A shooting at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, left four dead, including three children. Police announced that the suspect in the incident is also deceased.
Details of the Incident
According to news sources, on Thursday, Bend police reported that four people had been killed in the incident. Sheila Millar, a spokesperson for the Bend Police Department, said at a press conference: "We have not yet confirmed who killed the suspect. It may have been a bystander. Right now, we have several victims."
Two of the victims were transported to the hospital, but no details about their condition have been provided. Bend is a city with a population of about 100,000 located in central Oregon, approximately 280 kilometers (about 175 miles) southeast of Portland.
Police Actions and Reactions
Following the incident, police officials arrived at the scene at 1 PM. Millar explained: "Minutes later, radio reports indicated that the suspect had fallen to the ground." After the incident, police moved students to a separate location so they could meet with their families. Silver Rail School, which educates students from kindergarten through fifth grade, has about 450 students and 40 staff members.
The United States faces frequent gun violence due to easy access to firearms, with thousands losing their lives in such incidents each year. The country has the highest rate of gun-related deaths among high-income countries. The deadliest school shooting in U.S. history occurred on April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech, where a South Korean student named Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and injured 17 others.
To date, there have been over 365 mass shootings in the United States this year, defined by the Gun Violence Archive as an incident in which four or more people are shot, not including the suspect.
