Teacher and Armed Father Stop 16-Year-Old Shooter at Bend Elementary School
A 16-year-old former student killed three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, on 15 October before a teacher tackled him and a father of two students shot him. The attack lasted about three minutes.
Bend, Oregon2 min read
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On Thursday, 15 October 2026, 16-year-old Griffin J. John II entered Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun registered to his mother and opened fire in a special education classroom. He killed three boys, ages 5, 8 and 11, and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert before a teacher in the room tackled him and an armed father of two girls at the school shot him multiple times. The entire sequence lasted roughly three minutes.
John II, a former special-needs student at the school who lived half a mile away, climbed a fence after throwing the shotgun over it, then shot through glass doors on the playground side. Inside the classroom he fired about 15 rounds of birdshot, buckshot and slugs and carried another 44 rounds in a backpack. One teacher threw her phone at him and wrestled him to the ground. She was not injured.
Kaylub Giamanco, 36, a carpenter driving nearby on his lunch break, saw the shooting begin outside, retrieved a legally carried .40-caliber handgun from his truck, entered the building and shot John II several times, killing him. Police arrived moments later. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the teacher's action and Giamanco's response almost certainly prevented further deaths.
Authorities named two of the dead: kindergarten student Rhoam Summer, age 5, and teacher Megan Lambert. Families of the 8- and 11-year-old boys asked that their names not be released. A 7-year-old girl was transferred to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland and remains in serious but stable condition. Teacher Becky Drury, 54, suffered gunshot wounds to her arm and hand and is being treated at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend; her injuries are serious but not life-threatening.
Lambert had grown up in Bend, graduated from Mountain View High School and Boise State, and coached volleyball. Her family said she turned down pay for her first coaching season so that students whose families could not afford the sport could still play. John II's motive remains under investigation. He was not currently enrolled in the Bend-La Pine district.
The school had no resource officer on site at the time. Investigators recovered the shotgun near the shooter. Community members later placed flowers and candles at a memorial outside the building. The attack is the latest in a series of U.S. school shootings in which armed civilians have confronted the gunman before police arrived. Local officials have not yet detailed any changes to security procedures at the school.
