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Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said officers arrived at Silver Rail Elementary School within minutes of receiving the first 911 call and found five people dead inside the building. The dead included three children aged five, eight and 11 as well as one teacher, according to the chief’s account at a news conference. A community member who saw the suspect enter the school pursued him and engaged the teenager in a gunfight that left the shooter dead by the time officers reached the scene. Two other victims, a seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher, were transported to a local hospital with critical injuries.[[1]](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/10/15/bend-oregon-elementary-school-shooting/92270668007/)
The incident began at 12:59 p.m. when dispatchers received a report of shots fired into a vehicle outside the school, CNN reported. Multiple additional calls followed within moments describing an armed person who had forced entry by shooting through locked doors with a long gun. Officers directed the school into lockdown at 1:01 p.m. and reached the campus one minute later, according to the Bend Police Department. The building was cleared room by room to ensure no further threats remained while emergency aid was rendered to victims.[[2]](https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/15/us/oregon-school-active-shooter)
The suspect was identified as a 16-year-old Bend resident though authorities have withheld his name while the investigation continues. A USA TODAY report citing the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database described the event as the 28th mass killing in the United States this year, 21 of them shootings. Silver Rail Elementary School serves roughly 450 students in kindergarten through fifth grade and employed about 40 staff members at the time of the attack.[[1]](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/10/15/bend-oregon-elementary-school-shooting/92270668007/)
Families were directed to a nearby church for student reunification while the Bend-La Pine Schools district canceled classes for Friday. Superintendent Steven Cook said in a statement, “We are stunned and heartbroken by this senseless tragedy. No words can adequately express the grief our community is experiencing.” Governor Tina Kotek joined the news conference and praised the community member who she said heroically intervened to stop further loss of life along with first responders and school staff.[[3]](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm89zp48k4kzo)
FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that agents were assisting local law enforcement at the scene and that the bureau would supply every needed resource for the investigation. Police have not determined whether the teenager had any connection to the school or its students. The weapon recovered was a pump-action shotgun that had been purchased by the suspect’s mother, a law enforcement official briefed on the matter told the Associated Press.[[4]](https://apnews.com/article/oregon-school-shooting-silver-rail-elementary-b0642ec5cd3da0db24227a2798e2c6ce)
CNN’s tracking of school shootings showed at least 36 such incidents across the United States in 2026 up to this point with 23 people killed and 32 injured. Researcher David Riedman’s K-12 School Shooting Database has recorded more than 200 incidents since the start of 2020 as part of its ongoing tally since 1966. The FBI remained on site Thursday evening as the inquiry into the shooter’s movements and motives continued.
