Shooter kills teacher, three children at elementary school
The suspect had been shot by a community member who had seen the suspect enter the school.
BEND, United States (AFP) — 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 US, 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 Agence France-Presse.
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 p.m. local time 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.