A shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday killed three children and a teacher, according to the supplied report. The 16-year-old suspect was also killed, after an armed community member intervened, police said. Another child, age 7, and a teacher, age 54, were reported critically injured.
The attack prompted Democratic lawmakers to renew calls for stricter gun laws, though Oregon’s two Democratic senators and Gov. Tina Kotek did not specifically call for new regulations in their statements. The suspect reportedly used a shotgun his mother had purchased, according to The Associated Press, as cited in the report. Authorities had not publicly established how he obtained it.
Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said in a statement that passing gun laws to reduce the risk of school shootings would be a way to honor the victims. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, also a Democrat from Oregon, said school gun violence must end and that children should be safe at school.
Rep. Janelle Bynum, whose district includes Bend, attended a nighttime vigil for the victims, identified in the report as children ages 5, 8 and 11, and their teacher. Speaking to local NBC station KTVZ 21, Bynum questioned why lawmakers had not done more to prevent children from being killed and called for safe schools and limits on access to firearms for people who should not have them.
Outside Oregon, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico argued that federal gun reforms adopted after the Uvalde school shooting—including enhanced background checks for buyers younger than 21—were insufficient. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who supports federal red-flag laws and universal background checks, also called for Congress to take further action. Warren cited more than 50 school shootings during the year, according to her social-media statement as quoted in the report.
The report said Sen. Jeff Merkley and Gov. Kotek condemned gun violence in schools but stopped short of urging additional gun regulations. The different responses reflect a range of positions among Democrats in the immediate aftermath of the attack; the supplied account does not describe any specific legislation proposed in response to this shooting.
Police were continuing to investigate the suspect’s connection to the school and the source of the weapon. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said authorities did not know whether the teenager knew anyone at the school or had attended it previously.
The first emergency call came at 12:59 p.m., Krantz said. A person in a vehicle reported being shot at several times by someone carrying a long gun. Dispatchers subsequently received dozens of calls reporting that a shooter had entered the school. Officers arrived within three minutes of the first call. An officer then reported that a community member had shot the suspect, according to the chief’s account.
Silver Rail Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade and had 467 students during the academic year, the report said. After the attack, students were taken by bus to a nearby church used as a family reunification site. Parents met their children there and escorted them to their vehicles.
The Bend-La Pine school district canceled classes, sports and extracurricular activities Friday at all 32 district schools. The supplied report did not provide further details about the investigation or announce a timetable for reopening Silver Rail Elementary.
