A 16-year-old opened fire at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday, killing three children and a teacher before being shot dead by a community member, police said.
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said in a press conference that the children killed at Silver Rail Elementary School were aged 5, 8, and 11. Also, a 7-year-old and a 54-year-old teacher were transported to St. Charles Bend hospital with critical injuries.
Krantz said the suspect, a male city resident who has not yet been publicly identified, was spotted entering the school by a community member, who eventually pursued him into the school and shot him. The chief said the suspect forced his way into the school by firing at locked doors.
Police did not speculate on the shooter’s motive and said they did not know whether the suspect knew anybody in the school or if he had attended.
FBI Director Kash Patel posted on social media that the agency’s Portland field office is assisting in the investigation. “We will make every resource they need available,” he added.
A vigil was held Thursday evening in the wake of the shooting.
“A school should be a safe place where children can learn and feel secure,” Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler said at the same press conference the police chief spoke at. “What happened today should never happen.”
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said at the same conference that her heart was “absolutely broken” over the incident: “No parent should have to have this kind of day, and no community should have to live through this kind of day.” She also thanked the community member who pursued the shooter.
CNN’s analysis of incidents reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety shows that the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary marks the 36th one on K-12 school grounds this year. It is the 52nd school shooting in the country this year.
What happened?
Krantz said that at 12:59 p.m., police received a 911 call from a person in a vehicle who reported being shot at multiple times by someone “with a long gun.”
Multiple calls followed, reporting that a shooter had entered Silver Rail Elementary School, which is about 120 mi. southeast of Portland. The school enrolls more than 400 students from kindergarten to 5th grade.
Krantz said police directed the school to go into lockdown at 1:01 p.m. and first responding officers arrived a minute later. Upon entering the school building, Krantz said, officers confirmed that the suspect was dead and found the four other people who died from their injuries, and their families have been notified.
Krantz did not speak on the weapon used in the shooting. But an unidentified law enforcement official briefed on the shooting told the Associated Press that it was a pump-action shotgun purchased by the suspect’s mother.
How are politicians reacting?
Oregon’s Republican candidate for governor, state senator Christine Drazan, posted on social media that her heart was with the affected families, students, and teaching staff. “We have to commit to protecting our kids,” she added. “We have to put a complete stop to shootings at our schools. This has to end.”
Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat who represents the district that includes Bend, said in a statement: “Our babies are supposed to do arts and crafts at school, not use their desks as cover from gunfire. They’re supposed to make friends, not mourn them.”
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D, Ore.) lamented in a statement that the victims in Silver Rail Elementary School and their loved ones faced the “awful consequences” of another school shooting in the country. He added that the “best way to honor” them is to “at long last pass common-sense gun laws that reduce the risks of more children, parents, teachers and staff forced to live in fear of similar nightmares for their schools.”