Teen shooter kills three children and teacher at Bend elementary school before bystander intervenes

A 16-year-old boy opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on the afternoon of October 15, 2026, killing three children and a teacher before an armed bystander shot and killed him inside the building.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the first 911 call came at 12:59 p.m. local time from a person in a vehicle outside the school who reported being shot at with a long gun. Additional calls followed from inside the school. Officers arrived at 1:02 p.m. By then the attacker was already dead.

The children who died were ages 5, 8 and 11. A 7-year-old student and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to St. Charles Medical Center in critical condition. The school serves about 450 students from kindergarten through fifth grade.

The bystander, identified by family as Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old lifelong Bend resident and father of two girls who attend the school, followed the shooter inside and confronted him. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek called the intervention heroic. Police have not publicly identified the shooter, a Bend resident whose motive remains under investigation. A source told CNN the weapon was a compact shotgun.

Silver Rail Elementary has secure vestibules requiring visitors to check in. The attacker forced entry by shooting through locked doors. Schools across the Bend-La Pine district closed the following day. A candlelight vigil drew hundreds to Drake Park that evening.

This was the deadliest mass shooting at a K-12 school in Oregon history, exceeding the 1998 Thurston High School attack. The episode renews attention on how quickly an armed civilian can interrupt an attack when law enforcement response, though rapid, arrives after the initial shots.