Listen to this articleDear 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated using AI-based technology. Pronunciation errors may occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve results. A 16-year-old shooter opened fire Thursday at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, killing four people, including three children, before being killed by an armed person who had chased the gunman into the school, police said. The shooter entered the school shooting through closed doors, police said, without offering any details beyond the shooter’s age. The dead were children aged five, eight and 11 and a teacher. A 7-year-old student and a 54-year-old teacher were also taken to the hospital with serious injuries, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said at a news conference. Community members mourn during a candlelight vigil in a Bend park Thursday. (Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images) Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, who appeared at the same briefing, thanked the community member who “heroically intervened to stop further loss of life.” “No parent should have this kind of day, and no community should have to live this kind of day, and as we learn more about the children and adults who have been killed or injured, and their families and their loved ones, we’re going to cry a lot, and we’re going to cry together, and we’re probably going to cry privately,” Kotek said. Krantz said the community member, whom he did not identify, had seen the suspect enter the school and pursued him. School shootings have become in a recurring feature of American life, including high-profile attacks such as those at Columbine High School in 1999, Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022. Each shooting revives debates over gun laws in a country where the right to bear arms is protected by the Second Amendment law. have advocated arming teachers as a means of defense. A police officer directs traffic near Silver Rail Elementary School, after the shooting. (Rob Kerr/Reuters) Krantz said every Bend police officer went through a full day of active shooter training in August. Oregon, southeast of Portland and adjacent to the Deschutes National Forest, Silver Rail Elementary School serves students in kindergarten through fifth grade, ages five to 11, and has about 450 students and 40 staff members, officials said. “This cannot continue to be a reality,” gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords, a former congresswoman who survived a mass shooting in 2011, said in a statement. who was “heartbroken” by the shooting in Bend. Police tape is seen posted outside Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday. (Joe Kline/The Associated Press) “This can no longer be a reality in our country. Leaders at all levels must step up and act,” Giffords said. Emergency responders received a call at 12:59 p.m. PDT from a person in a vehicle reporting that someone with a long gun had shot them multiple times, Krantz said. Minutes later, dozens of calls came in saying the shooter had entered the school, Krantz said. Authorities immediately ordered the school on lockdown. Officers arrived at 1:02 p.m. and moments later, an officer reported that the suspect had been shot. Police entered and confirmed that the suspect was dead, Krantz said.
