At least three dead, including shooter, in Bend Safeway attack

At least three people, including the shooter, are dead in Bend after a man with a military-style rifle opened fire at the Forum Shopping Center off Highway 20.

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Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the shooter entered the shopping center from a residential neighborhood behind the stores and then walked through the parking lot near Costco. He fired shots into the Big Lots store and then shot someone near the western entrance to the Safeway.

“The shooter continued through the Safeway, firing rounds,” Krantz said. “The shooter killed a second person inside the Safeway.

The first reports of gunfire at the Safeway came at 7:04 p.m. When police arrived, they could hear shots being fired. They found the shooter dead near the back of the store. Bend officers did not fire any shots, and it’s unclear how the shooter died. Police found a semi-automatic rifle and a shotgun near the shooter’s body.

Throughout the night, social media and Reddit swirled with reports of other shooters and shootings in other parts of Bend. Krantz said police had investigated reports of other shootings and found no evidence to support those rumors.

“We have a witness who believed there may be second shooter. We have not found any evidence of a second shooter,” Krantz said. “But our investigation is continuing. This is still a very active investigation. We would ask people to be patient.”

Officers from “every agency in Central Oregon” were working the case along with FBI agents and Oregon State Police.

After the initial reports of shots fired, the St. Charles Medical Center in Bend activated lockout protocol, asking people to “stay away from the hospital while we deal with an active trauma response.” Krantz said one other person had suffered non-life-threatening injures in the shooting.

“This is a terrible night that we know is happening all too often,” Bend City Councilor Anthony Broadman said near the shopping center shortly after the shooting.

As sirens blared nearby, Broadman said he was shaken by the incident, but he wasn’t surprised that such a deadly shooting could happen in his town.

“No, I’m not surprised at all,” he said. " We’re ill as a country when it comes to folks who shouldn’t have these weapons having them. I’m heartbroken and angry and very sad.”

Oregon’s senior senator, Democrat Ron Wyden, called on his colleagues in Washington to take more action on gun issues following the shooting, after Congress passed its first gun bill in decades this year.

“America cannot just shrug its shoulders at another mass shooting with loved ones grieving the loss of family and friends,” Wyden said on Twitter. “There are many more steps ahead before our country actually addresses the gun violence epidemic devastating communities like Bend.”