A 16-year-old former student at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, was confirmed as the shooter who opened fire inside the school on Thursday, killing a teacher and three children, officials announced during a press conference on Friday.
The shooter, identified as Griffin J John II, scaled a fence and entered the school by breaching locked doors. He entered a classroom near the entrance, discharging up to 15 rounds of ammunition.
Authorities reported that all victims were present in the targeted room, including a critically injured seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher sustaining non-life-threatening injuries.
Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old parent and father of a student at the school, heard the gunfire while driving past the campus and rushed inside. He intervened during a struggle between the shooter and an educator, fatally shooting the attacker.
Police stated that the teacher had thrown her phone at John during the confrontation before tackling him in a desperate attempt to disarm him. “She almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed,” Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz emphasized.
Investigators will continue their work over the coming days to establish the shooter’s motives, which remain unclear at this time.
Flowers, stuffed animals, and other memorials lined the entrance of Silver Rail Elementary on Friday as community members gathered to honor the victims. Most visitors paused briefly to offer silence, while some parents embraced their children amid tears and shared grief.
“It just feels so heavy,” said Fabiola Caseres, a local preschool director. “Everybody is looking like deer in the headlights. It’s so sad, and you can’t stop thinking about the kids. They’re supposed to come home.”
The Bend incident marks the deadliest U.S. school shooting since the September 2024 Apalachee High School massacre in Georgia, where a 14-year-old shooter killed two teachers and two students. Experts note a disturbing trend of teenage perpetrators in recent campus shootings, often influenced by nihilistic online communities glorifying past attackers.
The shooting prompted a candlelit vigil at Drake Park in Bend on Thursday evening, attended by hundreds of residents, including Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and Mayor Melanie Kebler. Kotek addressed the crowd, stating, “There is power and love in this park tonight. On behalf of everyone who lives in Oregon, I am so sorry for what you are experiencing today. No parent, no family, no community should have to have this kind of day.”
All schools in Bend and neighboring La Pine were closed on Friday, placing the community in mourning during what would normally be a bustling school day.