Portland mall shooter, 22, used stolen rifle

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The gunman who killed two people and himself in a shooting rampage at a mall was 22 years old and used a rifle stolen from someone he knew, authorities said yesterday.

Jacob Tyler Roberts had armed himself with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and had several fully loaded magazines when he arrived at a Portland mall on Tuesday, said Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts.

The sheriff said the rifle jammed during the attack, but the gunman managed to get it working again. He shot himself later.

Authorities don't yet have a motive; they don't believe he was targeting specific people.

Steven Mathew Forsyth, 45, of West Linn and Cindy Ann Yuille, 54, of Portland were killed; Kristina Shevchenko, 15, was wounded and in serious condition yesterday.

Roberts, wearing a hockey-style face mask, parked his 1996 green Volkswagen Jetta in front of the second-floor entrance to Macy's and walked briskly through the store, into the mall and began firing randomly, police said. He then fled along a mall corridor and into a back hallway, down stairs and into a corner where police found him dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot, authorities said.

People at the mall were heroic in helping get shoppers out of the building, including medical personnel who rendered aid, the sherrif said.

Roberts rented a basement room in a modest, Portland home and hadn't lived there long, said a neighbor, Bobbi Bates. She said she saw Roberts leave at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in a dark jacket and jeans and carrying a guitar case. -- AP