Oregon teacher fought school attacker before armed dad killed suspect

Some readers may find this article distressing.

A female teacher in the US state of Oregon tackled a teenage shooter who entered her classroom and tried to wrestle the gun from his grasp, police have said.

The teacher, who has not been named, threw her mobile phone before trying to disarm the 16-year-old on the floor of a classroom at Silver Rail Elementary in the city of Bend.

The attacker killed three children and a teacher after shooting his way into the building on Thursday.

He was shot dead by a father with two daughters at the school, who was driving past as the attack started to unfold and, armed with a pistol, ran in to confront the suspect.

Police said the attacker used to be a student at the school. His motive remains unclear.

He had been armed with about 44 more rounds of shotgun ammunition when he was stopped, police said. He fired as many as 15 rounds in the class.

“To the people who showed courage in the face of such violence and intervened to prevent this tragedy from being any worse, we owe you a debt of gratitude,” Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said.

Police used a news conference on Friday to identify two of the four victims of the school shooting. They were five-year-old Rhoam Summer and 25-year-old teacher Meghan Lambert.

Lambert’s family said in a statement shared by the police that her goal was to be a teacher in the district in which she grew up and that she was “compassionate and had a huge heart”.

“She always fought for the underdog and those with special needs,” they said.

Bryan Jolly, Summer’s grandfather, said the family was devastated by his death.

“The whole thing is senseless, and a shock,” he told the New York Times, saying his grandson was “was very bright and very mischievous and very fun-loving, and totally without fear”.

The families of the two other students who were killed, an eight-year-old and 11-year-old, did not wish to have them publicly identified yet, police said.

Two others were injured in the attack. Another teacher, a 54-year-old, was still being treated at hospital, and a seven-year-old student, who was in serious but stable condition.