Ex-Football Star Stops School Shooting

A former college football standout at the University of Oregon was credited Friday with tackling an armed student at a Portland, Oregon, high school before anyone was injured, the AP reports. Keanon Lowe, a football and track coach and a security guard at Parkrose High School, told reporters as he was leaving a police interview late Friday that he was tired but relieved at the outcome, the Oregonian reported. "When confronted with the test the universe presented me with, I didn't see any other choice but to act," Lowe tweeted on Saturday. "Thank God, I passed. I've spent the last 24 hours being more appreciative of my family and realizing we have a serious problem."

Parkrose School District Superintendent Michael Lopes Serrao said in a letter to families Friday evening that before the incident two students had informed a staff member of "concerning behavior" by that student, who has been identified as Angel Granados Dias, per the AP. He has been booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on suspicion of possessing a firearm in a public building, attempting to shoot a gun at a school, and reckless endangerment. Witnesses say he appeared distraught when he appeared at the door to their government class and pulled the weapon from beneath a long black trench coat, at which point Lowe tackled him.

(More school shooting stories.)