The Bend Police Department continues to focus our efforts on the horrific Silver Rail Elementary School shooting that took place on Thursday, Oct. 15. Our investigators, the Tri-County Major Incident Team and many other members of our team here continue to work tirelessly on this case.
We know our community still has a lot of questions, and we appreciate your patience as we conduct a thorough investigation. To that end, at this time we are not sharing additional information about the suspect, the weapon used or other details that are part of that active investigation. When we have news to share on the investigative front, we will share it.
There is a lot of misinformation out there right now. We encourage our community to get their information from trusted sources, namely the Bend-La Pine Schools and the Bend Police Department.
Sometimes, as investigations progress, new information comes out that may be different from what we initially knew and shared. For example, we have received questions from members of the media and the public about how many people were in the classroom where the shooting occurred. Our investigators have confirmed that there were a total of four adults and five children in the classroom at the time of the incident.
This afternoon, our Department expects to complete its investigative work at the school building, and will turn over the building to the school district. The investigation will continue, but evidence collection at the school will have been completed at that time.
The FBI Victim Services Division is currently helping families collect belongings that were left behind in the unaffected parts of Silver Rail Elementary. Over the weekend, the victim advocates completed this process for staff members. We appreciate you giving families and staff the space to grieve as they take part in this process, which is not taking place at the elementary school.
As most children return to Bend-La Pine Schools on Wednesday, we know you want to know what that’s going to look like. Our team is working with the safety team at Bend-La Pine Schools to ensure you see our officers in and around school campuses on Wednesday and for the foreseeable future.
Please take care of yourselves. Remember that there are many resources available.
- The City of Bend has collected a list of helpful resources: https://bendoregon.gov/community-support-resources/
- Deschutes County Behavioral Health has a list of upcoming opportunities for community support: https://www.deschutescounty.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/339
- The Oregon Department of Emergency Management has created a page with details of community support available as well: https://apps.oregon.gov/oregon-newsroom/OR/OEM/Posts/Post/Support-Bend