A 16-year-old blasted his way through locked doors into an Oregon elementary school on Thursday, killing three children and a teacher before an armed bystander pursued him inside and shot him dead, the police said.
The suspect, who has not been named, forced his way into Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Ore., around 1 p.m., officials said at a news conference on Thursday. Just minutes later, officers responding to the scene found three children, aged 5, 8 and 11, and a teacher dead. A 7-year-old and another teacher were critically injured. The shooter was also dead.
The spasm of violence is part of a long string of school shootings that have stricken the nation over the past three decades, leaving deep and lasting scars on communities, and in some cases on the entire country.
“Like so many in our community, I’m struggling to make sense of a loss that feels unimaginable,” Mayor Melanie Kebler of Bend said at the news conference.
The violence unfolded in minutes before the bystander put an end to it.
The police said they first received a call at 12:59 p.m. from a person in a car who said they had been shot at by someone with a long gun. In the moments that followed, dozens of 911 callers told the police a shooter was in the school.
By 1:02 p.m., the school was in lockdown, and police officer were on scene. There, they found the three children and teacher dead, Chief Mike Krantz of the Bend Police Department said at the news conference.
The chief did not name the victims, the shooter or the bystander who killed him. Gov. Tina Kotek called the bystander a hero and addressed him directly.
“Your actions carry a heavy emotional burden,” she said at the news conference. “I just want you to know my thoughts are with you as well.”
Here’s what we’re covering:
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Witness account: Leah Schwartz had been walking her dog about a mile from the school when she heard three gunshots, followed by a pause and another three shots. “It’s just something that we live with here in America,” she said. “It’s exhausting.”
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The school: Silver Rail Elementary School has an enrollment of about 400 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and about 40 people work at the school. All schools in the cities of Bend and La Pine were canceled for Friday.
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Years of violence: From the massacre in Columbine, Colo., in 1999 to the carnage in Sandy Hook, Conn., more than a decade later, school shootings have terrorized America.
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Gun control in Oregon: The state has more restrictions on gun ownership than most. Everytown, a gun safety advocacy organization, ranks the state 12th out of 50 for the strength of its gun laws.
