Bend, Oregon school shooting at hands of 16-year-old leaves 5 dead, including 3 kids, teacher & teen gunman after dad bystander kills attacker. Incident happened at Silver Rail Elementary School. No known motive.
A teenage shooter killed at least four people, including three children and a teacher when he opened fire at an elementary school, in Bend, Oregon, Thursday afternoon according to reports.
The suspect, who was not identified, was shot and killed, possibly by a bystander, the Bend Police Department said in a news release. Officials cautioned that the information was preliminary and could change as the investigation developed.
The release stated gunfire breaking out at 1 p.m, at Silver Rail Elementary School in the city of Bend. The shooter was preliminary described as being a 16-year-old boy. The shooting left three children, ages five, eight and 11, and one teacher dead. The teacher’s identity, gender or age was not disclosed. A seven-year-old and a second teacher, a 54-year-old, were also left with critical injuries and transported to a local hospital.
If confirmed, his actions may have saved lives. Authorities have not yet verified these details. https://t.co/JX6AE6B2tY
— 🅝🅔🅡🅓🅨 (@Nerdy_Addict) October 15, 2026
Parent bystander shoots & kills teen gunman
Bend La-Pine Schools canceled classes, activities and athletic events for Friday at all the elementary, middle and high schools in the district in the wake of the shooting, according to a statement.
The tragedy began with Deschutes County dispatchers receiving a call at around 12.59pm from a driver who reported being shot at multiple times by an individual with a long gun, and at 1pm, the police department sent out an alert to respond to a critical scene.
Meanwhile, police continued to receive multiple 911 calls from inside the school.
As officers raced to the school, the suspect forced his way into a school building by shooting at locked doors – at which point dispatchers started receiving ‘dozens’ of 911 calls, Police Chief Mike Krantz said at a news conference Thursday night.
Cops then arrived at the scene by 1.02pm and just moments later, the lone shooter was killed at the hands of a good Samaritan who had followed the attacker into the building where the teen gunman opened fire.
Cops later described the bystander witness as a father at the school carrying a concealed weapon.
‘This is the kind of thing we never want to see happen in Bend,’ police spokeswoman Sheila Miller said during a press briefing.
‘And our hearts go out to this community, and we ask our community to really work together and come together at this time.’
Bend Oregon shooting. https://t.co/lKmVRcyU0y
— TruthSocialist 🇺🇸 (@TruthSocialist1) October 15, 2026
Series of quick succession gunshots
Leah Schwartz, who lives in Bend’s Old Farm District neighborhood, where the school is also located, recalled hearing gunfire while walking with her husband and dog that afternoon. Schwartz said they were less than a mile from the school when, at approximately 12:55 p.m. local time, they heard three gunshots in quick succession, followed by three additional shots.
The sounds were spaced apart, leaving the couple initially unsure whether they were hearing gunfire or construction work. ‘They were spaced out which made us question whether it was gunshots or someone doing construction,’ Schwartz told local media.
Police officers had gone room by room to evacuate the elementary school – which has a student body of between 400 to 450 pupils and a staff of more than 40, Miller said.
JUST IN: An armed bystander carrying a concealed weapon took down a 16-year-old gunman who killed three children and one adult during an elementary school shooting in Bend, Oregon.
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A source told Fox News the bystander’s intervention prevented additional deaths, stopping an already deadly attack from claiming more lives.— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 16, 2026
No known motive
Officers have since asked the public to avoid the area as the school remains under lockdown, but a large crowd of concerned parents were seen gathering outside the school after hearing the reports.
Those worried parents have since rushed to the nearby Journey Church, to be reunited with their loved ones.
A motive for the schoool shooting remains unclear, and authorities would not confirm on Thursday night whether the suspect knew anybody at the school or if he had attended it when he was younger.
The school in Bend, Oregon, which is more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of 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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