Three children and a teacher killed in shooting at Oregon elementary school
A 16-year-old opened fire inside Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, killing three children and a teacher and wounding two others before a community member shot him, police said.
A 16-year-old gunman opened fire inside Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday afternoon, killing three children and a teacher and wounding two others before a community member shot him dead inside the building, authorities said.
The children who died were ages 5, 8 and 11, and the teacher was 54, according to Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz. Two other victims, a 7-year-old and another teacher, were critically injured and taken to St. Charles Bend hospital, the Associated Press reported.
What police say happened
The first 911 call came at 12:59 p.m., when a person in a vehicle outside the school reported being shot at by someone carrying a long gun, Krantz said. More calls followed from inside the school within minutes. Officers arrived by 1:02 p.m.
Krantz said a community member saw the teenager entering the school at about 1 p.m. and followed him inside, then exchanged gunfire with him in what police described as a short gun battle. The shooter was dead before officers reached him.
The gunman had fired into a car outside the school before entering and had shot his way through locked doors with a long gun, Krantz said.
Victims, families and the investigation
Silver Rail Elementary, which serves kindergarten through fifth grade, had 459 enrolled pupils last year, according to the Oregon Department of Education. The school sits more than 100 miles southeast of Portland.
District officials said families were reunited at a church near the school, and that Silver Rail will be closed on Friday. Bend-La Pine Schools superintendent Steven Cook said the district was “stunned and heartbroken by this senseless tragedy” and extended sympathy to the families.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency was on the scene assisting local authorities in the investigation.
The shooting is the 28th mass killing in the United States this year, 21 of them shootings, according to the mass killing database maintained by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
Reporting based on coverage by The Associated Press and The Times.
