Neighbors uneasy after neighborhood shooting

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Story Published: Sep 3, 2008 at 8:29 PM PST

By Elissa Harrington

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SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Garen Sanders was getting his two young sons ready for school Wednesday morning when he saw a man with a backpack outside his window get into a green sedan.

"I just thought it was another student going to school," he said. "But then she drove up and was all frantic and said, 'Get in, get in, get in!'"

Then Sanders heard six shots. One of them hit his front window.

Wendy Jo Whitaker was the driver of that car.

Police found the 35-year-old Springfield woman dead behind the wheel of the car when they arrived around 6:46 a.m.

Neighbors witnessed a car speed away and said the man getting into the sedan fired a flare gun back at the suspects.

That man then came into the Sanders house to wash off the blood.

"We could tell he had something but we didn't know what it was," says Sanders. "So he went in there and shut the door and at that point he stashed his flare gun in my garbage."

Detective Conrad with Springfield Police confirmed police retrieved a flare gun and took the man into custody for questioning.

Even though Wednesday's shooting could be an isolated incident, Sanders said Wednesday's incident was too close for comfort.

"It really makes you think," he said. "I hung out with my boys the rest of the day."

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