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The 16-year-old gunman who shot and killed three children and one 25-year-old teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday has been identified as Griffin J. John II, Bend’s police chief announced in a news conference Friday.
Authorities said he was shot and killed by a bystander at the school. The suspect was a former student of Silver Rail Elementary, police said.
The attacker used a shotgun purchased by his mother, law enforcement sources told CBS News. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Friday that a Maverick 88 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun was located near the suspect, as well as a backpack. Krantz said that three types of ammunition were used in the shooting: birdshot, buckshot and slugs.
The suspect fired as many as 15 rounds, Krantz said Friday, and another 44 remaining rounds of ammunition were located at the scene.
A motive for the attack has not been provided. Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said in Friday’s news conference that the classroom where the shooting occurred was a special needs classroom, and he disclosed that the suspect had been a special needs student at that school.
In 2020, the suspect’s mother, Shauntai Nickerson, spoke to a local television station about her then-10-year-old son, who she said had special needs and struggled to learn from home during the pandemic.
Krantz said the suspect approached the fence of the school on foot, threw the shotgun over the fence, and then climbed it himself.
When he was confronted by a man who was passing in a pickup truck, he fired on the truck, striking it at least three times, Krantz said. That driver then drove on and made the initial 911 call.
It was at that time that the bystander who would later kill the suspect, a 36-year-old man whose children attend the school, witnessed that shooting and drove into the school parking lot.
Krantz said that the suspect forced his way into the school by firing several rounds into the glass panes of a set of double doors. He then went directly into the classroom immediately to the left of those doors, where he opened fire.
“All of the victims were shot in that classroom,” Krantz said.
Krantz told reporters Friday that the bystander, who was identified by his family as Kaylub Giamanco, took from his vehicle a .40-caliber pistol which he legally owned, and entered the school and classroom where the shooting was taking place.
“As he made entry through the forced open doors, he heard shooting and saw a teacher involved in a physical altercation with the suspect,” Krantz said. “He then went to the classroom where the struggle was underway and fired his weapon, striking the suspect multiple times.”
Krantz also praised the “heroic actions” of the teacher who engaged the suspect in the physical struggle, saying she “threw her cellphone at the suspect and then tackled him and fought to take the firearm from him.”
That teacher, who was not hurt, “almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed,” Krantz said.
Law enforcement sources told CBS News that investigators are combing through his computer, phone, social media, search history and other online activity. They are probing whether the shooter may have been obsessed with violence, including prior mass shootings. The sources emphasized that the investigators are in the preliminary stages of their investigation.
The children killed in the shooting were ages 5, 8 and 11, Krantz said. The 5-year-old victim was identified by police and his family as Rhoam Summer. Bend police identified the 25-year-old teacher killed as Meghan Lambert. The families of the two other children have not made their names public, Bend police said.
Two others — a 7-year-old girl and a 54-year-old teacher — were wounded. The 7-year-old girl was being treated at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, where she was in serious but stable condition, Krantz said Friday. The teacher, identified to CBS News by her family as Becky Drury, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries, Krantz said. She was being treated at St. Charles Medical Center.
The family of Giamanco, a Bend resident with two daughters who attend Silver Rail Elementary School, issued a statement Friday, in which they said Giamanco “is not seeking recognition, but instead wishes to express his gratitude to the first responders, school personnel, and community for the outpouring of love and support.”
Police said they responded within minutes to the 911 calls from the school and found the deceased shooter and other victims inside.
