On Sunday evening, a shooter armed with a semi-automatic rifle opened fire at the Forum Shopping Center in northeast Bend. According to the Bend police department, the shooter first fired shots in the parking lot of the shopping center, killing one person, before entering a Safeway and killing another person. Police officers found the body of the deceased shooter at the back of the store, along with two weapons, including a semi-automatic rifle. No shots were reported fired by Bend police officers, although the investigation into the shooting is ongoing. Anthony Broadman is Bend’s Mayor Pro Tem and a city councilor. He joins us to share updates on the shooting and the impact of this latest incidence of gun violence on the community.
Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB, I’m Dave Miller. We start today with a shooting that happened in Bend last night. It happened outside and inside the Safeway at the Forum Shopping Center on the east side of town. According to police, a gunman killed two people with a semi automatic rifle. The gunman is also dead. Police said that they did not fire any shots. Anthony Broadman is a member of the Bend City Council and Mayor Pro Tem, he joins us with more. Anthony Broadman, welcome back.
Anthony Broadman: Hi Dave, good afternoon.
Miller: Thanks for joining us. Bend police are going to be doing another press conference in about 20 minutes or so. But can you give us a sense for where things stand right now for what we know?
Broadman: Well, my city’s heartbroken, Dave. It was a dark night in Bend last night. I think right now we’re mourning the families, the friends of the two people we lost last night
We’ve confirmed this morning that this investigation remains active, but we do not believe that there’s further immediate danger in connection with the shooting last night, which is small solace after the tragedy of last night.
Miller: To address that specifically, there had been reports on social media, or just people saying on social media, that there was more than one shooter. So what you’re saying is that it has been verified that that’s not true?
Broadman: That has not been confirmed, correct. We believe that that shooter is deceased.
Miller: Has anything been released publicly yet about the victims?
Broadman: No. This investigation is still very active, as we speak. So we will be having a briefing at 12:30.
What I can say is that I’m extremely grateful to the first responders, the citizens who may have prevented this from being much, much worse. We’re still trying to get the details surrounding why the shooter was stopped. I’m heartbroken for my city and also I’m glad that this was not much worse. Extremely scary. 12 hours.
Miller: The Bend Police Department put out a tweet at 7:30 pm last night, saying “there is an active investigation in the area of the Forum Shopping Center. Please avoid the area. More updates to come as the investigation continues.” And then it was a little bit more than an hour and a half later before they put out another tweet saying that there had been a shooting. In the intervening time, many people in Bend were confused and scared, and there was a lot of what now seems like misinformation running rampant. Did you have a sense for what was happening during that time?
Broadman: I had some sense. But like I said, it was a very active investigation. There were several components of that investigation that, due to the information that was being shared with law enforcement, needed to be sought out and confirmed that it was inaccurate or accurate.
But I think you’ve just identified the point of these types of mass shootings. They are too sow fear. They are to terrorize us. And one of the reasons why many of us are in governments is to provide order in the face of the chaos and the evil that we saw last night. And we obviously still have a lot more work ahead of us as a country and a state and city.
Miller: I understand that there was a lot of confusion that had to be sorted out last night. But even given that, what do you think about the level of communication by the Bend Police Department last night?
Broadman: You know, I’ve been really proud of the entire multi agency response to this tragedy. I was on the phone with the governor right after the shooting. State police were here, FBI was here. We worked closely with the Deschutes County Sheriff’s office. And I truly believe, if not for civilian heroes and brave first responders, that this could have been much worse.
Miller: Why do you say that?
Broadman: That’s the information that I think we’re hoping to talk about at 12:30. That potentially this shooter was stopped. We know that Bend Police Department did not fire a shot, and we’re waiting to confirm, hopefully in the next 30 minutes to an hour, additional facts about how the shooter was stopped from continuing his murder.
Miller: Obviously we will be following that and we can bring updates in the course of this show as we go when more information is more publicly available. What you seem to be carefully talking around is a possibility that another shopper in the Safeway is the one who shot the suspected gunman, if I hear you correctly.
Broadman: I don’t think we have any indication of another shot or a shopper, and I don’t want to speculate because I’m getting this information in real time as we learn more about what unfolded in this horrific night inside of a grocery store where we all shop. But I am again hopeful to get more information about what happened.
Miller: We are, as Americans, way way past having the luxury, if that’s the right word, of being surprised by shooting like this. They are a daily aspect of life in this country, and death in this country. I looked at the gun violence archive this morning and there were six mass shootings in the US just yesterday alone. And what happened in Bend was not on the list because their cut off is that at least four or more people have to be shot or killed in a single incident, not including the shooter. How have you been thinking about these two things at once: the trauma of this shooting for people in Bend on the one hand, and the routineness on the other?
Broadman: It would be totally naive to think that this would never happen here, because we have such a profound gun problem as a country. And it’s cultural, it’s political, it’s spiritual, but it’s here, it’s everywhere. I’m very afraid of the numbness. And I’m afraid that these aren’t going to go noticed because they’re going to become so frequent and so regular. And that’s not acceptable to me. That shouldn’t be acceptable to any Americans, that where we worship, where we shop, where we learn is not safe.
I’ve already spoken all morning with folks in our delegation, spoke with the governor last night. I know you have a city council here full of gun safety advocates. We know what works, We know that common sense gun regulation can prevent gun deaths, whether they be suicide or terrorist mass shootings like we saw potentially last night. But I think you’ve identified the central problem, David. It’s vacillating between numbness and fear that this is going to become very regular everywhere we go.
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