A 16-year-old former special-needs pupil has been identified as the gunman who killed three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, police said.
Griffin J. John II opened fire in a classroom for special-needs students on Thursday, killing children aged five, eight and 11, along with 25-year-old teacher Meghan Lambert.
Bend police chief Mike Krantz said the teenager was no longer enrolled in the local public school system. Steven Cook, superintendent of Bend-La Pine Schools, confirmed that John had previously been a special-needs student at the school.
Police said the gunman used a 12-gauge shotgun to fire through locked doors. He discharged as many as 15 rounds and had about 44 rounds remaining when he was killed.
Investigators are still trying to establish how John obtained the weapon. Under Oregon law, a minor may possess a shotgun if it is provided by a parent or with a parent’s consent.
A teacher threw her phone at the gunman before tackling and fighting him, an intervention Chief Krantz said had probably saved lives. She was not injured.
Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old father with two children at the school, then entered the building and shot John dead minutes after the first 911 call, police said.
US President Donald Trump described Mr Giamanco as a “great hero”. He said: “It’s a terrible thing, but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it.”
John’s mother, Shauntai Nickerson, told reporters outside her apartment: “I’m so sorry, I wish I could have done something.”
A seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to hospital in critical condition after the Oregon school shooting.
The attack was the 28th mass killing in the United States this year, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. The Gun Violence Archive has recorded 369 mass shootings in the country in 2026, defining them as incidents in which four or more people are shot.
Everytown for Gun Safety has counted at least 100 incidents involving gunfire on school grounds this year, with 34 deaths.
