Shooter in fatal Bend, Oregon, school shooting was former student there

The 16-year-old who barged into an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, and unleashed a barrage of gunfire that killed a teacher and three children was a former student at Silver Rail elementary, officials confirmed in a Friday press conference.

The shooter, identified as Griffin J John II, climbed over a fence and onto the school’s property before shooting through a set of locked doors to enter the building.

The heavily armed shooter beelined toward a classroom left of the entrance doors, firing as many as 15 rounds.

All of the victims from Thursday’s shooting were in that room, including a seven-year-old still in critical condition and a 54-year-old teacher with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

A 36-year-old Silver Rail parent, identified as Kaylub Giamanco by his family, heard the gunshots as he was driving by and entered the school.

He saw an educator in a scuffle with John, at which point he intervened, shooting and killing the shooter.

Police say the teacher threw her phone at John before tackling him and fighting to disarm him.

“She almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed,” Bend police chief Mike Krantz said.

Police said the investigation will continue over the coming days.

Outside the school on Friday, a steady stream of people arrived to deliver flowers in front of the campus.

They left dozens of bouquets, teddy bears, Minnie Mouse stuffed animals and a pumpkin. Most people stopped by for just a moment to pay their respects. Some sat, and parents held their children and cried together.

It was eerily quiet at a time when the campus would normally be teeming with activity, said Joe Camarlinghi, father of a third grader at the school.

Fabiola Caseres, who runs a local preschool and came by to deliver flowers, said the sadness was palpable all around the close-knit city.

“It just feels so heavy,” she said. “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 shooting in Bend is the most deadly school shooting since the September 2024 mass killing at Apalachee high school in Georgia, where a 14-year-old shooter killed two teachers and two students.

Although a motive in this school shooting remains unclear, the age of the shooter points to a troubling pattern.

Some of the most recent high-profile shootings on and off school campuses have been carried out by teenagers and young adults, many of whom are a part of nihilistic online communities where posters praise, and seek to emulate, prior shooters like those who carried out attacks at Columbine high school, in Christchurch in New Zealand and at Virginia Tech.

In May, two teenagers who met and were radicalized online shot and killed three people at a mosque in San Diego before shooting themselves. In their manifesto, they explicitly named the Apalachee high school shooters as their inspiration.

The city of Bend, home to about 100,000 residents, held a candlelit vigil on Thursday night. Hundreds of people gathered in Bend’s Drake Park as the sun set. Oregon governor Tina Kotek and Bend mayor Melanie Kebler attended the vigil.

“There is power and love in this park tonight,” Kotek said. “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.”