An Oregon teenager accused of storming an elementary school and killing three students and a teacher first used his mother’s shotgun to fire on a pickup truck, according to a report.
The 16-year-old Bend resident was walking toward Silver Rail Elementary shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday when a man in a red Toyota Tacoma noticed him in the school parking lot, The Bend Source reported.
The teen was carrying a long gun. A law enforcement official who spoke anonymously with The Associated Press later identified it as a pump-action shotgun purchased by the boy’s mother.
After the pickup’s driver confronted him, the teenager allegedly opened fire, smashing the truck’s rear window and leaving at least six sizable bullet holes in the vehicle.
He then reportedly tossed the shotgun over a fence and climbed onto school property. The driver called emergency dispatchers, saying he had been “shot at multiple times by a person with a long gun.”
The teenager later retrieved the weapon and fired several rounds at the school’s locks, forcing his way inside the building, which serves students from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Police reached the scene within three minutes of the first 911 call. By then, three children—ages 5, 8 and 11—and a teacher had been fatally shot. Another 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were hospitalized in critical condition.
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said at a Thursday news conference that the teen was “shot by a community member who had seen [him] enter the school, pursued him into the school, and engaged him.”
Investigators have not said whether the suspect had previously attended Silver Rail, knew any of the victims or whether the bystander who confronted him had a concealed-weapons permit.
A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said the shotgun had been purchased by the teenager’s mother.
Oregon law requires buyers to be at least 18 to purchase rifles or shotguns and 21 to buy handguns. People under 18 may possess non-handgun firearms with parental permission, though it remains unclear whether the teen had authorization to use his mother’s gun.
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The Bend-La Pine school district had already prohibited firearms on district property, including for people with concealed-carry licenses, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported in 2022.
State law separately permits lawfully owned firearms on school grounds when they are unloaded and secured inside a locked vehicle, the outlet reported.
Chief Krantz cautioned that the investigation would be “long,” as officials and residents grappled with the tragedy.
Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat from Oregon, expressed her anguish, saying, “our kids are getting shredded.”
“The most heartbreaking thing, as the details have surfaced, is that we have a child involved in the killing of other children,” Bynum told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday.
“Multiple families are being impacted. This continues to happen,” she added.
Former Bend Mayor Jeff Eager said the violence was difficult for residents to comprehend.
“You can’t imagine that it happens here,” Eager told CNN.
“Bend is a place that people move to from bigger cities,” he said. “They move here because it’s relatively safe here, they move here because we have schools you can walk your kids to.”
Tina Kotek, the Oregon governor, thanked the community member who “”heroically intervened to stop further loss of life” but said no one “should have to live through this kind of day.”
“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,” she said.
With Post wires
