Four dead including three children in Oregon school shooting

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A shooter is dead after opening fire at a school in Bend, Oregon. Police have not released the suspect’s name (Reuters) Reuters

A gunman opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on October 15, killing four people — three children and one adult — before being shot dead at the scene, possibly by an armed bystander rather than police. Law enforcement arrived within two minutes of the first reports of an active shooter around 1 p.m., but the gunman was already dead by the time they entered, according to officials. A police department spokeswoman said a bystander may have shot the suspect, though she cautioned that detail still needed to be confirmed. At least two people were taken to hospital. Police have not released the suspect's name or detailed a motive. The shooting remains under investigation, and FBI Portland is on the scene assisting local partners, Director Kash Patel said in a statement. Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said the district was 'stunned and heartbroken by this senseless tragedy.'

The detail that may prove most consequential is who ended the shooting. If confirmed, the pattern repeats one that has appeared in several recent American mass shootings: the first responder is not a responder at all but someone who happened to be on site — a teacher, an armed citizen, in one Texas case a border agent passing through. Police response times have shortened since the era of waiting on perimeters, and two minutes is fast by any historical measure. But two minutes is still longer than it takes to fire dozens of rounds in a classroom. The people inside the building are the only ones present during the interval that determines the death toll, and school security plans, however detailed on paper, cannot change that arithmetic.

The identity of the gunman, his weapon, and how he entered the school remain unconfirmed. What is confirmed is the count: four dead, children among them, at an elementary school in a small Oregon city, ended not by the officers who arrived within two minutes but by whoever was there first.