Oregon school shooting: parents recall chaos after gunman killed four at Silver Rail Elementary
A teenage gunman killed a teacher and three children at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon. Parents have described the terrifying wait for news as police locked down the area.
Parents recount agonising wait after Bend school massacre
A mother received a text from her son mid-afternoon on Thursday that read: "Mom there was a school shooting we're ok tho." NBC News reports that Jenn Johnston said she immediately turned to social media and found the story "blasted all over."
Johnston had already received an automated call and text from Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, roughly 20 minutes earlier, notifying her of a lockdown. She and her husband drove straight to the school. Parents were redirected to a nearby church, where they waited for hours with little information from police or school officials.
"The kids were bused from the school to the church and were released to parents from youngest to oldest," Johnston told NBC News. "My son, being in fifth grade, was the very last class to be released." It was not until around 6 p.m. that her son ran off the school bus and into her arms in tears.
The shooting had occurred at approximately 1 p.m. local time. A 16-year-old Bend resident armed with a long gun forced entry to the school by firing through its locked doors, police said. A teacher and three children, aged 5, 8 and 11, were killed. Two others — a 7-year-old child and a second teacher, aged 54 — were critically injured. The gunman was subsequently shot and killed by a good Samaritan who pursued him, according to authorities.
Justin Penfield said he and his wife received a school notification and were urged by a friend already on site to get to the building quickly. When he arrived, he found his son's kindergarten class already outside. Walking his son back to the car, Penfield said he noticed a man standing beside a pickup truck with "seven or eight gunshot holes" in it.
According to Penfield, the man said he had been driving back from lunch when he witnessed someone throw what appeared to be a shotgun over a fence before jumping into the school's playground. The man said he called out to ask what was happening, at which point the gunman turned and opened fire on his vehicle. The man told Penfield he drove away and called 911.
Mindy Miranda said her 8-year-old daughter was in her third-grade classroom upstairs when the shots rang out. Miranda said her family and community are now trying to process what happened together.
"I never in a thousand years thought it would be at Silver Rail Elementary, a place that I safely drop our daughter off at every day, and she goes to learn and to thrive and to be a part of a great group of people there," Miranda said.
Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler, speaking at a vigil Thursday evening, described the shooting as a dark day for the city. "There are simply no words for the loss that we have suffered," Kebler said.
Source: The Sun