Police seek answers after children fatally shot at Oregon school

Police in Bend, Oregon, were investigating on Friday why a 16-year-old boy shot dead three children and a teacher at the Silver Rail Elementary School, and how he got hold of the long gun used in his attack.

The latest deadly school shooting in the United States unfolded on Thursday afternoon when the teenager, who has not been publicly identified, shot through a locked door at the school in central Oregon, according to the Bend Police Department.

The teenager killed three children aged 5, 8 and 11 and one teacher before he himself was shot dead by an armed bystander who had pursued him into the school, Police Chief Mike Krantz said at a Thursday evening press conference.

Such shootings have become common in the US, with each one reviving debate over gun laws in a country where a right to “keep and bear Arms” is protected under the Constitution’s Second Amendment.

BYSTANDER INTERVENED The bystander has not been publicly identified police, though recordings of 911 emergency calls released by authorities include a dispatcher saying he was possibly a father of a child at the school.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek said at the press conference that the bystander “heroically intervened to stop further loss of life.” Beyond those killed, a 7-year-old student and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to hospital with critical injuries.

It was not clear if the shooter had any prior connection to the school, which has about 450 students from kindergarten through the fifth grade, roughly ages 5 to 11, and 40 staff members.

CBS News, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, reported that the attacker used a shotgun that his mother had purchased.