[Source: Reuters]
US police were investigating on Friday why a 16-year-old boy shot dead three children and a teacher at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, and how he got hold of the long gun used in his attack.
The latest deadly school shooting in the United States unfolded on Thursday afternoon when the teenager, who has not been publicly identified, shot through a locked door at Silver Rail Elementary School in central Oregon, according to the Bend Police Department.
The teenager killed three children aged 5, 8 and 11 and one teacher before he himself was shot dead by an armed bystander who had pursued him into the school, Police Chief Mike Krantz said at a Thursday evening press conference.
Such shootings have become common in the US, with each one reviving debates over gun laws in a country where a right to “keep and bear Arms” is protected under the Constitution’s Second Amendment.
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It was not clear if the shooter had any prior connection to the school, which has about 450 students from kindergarten through the fifth grade, roughly ages 5 to 11, and 40 staff members.
The New York Times and other outlets, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, identified the teenager as John J. Griffin II, and investigators searched his home and seized electronic devices.
They believe he used a 12-gauge pump-action Maverick 88 shotgun in the attack, which police say is registered to his mother, the Times reported.
Officials at the Bend Police Department, who did not respond to questions on Friday, were due to give updates on their investigation at an afternoon press conference.