Father and teacher stop 16-year-old shooter at Bend elementary school after four killed

A 16-year-old former student of Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, killed three children and a 25-year-old teacher on 15 October 2026 before a father of two students at the school shot him dead and a teacher tackled him inside a special education classroom.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Griffin J. John II approached the school on foot shortly before 1 p.m. Pacific time from an undeveloped lot. He threw a 12-gauge Maverick 88 pump-action shotgun over a fence, scaled it, and shot through glass panes in locked double doors on the playground side. He entered a mixed-age special education classroom just inside and fired as many as 15 rounds using birdshot, buckshot and slugs. About 44 additional rounds were found on him and in a backpack.

The three children killed were boys aged 5, 8 and 11. Police identified the 5-year-old as Rhoam Summer at the request of his family. The families of the other two boys asked that their names not be released. Teacher Megan Lambert, 25, was also killed. A 7-year-old girl was wounded and remains in serious but stable condition. A 54-year-old teacher, Becky Drury, suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

A teacher in the classroom threw her cellphone at John and tackled him. She was not injured. Outside, Kaylub Giamanco, 36, a father of two girls at the school, saw the attack while driving past on his lunch break. He retrieved a legally owned .40-caliber pistol from his vehicle, entered through the breached doors, and shot John multiple times, killing him. Police arrived at 1:02 p.m.

John had previously attended special education classes at Silver Rail but was not currently enrolled in the Bend-La Pine district. The shotgun was registered to his mother, Shauntai May Nickerson. Motive remains under investigation. About 400 students attend the school from kindergarten through fifth grade.

The attack lasted roughly three minutes. Community members have placed flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial outside the school. Authorities have not released further details on how John obtained access to the weapon beyond the registration.

School resource officers were not present at the time of the shooting, according to a police spokesperson. The special education classroom was the sole target of the gunfire inside the building.