The youngest victim of Thursday’s mass shooting at an Oregon elementary school was identified as 5-year-old Rhoam Summer, who had just started kindergarten, according to his father.
Rhoam was killed along with two students — ages 8 and 11 — and a teacher by an unidentified 16-year-old gunman at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend before a heroic armed bystander intervened and fatally shot the teen.
Kelik Summer confirmed in a post on a Facebook community page hours after the tragedy that his son was killed.
“Hey everyone. Today has been the worst day of my life. My son Rhoam was killed in a school shooting. We are broken and lost, but are surrounded by friends and family who are keeping us safe,” Summer wrote.
Rhoam started kindergarten at the school last month, according to a daycare page earlier this year.
“How much we’ll be missing Rhoam when he ventures off to Kindergarten this year,” Basic Beginnings daycare wrote May 14.
Loved ones have raised more than $12,500 to support the family, according to a Meal Train page launched Thursday.
The shooting began around 1 p.m. Thursday, when the 16-year-old allegedly fired at a man in a red Toyota Tacoma pickup truck in the school’s parking lot, according to the Bend Source.
A law-enforcement source told the Associated Press the teen used a pump-action shotgun his mom had purchased.
The gunman allegedly threw his weapon over a fence, jumped onto school grounds and fired at locks before forcing his way inside and opening fire.
Another 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were hospitalized in critical condition, police said.
The boy was “shot by a community member who had seen [him] enter the school, pursued him into the school, and engaged him,” Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters.
Officers found the suspect dead and began treating victims before evacuating the building, which serves about 400 to 450 students.
Authorities have not said whether the suspect previously attended the school or knew any of the victims.
