An Oregon teenager who allegedly stormed into an elementary school and killed three students and a teacher first used his mother’s shotgun to fire at a pickup truck, according to a report.
The unidentified 16-year-old Bend resident was walking toward Silver Rail Elementary School shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday when a man driving a red Toyota Tacoma spotted him in the school parking lot, the Bend Source reported.
The teenager was carrying a long gun. A law enforcement source who spoke anonymously to the Associated Press later identified it as a pump-action shotgun purchased by the boy’s mother.
After the pickup driver confronted him, the teen allegedly opened fire, shattering the truck’s rear window and leaving at least six large bullet holes in the vehicle.
He then reportedly tossed the weapon 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 shooter allegedly retrieved the gun and fired several rounds at the school’s locks, forcing his way inside the building, which serves students from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Police arrived 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 teenager 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 teenager previously attended Silver Rail Elementary, knew any of the victims or whether the armed bystander who stopped him had a concealed-weapons permit.
A law enforcement source briefed on the investigation said the shotgun had been purchased by the teenager’s mother.
Oregon law requires people to be at least 18 to purchase rifles and shotguns and 21 to buy handguns. Individuals under 18 may possess non-handgun firearms with parental consent, although it remains unclear whether the teenager had permission to use his mother’s weapon.
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The Bend-La Pine school district had previously prohibited everyone, including people with concealed-handgun licenses, from carrying firearms on district property, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported in 2022.
A separate provision of Oregon law permits lawfully owned firearms on school grounds when they are unloaded and secured in a locked vehicle, according to the outlet.
Chief Krantz cautioned that the investigation would be “long,” as officials and residents grappled with the devastating shooting.
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 the community 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