Developing: Gunman Kills Three Children and a Teacher at Oregon School
Police say a 16-year-old forced his way into Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend through locked doors. A child and another teacher were taken to hospital in critical condition.
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Oct 16, 12:00 UTC ·
790 words
A 16-year-old killed three children and a teacher at an Oregon elementary school on Thursday before a community member pursued him inside and shot him dead, police said. [1][3]
The children killed at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend were five, eight and 11. A seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to hospital in critical condition, according to police. [1][3]
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz described the suspect as a local boy. Officers arrived minutes after the first emergency alert and found him dead, police said. The investigation into the October 15 attack is continuing. [1][2][3]
Silver Rail teaches children from kindergarten through fifth grade and has about 450 pupils and more than 40 adult staff members. [1]
Teacher Kathy Sheil Smith told television station KPTV that she saw the gunman approaching, warned the main office and moved her pupils into a corner of their classroom. "Some kids were praying, some kids were consoling other kids," she said. [1][2]
The police figures put the toll among children and school staff at four dead and two critically injured. The suspect's death brought the total number killed to five. The two people taken to hospital included both a pupil and a teacher, as did those killed inside the school. [1][3]
Gunfire outside, then forced entry
The first emergency call came at 12:59 p.m. from someone who said a person carrying a long gun had fired at their vehicle. Further calls reported that a shooter had entered the school, according to police. [1][3]
Police said the suspect shot at locked doors to force his way inside. That account places gunfire both outside the building and at its entrance before the attack moved into the school. Photographs from the scene showed bullet holes in a red truck, according to the BBC. [1]
Smith's account describes the effort to protect children as the danger approached. After alerting the office, she gathered her class in a corner. [1][2]
The police account gives a broad sequence: a report of shots at a vehicle, emergency calls from the school, forced entry through locked doors and an armed intervention by a community member. Officers reached the scene within minutes of the first alert, but the suspect had already been shot. [1][3]
Krantz said the community member saw the suspect enter Silver Rail, followed him into the building and shot him. Police attributed the suspect's death to that intervention. Their account places the encounter inside the school before officers arrived. [1][2][3]
A community member intervened
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek praised the person who pursued the gunman and acknowledged the emotional consequences of intervening in the attack. "Your actions carry a heavy emotional burden and I just want you to know that my thoughts are with you as well," she said. [1]
The intervention ended the suspect's involvement before police reached him, according to the sequence authorities described. It also left investigators with an encounter to reconstruct inside a school where four people had been killed and two others critically injured. [1][2][3]
The public police account identified the weapon initially reported by a caller only as a long gun.
Separate accounts have provided more specific descriptions: unnamed law-enforcement sources told CBS News it was a shotgun, according to the BBC. An unnamed law-enforcement official briefed on the shooting told the Associated Press that it was a pump-action shotgun purchased by the suspect's mother, according to TIME. Those details have not been publicly confirmed by police. [1][3]
A long gun is a broad description that can include a rifle or a shotgun. The account attributed to the official briefed on the shooting goes further, describing both a particular kind of firearm and its purchaser. A purchase by a family member would not, by itself, explain how the suspect gained access to it.
Police had not released the names of the children or teacher killed, or publicly named the suspect. His motive, any relationship to Silver Rail and how he obtained the firearm remain unresolved. Authorities had also not publicly identified the community member who shot him, described that person's connection to the school, specified the number of rounds fired or released a complete timeline. [1][3]
Schools close as families await answers
Bend, in central Oregon, also experienced a fatal grocery-store shooting in 2022, when a 20-year-old killed two people. [2]
The immediate aftermath extends across a school community of hundreds of pupils and dozens of staff. The district's response also reaches beyond Silver Rail, offering support to families and employees across its schools and to other community members. [1][2]
Bend-La Pine Schools planned to close schools on Friday, October 16. For families facing the day after the attack, the district planned to make support available during the closure. Superintendent Steven Cook said crisis counselors would be available to students, families, district employees and others in the community. [1][2]
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