Three children and a teacher were killed and two others wounded by a 16-year-old gunman in a shooting at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday before a community member pursued and killed him, authorities said.
“The deceased at the scene include three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and one teacher,” Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters. Another child and a teacher were injured and taken to a hospital.
What happened?
Krantz said that at 12:59 p.m., police received a 911 call from a person in a vehicle who reported being shot at multiple times by someone “with a long gun.”
Multiple calls followed, reporting that a shooter had entered Silver Rail Elementary School, which is about 120 mi. southeast of Portland. The school enrolls more than 400 students from kindergarten to 5th grade.
Krantz said police directed the school to go into lockdown at 1:01 p.m. and first responding officers arrived a minute later. Upon entering the school building, Krantz said, officers confirmed that the suspect was dead and found the four other people who died from their injuries, and their families have been notified.
Krantz did not speak on the weapon used in the shooting. But an unidentified law enforcement official briefed on the shooting told the Associated Press that it was a pump-action shotgun purchased by the suspect’s mother.
Oregon bishops commiserates with Victims Family, offer prayers
Oregon’s Catholic bishops expressed sympathy and encouraged the community to support those affected by a shooting at a Bend, Oregon, elementary school that left five dead and two wounded.
“We expect that our schools are safe places for our children and all who pass through their doors. When a tragedy like this occurs, it shakes us to our core,” wrote Bishop Thomas J. Hennen of the Diocese of Baker, whose diocesan boundaries include the city of Bend, in an Oct. 15 letter expressing his “heartfelt prayers for those whose lives were taken in the shooting.”
“No family should ever have to experience such fear and heartbreak. Please know that you are not alone,” said Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of the Archdiocese of Portland in an Oct. 15 statement. “I hold you close in prayer, and the Church stands with you in this time of sorrow.”
How are politicians reacting?
Oregon’s Republican candidate for governor, state senator Christine Drazan, posted on social media that her heart was with the affected families, students, and teaching staff. “We have to commit to protecting our kids,” she added. “We have to put a complete stop to shootings at our schools. This has to end.”
Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat who represents the district that includes Bend, said in a statement: “Our babies are supposed to do arts and crafts at school, not use their desks as cover from gunfire. They’re supposed to make friends, not mourn them.”
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D, Ore.) lamented in a statement that the victims in Silver Rail Elementary School and their loved ones faced the “awful consequences” of another school shooting in the country. He added that the “best way to honor” them is to “at long last pass common-sense gun laws that reduce the risks of more children, parents, teachers and staff forced to live in fear of similar nightmares for their schools.”
The shooting is going to impact the children’s nervous system- According to a Psychologist
Dr. Rebecca Bailey, speaking on the children affected by the tragedy facing a long road to regaining a sense of safety said, “There’s no way of avoiding that it’s going to impact their nervous system”.
Adding that parents and trauma professionals have to help them restore a sense of safety.
School and activities were canceled Friday following the shooting.
