Police in Oregon shoot man sought in chase

SALEM, Ore. -- Police shot a man after he crashed a truck into a downtown courthouse early yesterday. The shooting ended a pursuit that had begun when he allegedly set fire to several police squad cars in a nearby town and purportedly shot at an officer who had been chasing him..

The man, who was not identified, drove the pickup truck through the glass double doors of the Marion County Courthouse and hid inside the building for about three hours, setting at least one fire before police tracked him down in a stairwell, said Captain Jeff Kuhns of the Police Department in this city about 60 miles south of Portland.

He was in surgery yesterday, officials said. The extent of his injuries was not released.

Authorities had ''a few indications of what might have motivated him," Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau said.

The pursuit started before dawn when the man set fire to parked police cars in the adjacent town of Keizer, officials said.