Oregon school shooting: safety expert discusses response as four people die

Deaths and police response

Police said they were alerted to a critical incident at 1 p.m. local time Thursday and arrived about two minutes later. Sheila Miller, a Bend Police Department spokesperson, said officers soon heard over the radio that the suspected shooter was down.

Miller said authorities had not confirmed who shot the suspect and that a bystander may have done so. She also said there were multiple victims. US networks, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, reported four deaths, including three children.

Students moved to reunite

Law enforcement escorted students by bus to a separate location, where they could meet their families. Silver Rail Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade, roughly ages 5 to 11.

The school has about 450 students and 40 staff members, Miller said. At least two people were taken to a hospital, but officials provided no details about their condition.

Bend and national context

Bend is a city of about 100,000 people in central Oregon, roughly 175 miles (280 kilometers) southeast of Portland. The United States has frequent gun violence, with thousands of people killed each year, and the highest rate of gun-related deaths among high-income countries. The Gun Violence Archive reported more than 365 mass shootings in the country so far this year, defining them as incidents in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.