Armed father and teacher end Bend school shooting in three minutes after four deaths

On Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 12:59 p.m. Pacific time, a 16-year-old former student of Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, climbed a fence after throwing a 12-gauge shotgun over it. He fired at a passing driver who had confronted him, then entered the building through a side door he had shot out. Inside a special needs classroom, he killed three boys aged 5, 8 and 11, and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert.

The attack lasted roughly three minutes. A second driver, Kaylub Giamanco, 36, the father of two students at the school, followed the shooter inside. He retrieved a legally carried .40-caliber pistol from his vehicle. In the classroom, a teacher who was not injured had already thrown her cellphone at the shooter and was fighting him for the gun. Giamanco then shot the attacker multiple times, killing him.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz described the sequence in a Friday news conference. The shooter, identified as Griffin J. John II, had previously attended the school as a special needs student and lived about half a mile away with his mother. The shotgun, a Maverick 88 pump-action, was registered to her. Investigators found about 44 additional rounds of birdshot, buckshot and slugs with him. He had fired as many as 15 rounds.

One 7-year-old child and 54-year-old teacher Becky Drury were wounded and taken to hospital in serious condition. The families of the 8-year-old and 11-year-old boys asked that their names not be released. Rhoam Summer, the 5-year-old, was the youngest person killed in a U.S. school shooting since systematic tracking began in the 1960s.

The school building, opened in 2015, had modern security features at the main entrance. The shooter bypassed them by approaching from an undeveloped lot and forcing entry at a side door. Picture day was underway that afternoon.

Deschutes County dispatch logged the first 911 call at 12:59 p.m. from the pickup driver whose truck was hit by several shots. Officers directed the school into lockdown one minute later. By the time police entered, the shooter was already dead.

Giamanco has not been charged. Oregon law allows a person to use deadly force to protect others from imminent threat. The teacher who tackled the shooter remains unnamed by police.

The incident adds to a pattern in which armed bystanders have stopped active shooters in schools and public places in recent years. It also raises questions about how a former special needs student obtained and transported a shotgun registered to a parent, and about the effectiveness of perimeter fencing when an attacker is willing to climb it and shoot at bystanders.

Bend-La Pine Schools closed for the remainder of the week. Crisis counselors were made available at the Central Library. The district has not yet released a full account of its prior safety reviews, though a 2024 incident involving a gun on campus had prompted one.

Investigators have not stated a motive. They continue to examine the shooter’s digital devices and contacts. No prior criminal record has been reported for John II.

The deaths of three children and a young teacher in a single classroom, stopped only by the immediate actions of an armed parent and a staff member, leave the community with a concrete record of how quickly such attacks unfold and how narrow the window for intervention remains.