Teen shooter kills 3 children, 1 teacher at Oregon elementary school before armed bystander stops attack 

A 16-year-old shooter reportedly opened fire Thursday at an elementary school in central Oregon, killing three children and a teacher. An armed bystander pursued the gunman into the school and killed him.

The shooter reportedly forced his way into Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, by shooting his way through locked doors. The ages of the deceased children are 5, 8 and 11. A 7-year-old student and 54-year-old teacher were taken to a hospital with critical injuries. The victims have not been publicly identified.

Emergency responders received an initial call at 12:59 p.m. PDT from a person in a vehicle who reported being shot at multiple times by someone with a long gun.

Dozens of calls followed in the next few minutes reporting the shooter had entered the school, and law enforcement immediately directed the campus to go into lockdown. Silver rail has about 450 students and 40 staff members.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek offered her condolences to the families during a press briefing.

“No parent should have to have this kind of day, and no community should have to live through this kind of day,” Kotek said. “And as we learn more about the children and the adults who have been killed or injured, and their families and their loved ones, we are going to do a lot of crying, and we are going to cry together, and we’re probably going to cry privately.”

A vigil was held in a nearby park Thursday night where hundreds gathered to mourn the lives lost.

“There are simply no words for the loss we’ve suffered today,” Bend mayor Melanie Kebler said.

At the vigil, Kotek thanked the bystander that intervened.

“To the community member who heroically intervened to stop further loss of life: Your actions carry a heavy emotional burden, and I just want you to know that my thoughts are with you, as well,” she said.

Pro-Second Amendment groups have long emphasized the defensive use of guns to stop crime, with a comprehensive 2021 study finding that guns are used about 1.6 million times annually in the U.S. in self-defense – far exceeding the approximately 45,000 annual gun deaths in the U.S.

Bend is a city of about 100,000 people located 175 miles southeast of Portland.

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/KTVB)