria. I'm curious, how many videos from students are are phone videos playing into that investigation? Is there a lot of you talk about surveillance footage, but were there kind of witness videos that that you're able to also glean information from? >> Yeah, we're open to all of that. Of course, it's a huge space to work in, right? I mean, we're talking numerous students, numerous phones, and multiple social media platforms, but we have investigators looking at all aspects of that. And as I said, any of that information that could come forward, you know, it may not come directly from the student, but once it's out there in the public space, it's out there in the public space. And so if that information can be flagged, our investigators are looking at all that to try and help paint a picture and develop that, you know, intent. >> Uh, speaking of intent, yesterday, police confirmed that, uh, you've located a social media post in connection with this investigation. Have have police now authenticated that post? And what can you tell us about um, how that plays into? really I mean as it is because it's an ongoing investigation that's one piece of what we're talking about as I mentioned we've executed search warrants we've seized electronic devices we've seized these chemicals that Sergeant defrain mentioned I mean it's all going into one particular uh investigation for facts as to determine the attempt so information we had yesterday has been built upon today but we're not in a position to give you a final answer as to um all the reasoning that occurred we really wanted to get together today to emphasize a couple things. One, you know, we're unified in our approach that we want to both care for this family and for this young student as well as for the PPS community and also demonstrate that from a public safety standpoint, we're confident that the risk has been mitigated and that the investigation is going to take some time to play out. These are so complex. They're obviously also very, you know, personal, very traumatic, a lot of different moving parts. Um I Julie's in the Oregonian. I'm wondering um how do you know that the chemicals were brought from home which you said um if they're common chemicals? Are you certain that they weren't from stored in the kitchen or stored in the cam lab or something? >> Well, that might be Do you want to touch on that? >> Okay. Thank you. >> You want to clarify that? Uh we were able to track the student uh ever since he got onto school property. And so we were able to see that he brought from home what he had. Uh and then during follow-up search warrants, we got more evidence of that. >> And the life, sorry, the life-saving um activities that you referred to, Dr. Armstrong, does that mean CPR? Can you be any more specific? Yes, our staff performed CPR and I believe used an AED machine as well until we were able to have police and fire. Actually, I believe it was Portland fire and rescue first on the scene that assisted KGW for anyone. Uh I know you guys mentioned the student is uh is expected to be okay. Um is he still in the hospital and any word on when he expects to be released? I can confirm he is still hospitalized, but out of respect for this individual, we're not going to um elaborate further on that. >> You know, was there I know you're still investigating. You mentioned this with intent. Do you have any suspicion that there was an intent to hurt others or was the intent to hurt itself all day? >> Well, that's I mean that's really the big question here. you know, was this individual act of a very public but individual act of violence or was it something that was directed at other students? At this time, we just don't know. But everything is on the table and everything is being considered. Um, and that's why, you know, we have elevated this to the highest level of response for Portland police in terms of our homicide unit and then our partnerships with our federal partners. So, that's what hopefully the investigation will bring to bear. And then at that point, we will uh follow our typical process referring things to the district attorney's office for review if we believe that exists. Um we're just really not in a position to be able to say that at this point. >> Quick follow up to Julia's question about the the chemicals and uh you mentioned they can be purchased in a store. Do you know if they were purchased in a store or were they purchased online? >> Yeah, the the answer is no. We don't know. That's you. >> A couple more and then we'll uh we'll break. >> Hi, Elizabeth Miller from OP. My question is for Dr. Armstrong. Um I wanted to ask I mean PPS has many schools and this kind of talk the talk of the town right now and so I wonder if there's um any kind of like communication strategy or or what you what the district is directing staff or teachers to to share with students to talk with students about not just at Benson but across the district. >> Yeah. Well, I will say that we have support for those who may be impacted or are um expressing concern and just wanting to have a conversation. We always have that support available. Really, we encourage our staff to continue to follow the emergency management plan. Um, I think Benson is a wonderful example of what happens when you follow the process and the procedures, get students evacuated and then collaborate, coordinate with others on site. I think that was a great example. And then always we believe in communicating early and often. So, as we have information, as we are in collaboration with Portland Fire and Portland Police, we want to be able to share information out as it's available to us as often as we can so that folks are informed. And we're committed to that and we will continue to be. And I would just say overarchingly, the safety of our students and our staff, those who work in our schools, those who visit our school is a number one priority. And we will continue to make sure that we'll do anything and everything we can to ensure their safety. And oftent times that means being in collaboration, understanding the risk and looking to mitigate it. >> But there's no coordinated effort outside of Benson to communicate with families or or sorry um in schools with with students. Do you know what I mean? Well, so for Benson specifically, um, our staff returned today and they are spending time in a staff meeting and we'll receive, you know, of course, all the information that happened and um, information on how to support the students, which is why students um, stayed home today. And so as we welcome them back tomorrow, there'll be support in place for students that may need it. um and our staff will be prepared to um send them into the areas in which they need to go and to support them and and what needs to be communicated as well. >> All right, I think we're going to wrap it up. Heather, last question. >> Really quick question on the intent and I know we're saying big big questions still available out there. You mentioned in the examples you gave Chief the the intent potentially the intent to big gesture on self versus potentially to hurt others. Is there any possibility this was an accident that the student did not know that this would be harmful? That's >> absolutely it'll be part of the investigation. You know, the benefit of the doubt is going to be included in all of this to come to the determin determination and that's really for everybody involved both, you know, for the student, for the family, for the for the other students of the Benson family, PPS, etc. Um really some amazing work done yesterday, as you've already heard. I want to highlight and thank once again our first responders, our Portland police officers and firefighters who were first on scene um exposing themselves, taking risk as well as uh the incredible staff at Benson. But the goal here is to be able to provide that closure and that clarity, you know, so moving forward. So, thanks so much. Appreciate it. >> Yeah. Thank you everybody. I appreciate it. We'll uh communicate uh any more as necessary um you know via email. Thank you for being here and thank you for reporting on this in a sensitive manner. [music]