Officials in Bend, Oregon, say three children were killed along with one adult at Silver Rail Elementary School on Thursday afternoon. Police say the assailant was killed, and it's not clear whether that death is being counted among the four who were slain.
Police began their response to the elementary school after a 911 call about a person shooting into a car. Moments later, more calls started coming in, with callers stating that the individual had gone into the school and started shooting.
Moments after officers arrived, police said they learned the suspected shooter had been shot and killed inside the school. Officials said it is still unclear if the shooter was shot by someone at the school or by a police officer.
Police said at least two people were taken to a hospital and children were among those hurt. Police have not said if the children hurt are the same people taken to the hospital, and no update on their conditions has been released.
The Oregonian reports that in 2022, Silver Rail Elementary installed door-locking hardware for each of its classrooms, which allowed classrooms to be secured from a central location. Police haven't said at this point what security measures were in place at the entrance to the elementary school and how the shooter was able to gain access.
It's also not clear whether the school had a dedicated resource officer or if an SRO was on campus at the time of the shooting, but the Bend-La Pine school district does not have armed school staff. In fact, the district instituted a policy in 2021 that strictly prohibits guns on campus, even if they're carried by a someone with a valid carry permit.
We'll learn more details in the hours and days ahead, but if police are correct about the suspect being shot and killed, as opposed to taking their own life, then it appears the assailant was met with an armed response almost immediately after entering the school. According to officials, the first call about someone shooting into a car came in at 12:59 PM, and officers were on scene by 1:02 PM, at which point the suspect was already shot.
The combination of physical barriers like locked classroom doors and the presence of an armed individual who was able to quickly respond to the shooter likely saved countless lives. I know that's of little comfort to the families of those children who were senselessly murdered, but it's still important to recognize that this tragedy could have been even worse.
There are plenty of unanswered questions about what happened at Silver Rail Elementary, including who the suspect was and what their motive might have been, who shot the killer, and how the attack unfolded inside the school.
What we do know is that the response was extraordinarily quick, and the violence ended before responding officers could even reach the suspect.
I know that gun control activists will be quick to use this monstrous shooting to demand more restrictions on our Second Amendment rights, and there'll be plenty of time to respond to their attempts to exploit this tragedy. For now, my thoughts and prayers are with the families whose lives have been shattered, the children and adults who survived this horrific attack, and an entire community struggling to make sense of the senseless.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member