AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The community in Bend, Oregon, is grieving the loss of three children and a teacher in a shooting at an elementary school on Thursday. Details are still coming in about the victims and the alleged shooter, and Oregon Public Broadcasting's Emily Cureton Cook joins us now to talk about what we do know. Hi, Emily.
EMILY CURETON COOK, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: So just to recap a little bit, yesterday at about 1 p.m. local time, a 16-year-old shot opened the doors of Silver Rail Elementary School. Can you just first tell us what we know so far about the victims?
COOK: We know the ages of the children who have been killed. They were 5, 8 and 11. A teacher also died. We - our reporters here at OPB were able to speak with the grandfather of the 5-year-old killed during the shooting. His name is Rhoam Summer. His grandfather, Brad Jolly (ph), said, you know, Rhoam was a lovely little kid. He was playful, bright, busy. He had a scooter that he would run up and down the hallway with in their house. He read books with his grandfather, and he loved to give big hugs. And, you know, just all these things. He was a 5-year-old kid. Yeah.
And we also know that two people have been injured and hospitalized. There's a GoFundMe for a 7-year-old, you know, saying she's in critical condition and fighting for her life. And a 54-year-old teacher was also injured in the shooting.
CHANG: And what information do we have so far about the shooter?
COOK: Well, we know this shooter was killed by a bystander. The bystander is the father of two girls at the school. Our reporters have been in touch with neighbors in his neighborhood, and we've also seen a statement from his mother requesting privacy right now. Police say this bystander was in the neighborhood, saw the shooter with a shotgun, followed him into the school and fatally shot the shooter. What we know about the young man who's the shooter is that he was 16-years-old. Police say he used his mother's shotgun. We don't know what his motivation was. We don't yet know what his connection to the school was or how he accessed the gun.
CHANG: OK, so still so many questions. I know, Emily, that you have had a chance to talk to people in the community. Can you just give us a sense of what you've been hearing from them so far?
COOK: Yeah. I mean, some people here may have a sickening sense of deja vu. We haven't seen a school shooting like this before, but in 2022, a shooting at a Safeway grocery store killed two people, and a bystander also intervened before the gunman took his own life. This really rocked Bend. I mean, it's a relatively small city. We're talking about 100,000 people or so in the middle of Oregon, far from the interstate. People often move here for the quality of life, you know, the hiking and the skiing, and for the reputation for good schools. So even though it's over 100,000 people, it's a pretty tight-knit community. Last night, folks showed up in force to a vigil for the victims of this shooting. Hundreds of...
CHANG: Emily Cureton... Oh, there you are. We temporarily lost you. Can you hear us now? Oh, it looks like we have lost connection. That was Emily Cureton Cook from Oregon Public Broadcasting. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.