Three children and a teacher were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in the US state of Oregon on Thursday. The 16-year-old suspected gunman also died, police said.
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters that the three children were aged five, eight and 11. The fourth victim was a teacher at the school.
Police identified the suspect as a 16-year-old resident of Bend. He was shot and injured during a confrontation with a local resident who followed him into the school, according to police.
“We have identified the suspect. He is a 16-year-old resident of Bend,” Krantz said.
Police spokesperson Sheila Miller said officers initially responded to a report of shots being fired at a vehicle. Within minutes, emergency calls began coming in reporting an armed person inside the school.
Police received the first call at around 1pm local time and arrived at the scene within minutes. Officers later learned that the suspected gunman had died.
The shooting took place at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, which serves around 400 to 450 students and employs more than 40 staff members, according to police.
The school was placed on lockdown following the shooting, and security was tightened. Authorities later transported students by bus to a designated reunification site, where parents were able to meet their children.
Parents waited near a church at the designated location as students arrived. Drew Sharp, whose son is in fifth grade at the school, said he believed his child was safe. He said younger students were being taken off the buses first, followed by older students, leaving parents waiting for their children.
Steven Cook, superintendent of the Bend-La Pine School District, said district officials were shocked and grieving over the tragedy. He expressed condolences to the victims’ families and everyone affected by the shooting, saying the entire community was mourning.
The school district announced that all schools would be closed on Friday. All school activities and sporting events were also cancelled.
Silver Rail Elementary School is located about 270 kilometres southeast of Portland and serves children from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Gun violence remains a major public safety issue in the United States, where firearms are widely available and mass shootings occur regularly.
One of the deadliest school shootings in US history took place at Virginia Tech University on April 16, 2007. Seung-Hui Cho, a South Korean student, killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, more than 360 mass shootings had been recorded in the United States so far this year. The organisation defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
The gun-control advocacy group GIFFORDS expressed grief over the Oregon shooting in a statement on X, offering condolences to the children affected and to families anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.
The group said such violence should no longer be accepted as a normal part of life.