A man from California, whose family says he had mental health issues, shot and killed a cook Saturday morning at a well-known Ashland lodge, an apparent random attack that ended with the gunman firing shots at Interstate 5 traffic before a pickup hit and killed him.

The gunman, Neal Brian Norman, 50, of Pacific Grove, California, did not know his victim, Ryan Paul Bagley, 40, of Ashland, said Jackson County sheriff's officials and Donna Bergquist, co-owner of Callahan's Lodge, where the killing took place.

Bergquist said another lodge employee entered the kitchen Saturday morning and found Bagley on the floor in a pool of blood.

Norman left the lodge parking lot in Bagley's maroon 1993 Subaru Legacy wagon after taking the cook's car keys, said Bergquist. Norman may have seen Bagley enter the lodge for his morning shift, between 6:30 and 6:45 a.m., she said.

Norman drove the Subaru to a nearby freeway on-ramp then parked it in the middle of I-5 south, near milepost 1, just north of the Oregon-California border, officials said. He turned the car to face oncoming traffic then got out of the car armed with a rifle and began firing at cars in the southbound lane.

Norman was killed minutes later when he was run over by a pickup, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

He was killed by the first vehicle that came his way, a gray 2015 Ram Crew Cab pickup driven by Thomas Bradley Moxon, 49, of Eagle Point shortly before 7 a.m.

Moxon first stopped when he saw the Subaru. Norman then appeared and shot at least three bullets into Moxon's truck before Moxon drove forward, struck and killed Norman. A juvenile was also in the pickup.

Moxon drove a short distance to a safe location, called 9-1-1 and reported he had hit a man who was firing at his truck, officials said. Other motorists also reported the incident.

Deputies and Oregon State Police officers found Norman dead with the rifle on the ground nearby, officials said.

Southbound I-5 was closed at milepost 6 for hours Saturday as police investigated.

Detectives spoke with Norman's family members who were surprised but said he had mental health issues. Detectives would like anyone who may have had contact with Norman in the hours leading up to the shooting to call them at 541- 774-6800.

According to Bergquist, the incident unfolded like this:

Her husband, Ron Bergquist, left the couple's living quarters within the lodge at around 5:30 a.m. Saturday to pick up a newspaper at the front desk.

There, he encountered a stranger "who was using the phone at our front desk who said he was needing gas," Donna Bergquist said in a phone interview Saturday. "Ron didn't think a lot of it. In fact, he thought he might be one of our guests."

"He picked up his paper and went back to his quarters," she said.

Police believe Norman, who had no prior contacts with law enforcement in Jackson County, was driving his white 1999 Honda Accord with California license plates to Oregon to visit a relative, but he ran out of gas near Callahan's Lodge.

Investigators learned that Norman went into the lobby to use the phone, and then returned to his vehicle to get a rifle. He returned to the lodge, went into the kitchen, and shot and killed the cook.

By the time another Callahan's employee found Bagley bleeding on the kitchen floor and called 9-1-1, deputies and Oregon State Police troopers were already responding to an incident on I-5.

Bagley, the father of three children, had been working at the lodge since June. "A great employee, great employee. He did a beautiful job," said Bergquist, adding that Bagley's parents, who live in a northern California community about 40 miles south of Ashland, visited the lodge Saturday after being notified of the killing.

The Bergquists have owned the lodge, located east of Mount Ashland and just 400 feet off the Pacific Crest Trail, for 22 years.

--Janet Eastman updating Allan Brettman's reporting

503-294-5900

@allanbrettman