Police in the northwestern US state of Oregon have identified a teenage gunman who shot dead four people at a school as a former special needs student there, while praising people who stepped in to stop more killings.
Three children aged 5, 8 and 11 lost their lives in Thursday’s rampage, along with a 25-year-old female teacher, before the shooter was shot dead by a father of two pupils at the school, located in the town of Bend.
Another young child and a teacher were also injured in the attack.
Who intervened to prevent more deaths in Oregon?
A man in a vehicle outside the school who was shot at and missed by the 16-year-old gunman was the first to alert police to the danger.
Before they arrived, however, a female teacher tackled the shooter after he had already killed the victims with a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun in the school’s special needs classroom.
While the two wrestled with each other, a man identified by family as Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old father of two girls at the school, rushed in with his legally held weapon and shot the gunman dead.
“He heard shooting and saw a teacher involved in a physical altercation with the suspect … and fired his weapon, striking the suspect multiple times,” Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters.
“When someone is willing to risk their own life for others, we recognize that. The teacher who is willing to stand and fight for her children … incredible. That is true heroism, and we don’t see that a lot in society,” he said.
Praise from Trump as gun control debate revived
Giamanco’s mother told the local branch of Fox News that she was “very proud” and that her son was “an absolute hero.”
US President Donald Trump also hailed Giamanco’s actions.
“It’s a terrible thing, but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it,” he told reporters.
The shooting in Bend has triggered the usual responses from both sides in the everlasting debate about gun control laws in the US.
The National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the main and most powerful opponents of tighter laws on the possession of weapons by civilians, hailed the actions of the armed bystander.
“Yesterday’s terrible act of violence in Oregon serves as another reminder of the importance of a law-abiding armed citizenry,” the NRA said in a post on X.
Gun control advocates, however, once more condemned the relative ease with which firearms can be procured in the US, which they see as the main factor in the country’s high rate of gun-related deaths compared with most other developed countries.
“America’s gun violence crisis is killing our babies. Enough is enough,” gun-control group GIFFORDS said.
According to an analysis by the education information portal Education Week, there have been 26 shootings at US schools so far this year that have resulted in injuries or deaths.
More than 360 mass shootings have been recorded across the country this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
It defines mass shootings as incidents in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
Edited by: Karl Sexton
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