Three children and a teacher in Bend where shot and killed at Silver Rail Elementary School Thursday afternoon. Another child and teacher are hospitalized. The suspected killer, a 16-year-old boy, is also dead, after a community member shot him.

As Bend residents come together to mourn and ask what comes next, OPB journalists are in Central Oregon. Watch this story for updates and dispatches throughout the day.

Oct. 16, 6:50 a.m. — All classes in the Bend-La Pine school district are canceled this morning.

Specifics about the shooter’s motivations and relationship to the school are still unclear, leaving grieving residents with more questions than answers. Last night, hundreds of Bend residents sought solace at a candlelit prayer vigil led by local clergy at Drake Park. People sang Christian hymnals together as Gov. Tina Kotek and the mayor of Bend offered their condolences.

Local mom Kyra Peterson said that, as a new mother, she wanted to show support that night for the parents who had lost their children.

“It’s very heartbreaking to kind of understand what it’s like to be a parent and to think about losing the life of your child,” Peterson said, as her 1-year-old son cooed in the arms of his grandmother.

Peterson reflected on a previous deadly shooting in Bend at a local grocery store in 2022.

“Our family members were working at Safeway when it was shot up,” Peterson said. But even with past experience, she still was caught off guard by the sudden bloodshed at a local school.

“You never think that something like this would happen in your hometown where you live,” she said. “It’s just very shocking.”

Local Mountain View High School student Payton Stewart said threats of school shootings have become normalized as a part of her everyday school experience as a Gen Z student.

“Every kid has to have a conversation that their parents have to talk to them, ‘Hey this might happen,’“ Stewart said. “We have to have drills about it.” She said she’s seen her own classmates struggle with trauma after surviving shootings.

Gracie Cromie, a local nanny, arrived at the vigil with her friends and said she struggled to explain the violence to her 7-year-old charge after he overheard the news from a stranger while they were visiting a museum.

“We didn’t want to leave him in the dark,” Cromie said. “But he understands what’s going on and it was a hard conversation.”

Cromie and her peers attend nearby Eastmont Church, one of the local assemblies that had canceled services so congregants could attend the vigil. She said local pastors had rallied together their faith communities to offer spiritual counseling and support to victims and Bend residents.

“There is real evil in this world,” she said. One by one, pastors prayed over distraught families. “But that doesn’t mean that God isn’t with us in these times.”

Bend is a tight-knight community that’s “not too small, not too big,” and tragedies like this hit hard, Cromie said.

“It’s the type of place where every time you go out you’re guaranteed to run into someone,” she said.

— Jireh Deng

This is a developing story and will be updated.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/16/oregon-school-shooting-bend-silver-rail/