Teacher reportedly subdued suspect in U.S. school shooting, police say

Panic erupted at an Oregon elementary school when a 16-year-old opened fire, killing a teacher and three children — until a fellow educator intervened and a community member arrived with a gun, authorities said.

Officials said the actions taken Thursday by the two adults stopped the attack and likely spared additional victims, as investigators worked through the aftermath of the latest US school shooting.

Police on Friday disclosed fresh details from Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, where three students — aged five, eight and 11 — were killed along with a 25-year-old teacher.

A 7-year-old was wounded and was listed in a serious but stable condition, and another teacher suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz speaks during a press conference

Authorities said an unidentified teacher confronted the gunman inside the school, hurling her phone at him before tackling him and grappling with him.

Moments later, a 36-year-old member of the community rushed into the building and shot the suspect, killing him just before officers arrived, police said.

That teacher, who was not hurt, “almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed,” Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters, at times choking back emotion.

“The teacher who was willing to stand and fight for her children, that’s true ‌heroism,” he said, declining to name her.

Police said that shortly before shots were fired, the suspect was seen tossing his weapon over a fence surrounding the school and then climbing over to retrieve it and enter school grounds.

Victims mourned

In Bend — a city of about 100,000 located roughly 280km southeast of Portland — residents gathered near the school yesterday morning to grieve, laying flowers and candles along yellow crime scene tape sealing off the area.

A woman places flowers at a vigil outside of Silver Rail Elementary School

Michael Zappa, 71, reflected on the community member who shot the suspect, saying, “He saved a lot of lives yesterday, and our prayers should go out for him because ⁠he has a lot on his mind today.”

US school shootings have become more frequent in recent years.

Since the start of this year, 118 people have been wounded or killed in 149 incidents involving a gun fired or brandished in a school, or gunshots striking school property, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a nonprofit online tracker.

A separate online database, the Gun Violence Archive, has recorded 371 mass shootings since January 2026, defining mass shootings as four or more people being struck by gunfire, not including the shooter.

Three of those, including the Bend incident, occurred in public schools, the archive said.