A 16-year-old boy has shot dead three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, in the United States, before being killed by an armed bystander, police said.
The shooting occurred on Thursday afternoon, prompting emergency calls and a rapid response from law enforcement in the northwestern US city.
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the children killed at the scene were aged five, eight and 11. A seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher sustained critical injuries and were taken to a local hospital.
Krantz said police first received a report from a person who claimed to have been shot at several times by someone carrying a long gun. Further emergency calls then reported that a gunman had entered the school.
Officers arrived at about 1:02 p.m. local time, within minutes of the reports.
“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.
“Our officers entered the building and confirmed the suspect was dead.”
The police chief said the investigation was still in its early stages but indicated that the teenager appeared to have forced his way into the school by shooting at locked doors. The suspect was a resident of Bend.
Students evacuated as families reunite
Between 400 and 450 pupils attend Silver Rail Elementary School, which has more than 40 staff members, according to police.
Following a lockdown, the Bend-La Pine School District said law enforcement officers were escorting pupils by bus to a separate location where they could reunite with their families.
The district’s superintendent, Steve Cook, described the incident as “an unthinkable tragedy” during an emotional address to reporters.
“We are heartbroken. We are horrified. This is the kind of thing you hear about in other places, and pray that it never happens here,” Cook said.
Parents waited anxiously at a designated reunification point near a church as children arrived in buses.
Drew Sharp, whose child attends fifth grade at the school, told CBS News he had faith that his child was safe, although the wait was difficult.
The school district cancelled classes across its schools on Friday, along with scheduled activities and sporting events.
Silver Rail Elementary serves pupils from kindergarten through fifth grade and is about 270 kilometres southeast of Portland.
Renewed calls for gun control
The shooting has renewed calls for stronger gun control measures in the United States, where firearms-related violence remains a longstanding concern.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, the country has recorded more than 360 mass shootings so far in 2026.
The organisation defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot.
Gun safety organisation GIFFORDS expressed support for the victims and their families in a statement posted on X.
“We cannot keep accepting this as a fact of life,” the organisation said.
Oregon congresswoman Janelle Bynum also condemned the attack, saying children continued to suffer from gun violence.
“This continues to happen,” Bynum later told CNN, adding that it seemed as though adults did not care.
The deadliest school shooting in US history occurred at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, when Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.
Thursday’s attack has added to renewed public demands for action on gun violence, an issue that has remained deeply divisive in American politics.
