Teen gunman kills four at US elementary school
Published 15 Oct, 2026 21:16 | Updated 16 Oct, 2026 01:06
A teenage gunman killed three students and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday, police said. The shooter was himself shot dead by a bystander.
The suspect was identified as a 16-year-old Bend resident, the city’s police chief, Mike Krantz, said at a news conference. He did not reveal the suspect’s name or say whether he knew anyone at the school.
The three children killed were aged five, eight and 11. A seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were hospitalized in critical condition.
Krantz said the gunman was shot by a “community member who had seen the suspect enter the school and pursued him into the school and engaged him.”
The school has been placed on lockdown, and the Bend Police Department has urged the public to avoid the area.
According to The Source Weekly, parents received alerts that nearby schools, including Caldera High School and Jewell Elementary School, had also been placed on lockdown following a police alert at around 1:20 p.m. Thursday. The lockdowns were lifted about 40 minutes later.
Video from the scene shows multiple police cars and ambulances near the school.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau’s local office was working with investigators. “We will make every resource they need available,” he wrote on X.
“Today is an awful day for our community,” Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler said. “A school should be a safe place where children can learn and feel secure,” she added, expressing condolences to the victims’ families.
The shooting comes amid continuing concerns over gun violence at US schools. In August 2025, a gunman opened fire on children attending Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, killing two students, aged eight and ten, and injuring 17 other people before taking his own life.
Teen wounds headmaster and teacher after opening fire at French school
Two teaching staff were shot and wounded by a 14-year-old boy armed with a hunting rifle at a school in Aubagne near Marseille Monday morning, French Education Minister Édouard Geffray said. Authorities said the teenager's father had been taken into custody and that there did not seem to be any link to the student protests that have swept across the country in recent weeks.
A 14-year-old boy opened fire with a hunting rifle at a middle school in France on Monday, injuring the headmaster and a teacher before being disarmed by a member of staff, local authorities said.
The shooting took place at Joseph-Lakanal middle school in the southern town of Aubagne, near Marseille, where a third person was grazed by gunfire, police said.
Authorities said there did not appear to be a link with high school protests that have rocked France in recent weeks.
Read more'We're fed up': Paris students rise up in a movement that shows no sign of slowing
"The middle school was not affected by the high school students' protest," police told AFP.
The suspect "came in carrying a bag which was a guitar case. He clearly removed a weapon from this guitar case – a long gun, a hunting rifle," said Marseille's deputy public prosecutor Audrey Jouaneton.
He fired at least four shots, including inside a classroom occupied by teachers and pupils, leaving a mark on a blackboard, she added.
The headmaster, 53, and teacher, 37, were not in critical condition, according to authorities.
"The suspect, for reasons as yet unknown, fired at the headteacher, who was hit by a shower of pellets in the thighs and lower back," said Jacques Witkowski, prefect of the wider Bouches-du-Rhône region.
He then fired at a second teacher, who was hit by buckshot in the thigh before a member of staff disarmed him, he said.
Obviously, it was a shotgun, not a hunting rifle, that he used.
The suspect "is not known for any history of delinquency or radicalisation," Witkowski added.
Read moreFrench students vow to keep up protests as UN voices 'concern' over violence
Sarah, a pupil at the school, told AFP she heard the fire alarm go off during her Spanish lesson and went into the corridor, where she and her classmates "bumped into" the gunman.
"He started shooting and said: 'I've only come for the teachers, not for the pupils,'" she said.
An investigation into attempted murder has been opened.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who visited the scene, said the suspect's father had been taken into custody.
Investigators were "trying to understand how this young person ended up in a position with this gun", Nunez told reporters.
'Prevent the worst'
French President Emmanuel Macron on X praised the teaching staff for their quick reaction.
"I commend the composure and exemplary response of the teaching staff, which helped to prevent the worst from happening," he said.
Nunez and Education Minister Édouard Geffray, arrived at the scene Monday afternoon.
Geffray called for action against such violence.
"This unacceptable act is yet further evidence of the rise of unchecked violence in our society, against which we must all take a stand," Geffray said on X.
There has been a spate of violent incidents at French schools in recent months, prompting bag checks on entry in some establishments.
Read moreArt teacher critically injured by student in southern France school stabbing
In February, a 14-year-old stabbed an art teacher in southern France at least three times, leaving the 60-year-old in critical condition.
A 14-year-old student in June last year fatally stabbed a teaching assistant in eastern France.
In another, a student carried out a stabbing spree in several classrooms in April last year, wounding a girl and three other pupils.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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