Teenager kills teacher, 3 children at US elementary school

A teenager has killed a teacher and three children at an elementary school in Oregon, the United States.

Police confirmed the incident on Thursday, October 15, 2026, adding that the 16-year-old assailant was later killed by an armed bystander who pursued him into the building.

Police officers were said to have rushed to Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, a city of about 100,000 in the nation’s northwest, after reports of a shooter on campus on Thursday afternoon.

Bend police chief Mike Krantz disclosed that the three children who died on the scene were aged five, eight, and 11.

Another child and a teacher were being treated for critical injuries after the shooting.

Krantz told journalists that the department first learned of an active shooter after a call from a person who reported being shot at multiple times by a person carrying a long gun.

The police chief added that dozens of emergency calls later reported that a shooter had entered the school and all law enforcement in the area were called to the scene.

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Krantz said: “Moments later, an officer reported that the suspect had been shot by a community member who had seen the suspect enter the school and pursued him into the school and engaged him.

“Our officers entered the building and confirmed the suspect was dead.”

People gathered in the city’s Drake Park on Thursday evening for a candelight vigil remembering the victims.

The United States, where firearms are readily available, has a long and painful history of gun violence, with thousands of people killed every year. It has the highest rate of gun-related deaths among all developed nations.