Three children aged 5, 8 and 11 and a teacher were killed in a shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon. The 16-year-old suspect was shot dead by a community member.
Three children and a teacher were killed Thursday when a 16-year-old gunman opened fire inside Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, in one of the deadliest school shootings in the state's recent history. A community member intervened and fatally shot the suspect, an action authorities credit with preventing further loss of life.
What happened
Police received reports of an active shooter at the school during the afternoon of Oct. 15, 2026. According to the Bend Police Department, the suspect — a 16-year-old Bend resident armed with a long gun — gained entry by shooting through locked doors.
The children killed were aged 5, 8 and 11. A teacher was also killed. Two other people — a 7-year-old and another teacher — were critically injured, authorities said.
The suspect was killed shortly after officers got the first reports of the shooting. Police said the identity of the person who shot the teen was not immediately confirmed publicly, but officials later described a good Samaritan who intervened. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek praised the community member's "quick thinking and courage," adding that the person acted "heroically to stop further loss of life."
Officials respond
At an evening vigil at Drake Park, Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler addressed a community shaken by the violence.
"There are simply no words for the loss that we have suffered today," Kebler said. "I am proud of our community for coming together to support one another, because that is what we are going to need right now."
Kotek called it "a horrible day" and thanked school staff, parents and first responders who rushed to the scene.
Families and students
Students were evacuated to a reunification center where families gathered, with children released grade by grade from the youngest to the oldest. An aunt of a fifth grader described her nephew as "very scared" but unharmed after he called his mother.
"This affects all of us," she said. "We all pull together as an even larger community, not just Bend. All of central Oregon is affected by this."
Context
Bend is a city of roughly 100,000 people about 3½ hours southeast of Portland. The shooting drew immediate reactions from elected officials across Oregon and renewed attention to school safety and gun access in the United States.
Authorities have not released the names of the victims or the suspect, and the investigation is ongoing. Details of how the teenager obtained the firearm and a motive have not been made public. Gloobeam will update this report as confirmed information emerges.