Oregon educator who threw her phone at school shooter speaks out

The educator who confronted a 16-year-old gunman at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, spoke publicly for the first time on Friday, two weeks after an attack that killed three boys and a teacher. "It all happened so fast, and I wish with everything in me that we had more time," Cassidy Schutz wrote in a statement released through Bend-La Pine Schools, which named her that day as the certified learning specialist who engaged the shooter.

The October 15 attack unfolded in a special-needs classroom. Three boys — ages 5, 8 and 11 — and a teacher were killed, and authorities have publicly identified two of the dead: Rhoam Summer, 5, and Megan Lambert, 25. Another child and a teacher were wounded.

According to the account police have given, Schutz threw her phone at the gunman and wrestled him over the shotgun. The fatal shot came from an armed community member who was passing the school, saw the teenager and followed him inside. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Schutz's decision to engage the gunman "almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed."

Schutz has been hailed as a hero, but her statement does not recount the struggle. "This is not a story. This is a horrific and heartbreaking tragedy, and it is our real lives," she wrote. "My thoughts are with those who were lost, their families, those who were hurt, and those who were there that day. My heart is with you." She asked for privacy.

The shooting was stopped by a learning specialist with a phone and a passerby who walked in after the gunman; no other intervention appears in the account police have given of how it ended.

Community members left flowers at a makeshift memorial in front of the school beginning the morning after the attack. The shooting remains under investigation, and a motive, if one is known, has not been disclosed.