Three children and a teacher were gunned down Thursday afternoon in a shooting at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, and the 16-year-old suspect was fatally shot by an armed bystander, according to police.
During a news conference, Chief Mike Krantz
of the Bend Police Department said that the authorities received a 911 call “from a person in a vehicle who reported being shot at multiple times by a person with a long gun.” Soon after, they received dozens of calls that a shooter had entered the building at Silver Rail Elementary School, and a tone alert was sent at 1 p.m. to all law enforcement officers. One minute later, the school was directed to go into lockdown.
A community member who saw the suspect followed him into the school before engaging him in gunfire and fatally shot him, Krantz said. The chief said that officers on the scene found three children, aged five, eight, and 11, and a teacher dead. A seven-year-old and another teacher were critically injured. Krantz did not name the victims, the shooter or the bystander who killed him.
Police identified the suspect as a 16-year-old Bend resident. At the conference on Thursday, police did not name the victims, the shooter, or the bystander who killed him. The families of the victims have all been notified.
“Please know that we are working hard to ensure that we conduct a thorough investigation,” said Krantz. “This is a time that we know this deeply impacts the community. We ask everyone to lean on each other and be there for each other.”
Gov. Tina Kotek of Oregon also addressed the community. “There is going to be time for answering all those questions we all have right now, and searching for more ways to prevent this from happening in the future,” the governor said. “But for now, let’s hold each other close in grief and put as much love into the world as possible.”
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