Students return to classes at West Richland elementary after Monday’s deadly shootings

Students, teachers and staff returned to classes at a West Richland elementary school two days after a gunman shot and killed his ex-wife on the campus where she worked.

More than 500 students were met Wednesday by therapy dogs, police officers and counselors as they resumed classes at William Wiley Elementary School.

Richland Superintendent Shelley Redinger promised support and counseling for the likely dozens of students and staff members who watched Elias Huizar, 39, gun down paraeducator Amber Rodriguez, 31, as classes were being let out Monday afternoon. Their 9-year-old son was with her at the time, said police.

Soon after, Huizar’s girlfriend, Angelica M. Santos, 17, was found dead at his home, and investigators discovered the former Yakima policeman and school resource officer had fled toward Oregon with their 1-year-old son.

“The past few days have been incredibly tough for our staff, students, families and the entire Tri-Cities’ community,” she said during a Wednesday morning news conference.

“As we navigate through this tragedy, our primary focus remains on providing support to the students and staff in our school,” she said.

West Richland police were at the school with a therapy dog, and there were other comfort dogs at the school. Counselors were going to be available to students and staff across the district. School leaders in Kennewick and Pasco offered their counselors to help in Richland if needed.

Rodriguez worked at the elementary school since 2022, where her performance was remarkable, Redinger told reporters.

“Our deepest condolences go out to Amber’s family during this difficult time,” she said.

The news conference came a day after Huizar shot and killed himself following a high-speed chase with Oregon State Police on Interstate 5 near Eugene.

West Richland Police Chief Tom Grego shared the same information released Tuesday night by Oregon State Police Capt. Kyle Kennedy.

Oregon State Police started the chase about 2:45 p.m., according to scanner traffic reported on Facebook. The chase reportedly reached speeds up to 100 mph.

At one point, Huizar lost control of his silver Toyota Corolla and exchanged gunfire before he drove off again, Kennedy said.

Farther south on I-5, Huizar crashed into a semi truck and trailer that had stopped for a wreck on the highway and Huizar spun into the median.

As state police approached, Huizar shot himself. He died at the scene. Police found 1-year-old Roman Santos (Huizar) safe in his car seat.

The baby is in the care of Child Protective Services, officials said Wednesday.

District’s reaction

Even as students, staff and the community begin to recover from the shock of the violence, they are raising questions about how Huizar ended up working for Richland School District at all.

A week before his termination from the Yakima Police Department, Richland hired Huizar as an emergency substitute teacher and a volunteer Richland High wrestling coach in 2022 and 2023.

The former Yakima police school resource officer had a history of grooming teens, including his current girlfriend, who he first started assaulting when she was in middle school, according to documents obtained by the monthly alternative Tri-City publication Tumbleweird.

Redinger said at Wednesday’s news conference that school leaders planned to sit down and discuss what could have been done differently.

At Tuesday night’s meeting of the Richland School Board, President Rick Jansons praised the quick response of school and district staff for jumping into action.

Students were moved off school buses and into the school building, which was locked down for a couple hours, until kids could be safely reunited with parents.

“It’s the one thing I dread more than anything,” Jansons said.

“Yesterday was hard. Our staff did a great job. They kept us informed and did a good job of keeping the public informed. I was on the phone with Tory (Christensen, assistant superintendent of secondary) when they were doing reunification and I heard kids in the background calling out for their parents,” he added.

Jansons said if he believed the district had done anything wrong in Huizar’s hiring, he would be “the first to say we need to fix the process and I would talk about that so there’s no coverups or anything like that.”

The principal at Franklin Middle School in the Yakima School District, where Huizar worked as a school resource officer, told Richland School District he was a “very good candidate” for the substitute position he was applying for, Jansons said.

“Our HR department followed all the process, background checks and the finger printing came back clean. Drug screening was clean. All the training was passed at 100%,” he said.

As Huizar was applying for the position in February 2022, the Yakima School District Human Resources department sent a state sexual misconduct disclosure release to Richland School District with the box checked that “no sexual misconduct materials” were found.

“The information wasn’t good from the people who told us, who gave the recommendations, and I think that’s wrong,” Jansons said.

Redinger declined to weigh in on Jansons’s comments and whether or not Yakima should have notified Richland about Huizar’s past investigations.

“I don’t want to make any conjectures, or judgments, about that,” she said.

“Whenever there’s any red flags on a person, we definitely dig deeper. And, honestly, there was not red flags on this individual,” Redinger continued. “Oftentimes, if there is an issue, sometimes I’ll just get a call saying, ‘Hey, there’s some issues here,’ but there was nothing like that.”

Redinger wouldn’t say whether or not Huizar lied on his district application. The district relies on references and applicants to disclose any troubling behavior or actions in the absence of a criminal record.

“It’s disappointing if he purposely withheld information,” she said.

Investigation continues

Even as students return to class and families grieve, questions remain about Huizar’s past and what set off the rampage.

Investigators confirmed the woman found dead inside of Huizar’s South Highlands Boulevard home was Angelica Santos.

It’s not clear if she had still been living there since Huizar was previously ordered by a judge to stay away from her.

An autopsy on Wednesday was expected to shed light on how she was killed and when.

Benton County Prosecutor Eric Eisinger said detectives are still trying to determine whether Santos was killed before or after Huizar went to the nearby Wiley elementary school.

It’s also unknown what set him off. Rodriguez asked last Friday for a custody hearing aimed at keeping him away from the two children they shared.

Before the murders, he was charged with second-degree rape for attacking a 16-year-old girl, and then for third-degree child rape after prosecutors learned that Santos was underage when she became pregnant.

“There was some pending criminal charges and there was some domestic matters that were pending in court, but specifically we don’t know what the motive is at this time,” Eisinger said during the news conference.

Redinger said after learning of Huizar’s February arrest and the charges he faced, the district removed him from their list of substitutes and volunteers and he was issued a no trespass order on all school district properties.

Security cameras showed Huizar sneaked onto the elementary school campus shortly after school released for the day about 3:20 p.m. Monday.

Court documents say he approached Rodriguez with a .40 caliber gun and then fired several shots.

After she fell onto the gravel, Huizar fired more times. Police found eight .40 caliber shells on the ground.

Richland School District doesn’t have a dedicated school resource officer at all its elementary schools and “didn’t anticipate the situation,” Redinger said. The district’s West Richland resource officer spends most of their time at Leona Libby and Enterprise middle schools.