A teenager shot and killed three children and a teacher on Thursday at an elementary school in the US state of Oregon, police said, adding the assailant was later killed by an armed bystander who pursued him into the building.
Officers rushed to Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, a city of about 100,000 in the nation’s northwest, after reports of a shooter on campus on Thursday afternoon.
The three children who died on the scene were aged five, eight and 11, said Bend police chief Mike Krantz. Another child and a teacher were being treated for critical injuries after the shooting.
The United States, where firearms are readily available, has a long and painful history of gun violence, with thousands of people killed every year. It has the highest rate of gun-related deaths among all developed nations.
People gathered in the city’s Drake Park on Thursday evening for a candelight vigil remembering the victims.
“I’m in total complete shock, and scared and sad,” said Betsy, who did not give her last name. She spent around 10 minutes contemplating a circle of candles and flowers.
“It’s awful, but it also has brought people together,” she told AFP.
Krantz, the police chief, told journalists that the department first learned of an active shooter after a call from a person who reported being shot at multiple times by a person carrying a long gun.
Dozens of emergency calls then reported that a shooter had entered the school and all law enforcement in the area were called to the scene, the chief added.
Officers arrived at 1:02 pm local time (2002 GMT) within minutes of the calls, he said.
“Moments later, an officer reported that the suspect had been shot by a community member who had seen the suspect enter the school and pursued him into the school and engaged him,” Krantz said.
“Our officers entered the building and confirmed the suspect was dead.”
One seven-year-old and one 54-year-old teacher with critical injuries were transported to a local hospital, he said.
The police chief said the investigation was in its early stages, but told the press conference it appeared “the shooter had forced their way into the school by shooting at locked doors.”
He added that the 16-year-old shooter was a Bend resident.
– ‘Unthinkable tragedy’ –
Between 400 and 450 children attend Silver Rail Elementary, where more than 40 staff work, according to a police spokesperson.
After a lockdown, Bend-La Pine School District said law enforcement was escorting students in buses to a separate location, where families could reunite with their children.
The district’s superintendent, Steve Cook, tearfully called the day’s events “an unthinkable tragedy.”
“We are heartbroken. We are horrified. This is the kind of thing you hear about in other places, and pray that it never happens here,” he told reporters.
Parents were anxiously waiting at the site near a church, where Drew Sharp, the father of a fifth grader, the highest grade in the school, told CBS News: “I have faith that he’s okay and that he’ll be alright.”
Children were disembarking from the bus youngest to oldest “which makes sense,” Sharp said, but “it’s just more time waiting.”
Friday classes at schools across the district along with activities and athletic events were canceled, Bend-La Pine said in a statement.
The elementary school is approximately 170 miles (270 kilometers) southeast of the city Portland. It serves primary-age students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
– ‘Cannot keep accepting this’ –
The deadliest school shooting in US history took place at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, when South Korean student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.
There have been more than 360 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.
“Our hearts are with the terrified children and the families anxiously waiting to hear that their loved ones are safe,” GIFFORDS, a gun safety organization, said on X.
“We cannot keep accepting this as a fact of life.”
Thursday’s shooting was followed by a painfully familiar chorus of calls for action on gun control, pleas that have resulted in little meaningful change.
In the face of decades of massacres, the powerful US pro-gun lobby has given millions of dollars to primarily conservative politicians in a successful bid to keep gun laws loose.
“They’re killing our babies. Shredding our kids with lead. Forcing us to live in fear,” said Janelle Bynum, an Oregon congresswoman, in a statement.
“This continues to happen,” she said later, speaking on CNN. “And it seems as if the adults don’t care.”
AFP