Washington DC, Oct. 17 -- US President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) praised the bystander who stopped the gunman during a shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, calling him a "great hero" and saying his intervention prevented the incident from becoming even worse.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a rally in Georgia, Trump lauded the bystander's actions and expressed gratitude for his intervention.

"I'll tell you what, there was a great hero, and it could have been as bad as it was; we had a great hero that went in and did the business. He, he took care of business. And, thank God we had him; otherwise it would have been much worse. It's a terrible thing, but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how t...