Gun Violence

A teacher fought the teenage shooter and a parent shot him dead, police say on Friday, a day after four people were killed.

The 16-year-old who killed three children and a teacher at an elementary school in the US state of Oregon was a former special-needs student at the school, police and school officials have said.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz identified the attacker on Friday, a day after the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School, as Griffin J. John II.

He said the teenager attacked a classroom of special-needs students, where all the victims were shot.

Steven Cook, superintendent of Bend-La Pine Schools, said John was not enrolled in the local public school system at the time.

“That classroom was a special needs classroom, and the suspect was a special needs student in that school,” Cook told a news conference.

Krantz said John shot his way through locked doors with a 12-gauge shotgun, firing as many as 15 shots, and had about 44 rounds left when he was killed. Police are still trying to determine how he obtained the gun.

Under Oregon law, a minor may possess a shotgun if provided by a parent or with a parent’s consent.

The shooter’s mother, Shauntai Nickerson, separately told reporters outside her apartment: “I’m so sorry, I wish I could have done something.”

A teacher threw her phone at the gunman, then tackled and fought him, likely saving lives, Krantz said, calling her actions “heroic”. She was not injured.

A 36-year-old father, Kaylub Giamanco, who has two children at the school, then followed the gunman inside and shot him dead minutes after the first 911 call.

US President Donald Trump called Giamanco a “great hero”. “It’s a terrible thing, but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it,” Trump said.

The children killed were aged five, eight and 11, and the teacher was Meghan Lambert, 25, police said.

A seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to hospital in critical condition.

The shooting is the 28th mass killing in the US this year, according to a database by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

The Gun Violence Archive in the US has documented 369 mass shootings in 2026, defined as incidents in which four or more people are shot.

The Everytown for Gun Safety group has counted at least 100 incidents of gunfire on school grounds this year, with 34 deaths.

Authorities have indicated that the shooter was killed by gunfire, though details remain scant about the attack.

At least four people have been killed, including three children, in a shooting at an elementary school in Oregon, part of the northwestern United States, according to statements from law enforcement to CBS and CNN.

The shooting on Thursday took place at Silver Rail Elementary school in the city of Bend, about 160km (100 miles) southeast of Portland.

Authorities have said the shooter is dead, though it is unclear whether he is among the four people included in the initial death toll.

“We’re in the process at this time of going room by room and evacuating each of the people who are in that school,” said Sheila Miller, the communications manager for the Bend Police Department on Thursday. “This is the kind of thing we never want to see happen in Bend. It’s devastating.”

Miller said authorities received a call about a shot fired into a car outside the school at 12:59pm local time (19:59 GMT) and arrived on scene within minutes.

The suspect was shot and killed shortly after, though Miller said she did not know whether police or a bystander had subdued the alleged assailant.

The number and condition of those injured were not immediately known.

Kash Patel, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said in a post on social media that the agency was on the scene assisting local law enforcement in the investigation.

“We will make every resource they need available,” he wrote.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek also said she was closely monitoring the situation.

Jeff Merkley, who represents Oregon in the US Senate, was among the political leaders to offer condolences in the wake of the shooting.

“My heart is with the Bend community and all of the students and families affected. No one should have to fear violence at school,” he wrote in a post on the social media platform X.

Man spreads flammable liquid in a room with 13 children while holding a lighter as police try to negotiate.

Brazilian police have rescued 13 children who had been taken hostage at a kindergarten in the southern city of Curitiba after killing the suspect, who threatened to set fire to the building, according to officials.

At least one of the children was wounded in Friday’s incident, the commander of the military police special forces unit in Parana state, Alexandre Lopes Dias, told reporters without elaborating on who or what injured the child.

Parana police spokesperson Leticia Martins told journalists outside the kindergarten that the suspect jumped the gate on Friday, broke into a classroom and held 13 children hostage.

He then spread a flammable substance in the room and held a lighter in his hand. He was carrying a knife and also what was initially believed to be a firearm, but later was found to be fake.

“Our negotiating teams were in place but saw no alternative but to neutralise him,” said Martins, who did not specify whether the suspect had expressed a specific reason for his actions.

The incident took place in the neighbourhood of Sao Braz in Curitiba, a city of 1.8 million residents located 400km (250 miles) south of Sao Paulo.

Lopes Dias told reporters the suspect was identified as a man who suffered from schizophrenia, but he did not reveal the man’s identity or how he was killed.

“During the entire negotiation, he stayed with all the children around him and one on his lap,” the police official said.

Children beaten

Talks lasted up to three hours. The children became agitated, and the attacker started hitting them, Lopes Dias told reporters.

“Once we realised that the kids were becoming increasingly upset and that the attacker started assaulting them physically, we opted for a tactical intervention to avoid a greater problem,” he explained.

Local media showed footage of tearful parents outside the school waiting for information as the negotiations between the suspect and police were ongoing. Minutes after what local media described as flash bangs, officers emerged carrying some of the children outside.

“We entered the classroom using a very tactical approach with little risk for the children,” Lopes Dias added.

Curitiba Mayor Eduardo Pimentel wrote on Instagram: “The 13 children are alive and safe! After anguishing and tense moments, this is the news we were all waiting for.”

Brazil in recent years has experienced multiple attacks on schools. In April 2023, a man killed four children with an axe at a day care in Blumenau, also in southern Brazil.

Curitiba City Hall said in a statement that the children and school staffers would receive psychological support.

The shooting prompted protests in New York City as officials defended ICE and Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the incident.

The United States Department of Homeland Security has defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) shooting of a man in New York City while his child was present. Federal officials used the incident to criticise sanctuary-city policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

New York officials have condemned the shooting and have called for ICE to end its operations in the city.

The shooting took place on Thursday afternoon when ICE officers attempted to arrest a man identified by New York City police as Oscar Belgal.

Homeland Security officials gave their account of the incident on Friday during a news conference, saying that Belgal refused to exit his car when approached by officers and then accelerated, striking two ICE vehicles.

They said officers then opened fire, grazing Belgal’s neck while his five-year-old child was in the back seat.

According to Homeland Security officials, Belgal received first aid and was taken to hospital before being transferred to a secure detention facility outside New York state. They did not disclose where Belgal is being held.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that the agents did not know the child was inside the vehicle when they fired.

ICE senior official Marcos Charles said agents had attempted to arrest Belgal as part of an investigation into suspected gang involvement in an earlier shooting of a US Customs and Border Protection officer.

According to US officials, Belgal is an undocumented migrant from the Dominican Republic who had previously evaded arrest and received a five-year sentence for grand larceny in April 2025.

“[Belgal] was a thug,” Mullin said at the Friday news conference. “The absolute worst of the worst.”

Mullin confirmed that officers were wearing body cameras but the footage has not been made public. New York City police released bodycam footage on Friday of police officers on the scene who had responded to a 911 call about the incident.

In other violent incidents involving federal immigration officers, video evidence has contradicted initial accounts from ICE and Homeland Security officials, including in Minneapolis, where footage of the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good challenged federal officials’ descriptions of the encounters.

The latest shooting prompted protests on Thursday night in the Bronx, where the shooting took place, with demonstrators condemning ICE and calling for the agency to be abolished. Tensions rose after NYPD officers clashed with some of the protesters.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the shooting and said he had called US President Donald Trump to demand an end to ICE enforcement in the city.

Speaking to reporters late on Thursday at the scene of the shooting, Mamdani said he had tried unsuccessfully to secure Belgal’s release in phone calls with Trump and Mullin.

“These actions are making the city less safe,” Mamdani said. “ICE is rotten to its core.”

Mullin accused Mamdani of prioritising politics over public safety and said Trump had offered to transfer Belgal to New York police custody if they pursued charges. Mullin said Mamdani refused this offer.

Nine inmates and one visitor killed in Sinaloa prison riot, local authorities say.

Ten people have been killed and 16 others injured in a fight at the El Castillo Penitentiary Centre in the city of Mazatlan, in Mexico’s northwestern state of Sinaloa, state authorities said.

The Sinaloa Public Security Secretariat said on Thursday that a fight inside the prison had left nine inmates and a family visitor dead.

Sinaloa’s Secretary of Public Security, Sinuhe Tellez, said in a video posted on social media that the visitor was a minor.

The 16 injured inmates were transferred for medical attention, the secretariat said.

An inter-institutional group of security forces moved in, and the prison is now “under control”, with authorities remaining at the site, the secretariat added.

Social work staff are contacting the families of the dead, Tellez said, noting that visits to the prison had been suspended as a precaution and the rest of the prison population was safe.

Sinaloa is a battleground for warring factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel and is one of six Mexican states the US State Department advises Americans not to visit over security concerns.

Officials have not said whether the violence at the prison was linked to that conflict.

Armed men open fire at a house party in a Durban township, killing a pregnant woman and 10 others.

At least 11 people, including a pregnant woman, have been killed after armed men stormed a house in a township in the South African city of Durban.

The attack took place late on Tuesday, according to Thamsanqa Ntuli, the premier of KwaZulu-Natal province, of which Durban is the main city. Assailants entered the home shortly before 11pm (21:00 GMT) while the victims were gathered at a house party.

Two people survived the attack, Ntuli said, adding the motive behind the killings was not immediately clear.

“The incident has left the community in profound shock and grief,” he said.

Local broadcaster eNCA reported that the attackers forced everyone into a single room before opening fire. They also set fire to a car belonging to one of the victims.

“It’s shocking and sad. These are guys I grew up with. I can’t believe it. It’s like a movie,” a resident told the broadcaster.

“I’ve been staying here all my life, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he added.

According to a police statement cited by eNCA, preliminary investigations indicated that some of those killed were on South Africa’s Crime Intelligence radar over suspected illegal activities, though the statement did not elaborate further.

“Although the motive for the shooting has not yet been confirmed, a feud between rival groupings cannot be ruled out,” the police said.

South Africa has one of the world’s highest murder rates, with an average of about 60 people killed daily in a population of roughly 62 million.

In March, soldiers were deployed alongside national police to violent hotspots to tackle rampant crime, an issue President Cyril Ramaphosa has described as one of the country’s biggest threats.

Police arrest suspect in shooting near high school as injured are rushed to local hospitals for treatment.

An armed man has opened fire near a high school in western Turkiye, wounding eight people, including students, authorities said.

The injured were rushed to hospitals after the shooting early on Tuesday near a vocational and technical high school in the Turgutlu district in the western Manisa province, the governor’s office said in a statement on X.

Police arrested the suspect after he attempted to flee the scene.

“A report was received regarding gunfire in the vicinity of the Inci Uzmez Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in our Turgutlu district at 07:59,” the governor’s office said.

The motive for the attack was under investigation, it added.

“After the incident, the suspect believed to have fired the weapon was caught by security forces and taken into custody,” the statement read.

Several images of the suspect were posted online, showing him walking near the school holding a gun.

The attack comes months after two school shootings in Turkiye.

In April, 16 people, mostly students, were wounded when a former student opened fire at a high school in the Sanliurfa province. The attacker later killed himself.

The following day, a 14-year-old killed nine people, including students and teachers, and wounded 13 others in an attack at his school in the Kahramanmaras province. The assailant was killed by police.

Jason Eaton faces up to life in prison after a jury rejected his insanity defence.

A jury in the US state of Vermont has convicted a man of attempted murder for shooting three Palestinian college students in 2023, rejecting his defence that he was not guilty by reason of insanity.

Jason Eaton, 51, faces up to life in prison for the attack near the University of Vermont campus in Burlington. It left Hisham Awartani paralysed from the waist down and wounded his friends Tahseen Aliahmad and Kinnan Abdalhamid.

The jury deliberated for several hours on Monday before reaching its verdict after a week-long trial that included testimony from the three men and psychiatric experts called by both the defence and prosecution.

Eaton was ordered jailed pending sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled.

Awartani and Aliahmad, who were sitting in the front row of the courtroom, smiled and hugged people around them as the verdict was read.

Eaton did not dispute that he shot the three men in November 2023. Instead, his lawyers argued that he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The defence said Eaton was suffering from a delusional psychotic disorder and believed the CIA and Israel’s Mossad were transmitting messages to him through FM radio.

Joshua O’Hara, the supervising attorney at the Chittenden County Public Defender Office, told jurors that Eaton believed the intelligence agencies had enlisted him to “overwatch duty” to protect a Jewish family living across the street and that God was commanding him to act.

Prosecutors rejected the insanity defence, telling jurors that a state psychiatrist had concluded Eaton did not have a mental disease or defect and that the evidence showed he intended to kill the three men.

‘He pulled out a handgun and started shooting’

Awartani, Aliahmad and Abdalhamid, now 23, grew up together in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank before moving to the US for university.

They were visiting Awartani’s grandmother in Burlington over the Thanksgiving holiday when they went for a walk near the University of Vermont campus after dark.

Awartani testified that the friends were smoking cigarettes and speaking a mix of English and Arabic. Two of them were wearing keffiyehs.

He said Eaton was standing on the porch of the apartment building where he lived before approaching the friends without saying anything.

When Eaton was about five to 10 feet (1.5 to three metres) away, Awartani testified, he pulled out a handgun and began shooting.

Awartani, then a student at Brown University, was shot in the chest and left paralysed from the waist down. Aliahmad, who attended Trinity College, was shot in the collarbone, while Abdalhamid, a Haverford College student, was shot in the right buttock.

The shooting prompted calls for a hate crime investigation, but no hate crime charges were filed.

Police later found three shotguns in Eaton’s apartment as well as a Ruger .380-calibre handgun that crime laboratory testing identified as the weapon used in the shooting.