Oregon Elementary School Shooting Kills 3 Children and a Teacher; 16-Year-Old Gunman Shot Dead by Bystander

Three young children and a teacher were killed on Thursday afternoon when a 16-year-old boy opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, police said. The gunman was shot dead by an armed bystander before officers reached the scene.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the three children who died were aged five, eight and 11. NBC News reported that the teacher who was killed was 25. A seven-year-old student and a 54-year-old teacher were also wounded, and PBS reported that a fourth student and a second teacher were critically injured.

According to police, the teenager, a local boy, forced his way into the building by shooting at its locked doors. A community member who followed him inside confronted him and shot him dead. Officers arrived about three minutes after the first calls, the police chief said. Police described the weapon as a long gun, and law enforcement sources told CBS News it was a shotgun.

PBS reported that the man who stopped the gunman has two daughters at the school. Police did not immediately release further details about the teenager, including whether he had any connection to the school, or the names of the victims.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and the school district's top administrator, Steven Cook, were among the officials who spoke after the attack, which was one of the deadliest school shootings in the United States this year.

This report was expanded and corrected on 1 November 2026. Our first version, based on early law enforcement sources quoted by Fox News, gave a different toll for the dead and injured; the figures above follow the police account reported by the BBC, NBC News and PBS.