Three children and one adult were killed in a shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday. At least two other people were taken to hospital.
Police received a 911 call at 12:59 pm reporting that an unknown man had fired a shot into a car outside the school. Within minutes, further calls reported that a person had entered the building and begun shooting.
The attacker was shot and killed inside the school. It was not immediately clear who fired the fatal shot. Bend Police Department spokesperson Sheila Miller said it “may have been a bystander.”
Authorities initially declined to confirm the number of casualties. “We don’t have a number at this point. We know children are among the victims,” Miller said during a briefing. The condition of those hospitalised was not immediately known.
Police arrived quickly and began evacuating the school room by room. The campus was placed under lockdown, and the Bend-La Pine school district set up a reunification point for families to collect their children.
“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.
Superintendent Steven Cook said the district was “stunned and heartbroken by this senseless tragedy” and extended deepest sympathy to the families and everyone affected.
Silver Rail Elementary School serves children from kindergarten through fifth grade and had 459 students enrolled as of the previous year.