Teacher and armed father halt attack at Bend elementary school after three children and educator killed

A 16-year-old former student at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, entered the building on October 15 and killed three children and a teacher in a special education classroom before he was stopped by a teacher who tackled him and an armed father who shot him dead.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the attack began just before 1 p.m. local time. Griffin J. John II, who had attended the school as a special education student, approached on foot from an undeveloped lot beside the 11-year-old building. He carried a Maverick 88 12-gauge pump-action shotgun registered to his mother, Shauntai May Nickerson. He first fired at a red pickup truck driving past the school, shattering a window and leaving bullet holes, then jumped the fence, shot through glass doors on the playground side, and entered the special education classroom just inside.

Inside the room he killed three boys, ages 5, 8 and 11, and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert. A 7-year-old girl and a 54-year-old teacher were wounded. John fired as many as 15 rounds. He still had about 44 rounds of birdshot, buckshot and slugs when officers arrived. Another teacher in the classroom threw her cellphone at him and tackled him. She was not injured. Krantz said her actions almost certainly prevented more deaths.

Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old father of two girls who attend the school, had seen the initial shooting of the pickup truck while on his lunch break. He retrieved his legally carried .40-caliber pistol from his vehicle, followed the shooter inside, and shot him multiple times, killing him. Police arrived at 1:02 p.m., three minutes after the first 911 call at 12:59 p.m. from the driver of the red truck. All victims were shot in the same classroom.

Authorities have not released a motive. John lived with his mother about half a mile from the school. Officials said he struggled with remote learning during the pandemic. The school has about 400 students from kindergarten through fifth grade and roughly 40 staff. Crisis counselors were made available at the Central Library the next day.

The sequence shows how quickly the attack unfolded and how two adults inside and outside the classroom interrupted it. The teacher’s immediate physical response bought seconds. The father’s decision to enter the building with a firearm ended the shooting before police reached the classroom. Oregon law allows concealed carry with a permit; Giamanco was legally armed. The investigation continues into how John obtained the shotgun and whether he had any prior connection to the specific classroom he targeted.

School shootings in the United States have repeatedly shown that locked exterior doors and modern entry systems can be defeated by determined attackers who simply shoot through glass or force entry. In this case the special education classroom sat immediately inside the compromised doors. The short duration and the presence of an armed parent on site are the concrete facts that distinguish this incident from many earlier ones.