Authorities believe at least five people are dead following a shooting at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon.
A 16-year-old shooter opened fire at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, killing three children and a teacher and wounding two other people before he was killed by a community member who pursued him into the school, authorities said.
The three children were aged 5, 8 and 11. Another child and teacher were injured and taken to the hospital, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said.
Bend police spokesperson Sheila Miller earlier confirmed the suspect is dead. It wasn’t clear if the suspect was included among the initial five people believed to be killed.
Authorities received a call about a shot fired into a car outside Silver Rail Elementary at 12.59pm and arrived on scene within minutes. Further 911 calls came from inside the school, she said.
The attacker was shot and went down inside the school soon after police arrived, Miller said.
It was not immediately clear if it was by police, a bystander or self-inflicted.
Silver Rail Elementary was under lockdown, the Bend-La Pine school district wrote on Facebook.
“We’re in the process at this time of going room by room and evacuating each of the people who are in that school. ... This is the kind of thing we never want to see happen in Bend. It’s devastating,” Miller said, pausing to control her emotions.
The school in Bend, Oregon, which is more than 160 kilometres southeast of Oregon’s capital Portland, had 459 enrolled students as of last year, according to the Oregon Department of Education. The school serves students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
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