A 16-year-old armed with a rifle opened fire at a primary school in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday, killing four people — including three children — before being shot dead by a local resident who witnessed him entering the building, authorities said.
Among those killed at the scene were three children aged five, eight and eleven, along with a teacher, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters. A seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were also wounded in the attack and were transported to hospital with critical injuries.
The suspect, whose identity has not been released, was a 16-year-old resident of the city of just over 100,000 people, according to preliminary findings of the investigation.
Shooting Reported Shortly After 1 p.m. Local Time
Police received reports of the shooting at approximately 1 p.m. local time, with officers arriving on the scene two minutes later, authorities said. By the time the first officers arrived, the gunman was already dead.
According to Chief Krantz, the shooter was killed by an armed passerby who saw him enter the school and pursued him inside. The intervention brought the attack to an end before law enforcement could engage the suspect.
Community in Shock
The tragedy has devastated Silver Rail Elementary, which enrolls more than 400 children. “I have no words to describe what our community is feeling right now,” school district superintendent Steven Cook said at a press conference. “We are heartbroken. We are horrified.”
The school was evacuated gradually throughout the afternoon, causing anxiety among numerous parents waiting for buses to bring children out of the building. “Of course I’m worried,” Drew Sharp, a father whose son is in fifth grade, told CBS. “But I trust that he’s fine and that he’ll get through this.”
A Recurring National Tragedy
Gun violence is part of daily life in the United States, a country with more firearms in circulation than inhabitants. School shootings regularly shock the nation. In 2022, a massacre at a primary school in Uvalde, Texas, sparked outrage with 21 deaths, including 19 children.
Including universities, the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history remains the 2007 Virginia Tech attack, when a student killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.
Despite the recurrence of such tragedies, the political debate over guns remains paralyzed. Neither successive administrations nor Congress have managed to curb the shootings, as many Americans remain deeply attached to the constitutional right to bear arms. According to the NGO Gun Violence Archive, nearly 15,000 people were killed by firearms in 2025, excluding suicides.
‘School Shootings Are Not Inevitable’
In the aftermath of school massacres, political leaders often limit themselves to issuing emotional statements, assuring grieving parents of their “thoughts and prayers” — a pattern that repeated itself on Thursday.
“Our hearts will remain broken in the days and weeks to come, and my daily prayers will accompany this community, the children, the parents and the teachers,” Democratic Oregon Governor Tina Kotek said before the press.
“A school should be a safe place where children can learn and feel secure. What happened today should never happen,” added Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler.
Associations calling for stronger gun control, meanwhile, reminded the public that these repeated tragedies are far from inevitable and urged a political awakening. “Until we know more, let’s remember what we already know: school shootings are not inevitable; they are not normal; and they are not acceptable,” the Brady organization said on X.
