16-year-old shoots three children and a teacher at an elementary school in the USA

16-year-old shoots three children and a teacher at a elementary school in the USA Two other people are in the hospital with serious injuries. The shooter was shot by a passerby. glu./(dpa)/(Reuters) A 16-year-old opened fire at an elementary school in the US state of Oregon on Thursday, killing three children and a teacher. According to police, the shooter gained access by shooting through locked doors. The perpetrator is said to have used an unspecified long gun during the incident and acted alone according to initial findings. Whether the perpetrator was a student there and knew his victims was initially unclear. The 16-year-old shooter was also killed during the act of violence. He was pursued by a random witness and finally shot, the police reported at a press conference. The killed children are five, eight, and eleven years old, according to police reports. A seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, said the local police chief, Mike Krantz. Governor describes passerby's intervention as "heroic" According to Police Chief Mike Krantz, emergency services received a call shortly before 13 o'clock. A motorist reported that a shooter had shot at his vehicle. Dozens of other calls were received in the next few minutes. People reported that a shooter had entered the school. Security forces immediately ordered the school to lock down. Shortly after, police officers arrived. When they entered the building, they found that the suspect was dead, according to Krantz. The Silver Rail Elementary School is located in Bend, a city with about 100,000 inhabitants in the middle of western Oregon. The elementary school includes grades from kindergarten to fifth grade and has about 400 to 450 students and about 40 employees, according to police information. "No parent should have to experience such a day, and no community should have to experience such a day," said Oregon Governor Tina Kotek. She thanked the passerby who "heroically intervened to prevent further deaths." Firearm violence is widespread in the USA Police Chief Mike Krantz explained that every police officer in Bend underwent a full-day training on dealing with active shooters in August. "Unfortunately, this is something we regularly train for, and we must also do it," he said. In the USA, the number of victims related to firearm violence is in the tens of thousands each year. Schools are also repeatedly affected. According to an analysis by the American broadcaster CNN, there were at least 52 firearm incidents at schools in the United States in the current year. According to the US health agency (CDC), approximately 44,400 people died in 2024 as a result of gun use. This was the last year when data were fully collected, according to the Pew Research Center. The CDC figures include both homicides and suicides with firearms. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2024, firearms were involved in three-quarters of all homicides in the US. Some active shooter incidents in the USA have caused particular attention and distress in the past. This includes the massacre at Columbine High School in 1999. Two attackers killed thirteen people before turning on themselves later. In another active shooter incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, a young man killed 26 people—most of them children. And in 2022, an 18-year-old killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Texas. Attacks like these repeatedly cause debates about the toughening of gun laws in the USA.