HILLSBORO -- A mescaline lab was found by police in the home of a man who went on a deadly driving spree in from Hillsboro to Cornelius over the weekend, investigators said.
Toxicology tests will have to determine whether Shawn Schumacher, 28, of Hillsboro was under the influence of the drug when he decided to drive wildly into traffic and start shooting.
Schumacher was killed in a gunfight with police Saturday afternoon.
Mescaline is a derivative of the peyote cactus.
During the spree, Schumacher shot several rounds into a car with two men, mortally wounding passenger Danny K. Le Gore, 56, of Hillsboro. He was taken by Lifeflight to OHSU where he died.
According to police, calls began to come in around 1:30 Saturday afternoon about an erratic driver who was firing a gun out of the car window near the intersection of 10th and Baseline Road in Hillsboro.
Lisa Perdew, her three children and her boyfriend were in a pickup truck when the suspect came barreling toward them.
"We got hit by a vehicle," she said, "He bounced off of us. He hit another vehicle next to us, backed up, hit another vehicle, pulled his gun and started shooting at another vehicle behind us."
A Hillsboro officer saw the gunman and started pursuing his 1997 Honda Civic. Schumacher sped down Baseline, leaving the city limits and headed for Cornelius. He reportedly fired at least one shot back toward the pursuit, which had grown as officers from Cornelius police and the Washington County sheriff's deputies joined the chase.
Schumacher was driving wildly through heavy traffic, passing cars on the right and struck a white van near 13th and Adair in Cornelius, where police were in the midst of trying to set up spike strips. That collision disabled the Civic, which ultimately came to rest at 10th and Adair.
Schumacher was reportedly slumped over the steering wheel. As a sheriff's deputy and two Cornelius officers approached the car, Schumacher got out with a gun in each hand, wearing nothing but a pair of camouflaged shorts, and started firing.
He shot a patrol car before he was killed by police. So far, investigators have only confirmed that Schumacher was hit with more than one bullet.
Further details were not available.
