SAN FRANCISCO, July 3 (Xinhua) -- A gunman who reportedly tried to hijack a helicopter was killed Monday at an airport in Oregon.
Hillsboro police said the man tried to steal a helicopter at gunpoint outside a flight school at the Hillsboro Airport, hopped back over the fence at the sight of an officer and was fatally shot after a chase into a nearby field.
Hillsboro, the fifth-largest city in the State of Oregon, is 27 kilometers northwest of Portland, the largest city in the U.S. Pacific Northwest state.
The incident took place at 11:23 a.m. local time when the masked man went up to a helicopter with a flight instructor and a student inside as it was warming up at Hillsboro Aero Academy, Hillsboro police spokesman Lt. Henry Reimann was quoted as saying in a report by The Oregonian.
The man opened the door, pointed a gun at the student and ordered the student out.
After a police showed up, the man ran from the helicopter, went back over the barbed-wire fence and fled across a local road. A second Hillsboro police officer encountered the man in a field and shot him, Reimann said. The man died at the scene.
No other injuries were reported. Police haven't yet identified the suspect.
Flights were halted briefly and the airport was reopen by 1:00 p.m., officials said.
