Teen gunman kills 3 children, teacher at Oregon elementary school
Editor's note: Follow USA TODAY's Friday, Oct. 16, coverage of the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School by clicking here.
A 16-year-old gunman opened fire in an Oregon elementary school, killing three children and a teacher before being fatally shot by a community member, police confirmed Oct. 15.
The bystander saw the teenager entering Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, at about 1 p.m. and followed him in before engaging him in a short gun battle, according to Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz. The mass shooter was dead by the time police arrived a few minutes later.
Krantz said the children killed at the scene were 5, 8, and 11. The teacher who died was 54.
Two others, a 7-year-old and another teacher, were critically injured and were being treated at an area hospital.
The shooter had a "long gun" and had shot his way into the school through locked doors, Krantz said.
Dispatch received a call at 12:59 p.m. about a shot fired into a car, Krantz said. At 1 p.m., dispatch sent out a "tone" that alerted all officers to respond to a critical incident. Officers arrived by 1:02 p.m. The agency received multiple 911 calls within the two minutes, according to Bend Police.
Bend has a population of roughly 107,000 and sits along the Deschutes River in central Oregon, about 165 miles southeast of Portland.
People gather at vigil to honor victims
New Hope pastor Brandon Blumberg said leaders at the dozen churches who organized a prayer vigil at Drake Park in Bend to honor the elementary school shooting victims didn’t know what to expect, but that the crowd of thousands spoke to the level of pain people feel in the community.
He described Bend as a "land island."
Everyone, he said, knows someone who attends Silver Rail or knows of someone directly impacted. The shooting is personal, he added. His own daughter is 5 years old and attends a different nearby school.
"We send them to school every morning, expecting them to come home," Blumberg said.
State Sen. Anthony Broadman spoke with the Statesman Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, by phone from the vigil. There are community resources, and people need to lean on each other for support, he said.
His focus is to be strong for the community and "work like hell to protect them and work to ensure that this never happens again."
"This grieving is going to last a long time," Broadman said.
Officials react as classes are canceled
Silver Rail Elementary School had 459 students in the 2024-2025 school year, according to an Oregon Department of Education report. The school opened in 2015, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
The shooting is the 28th mass killing of the year in the United States, of which 21 are shootings, according to James Alan Fox of the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek praised first responders, school staff and the community member that she said stopped "further loss of life" at the news conference. She noted that she visited the school about a year ago and spent time calling parents to congratulate them on school attendance.
"My heart is absolutely broken today, and our hearts will stay broken in the days and weeks ahead," Kotek said.
Bend-La Pine school leaders said that all schools will be closed on Oct. 16 and all extracurricular and athletic events are canceled.
"We are stunned and heartbroken by this senseless tragedy," said Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook in a statement to CNN. "We extend our deepest sympathy to the families and to everyone affected by this violence. No words can adequately express the grief our community is experiencing."
'Every parent's worst nightmare'
Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of gun safety group Moms Demand Action, called the shooting "every parent's worst nightmare" in a statement provided to USA TODAY.
"No parent should have to wonder whether the school drop-off will be the last time they see their child," Zabala said.
Oregon’s deadliest school shooting occurred Oct. 1, 2015, at Umpqua Community College near Roseburg, where a gunman opened fire in a classroom, killing a professor and eight students and wounding nine others. The death toll surpassed that of the May 21, 1998, shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, where a suspended student opened fire in a hallway and crowded cafeteria, killing two students and wounding 25 others.
Krantz said every Bend police officer went through a full day of active shooter training in August.
"Unfortunately, this is something we train for on a regular basis, and we must," Krantz said. "This is going to be a long investigation."
Gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords, a former congresswoman who survived a mass shooting in 2011, said in a statement she was "heartbroken" by the shooting in Bend.
"This cannot continue to be a reality in our country. Leaders at every level must step up and act," Giffords said.
Contributing: Dianne Lugo and Anastasia Mason, Salem Statesman Journal; Reuters