BEND, Ore. — The 16-year-old who killed three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School on Thursday was Griffin J. John II, a former student, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Friday.
Krantz said John was shot and killed by a bystander at the school. John fired as many as 15 rounds during the attack, he said.
The children killed were 5, 8 and 11, Krantz said at a news conference Thursday night. Police and her family identified the 5-year-old as Rhoam Summer, and police identified the teacher killed as Meghan Lambert, 25.
The 7-year-old girl is being treated in Portland, at Oregon Health & Science University. Her condition Friday was serious but stable, Krantz said. Also wounded was a teacher, 54. She is at St. Charles Medical Center, her injuries serious but non-life-threatening, he said.
John’s gun, found beside him, was a 12-gauge Maverick 88 pump-action shotgun, Krantz said. There was a backpack beside him too. The ammunition he fired came in three kinds, birdshot, buckshot and slugs, Krantz said, and 44 rounds were found at the scene still unfired.
John entered a special-needs classroom, Superintendent Steven Cook of Bend-La Pine Schools told reporters Friday. John had once been a special-needs student at the school himself, Cook said.
Krantz described how John reached the school: on foot, to the fence, the shotgun thrown over it first, and John climbing over after it. A man driving past in a pickup confronted him, and John fired at the truck, hitting it at least three times, Krantz said.
That driver drove on and made the first 911 call, he said. Kaylub Giamanco, 36, whose children attend the school, saw the shooting at the truck and drove into the school parking lot, Krantz said.
John forced his way inside by firing several rounds into the glass panes of a set of double doors, according to Krantz. He went straight to the classroom immediately to the left of the doors and opened fire there.
“All of the victims were shot in that classroom,”
Inside, a teacher threw her cellphone at John, tackled him and fought to take the shotgun from him, Krantz said. She was not hurt, and Krantz praised what he called her “heroic actions,” saying she “almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed.”
Giamanco, who legally owned a .40-caliber pistol, entered the school and heard the shooting, Krantz said. He saw the teacher struggling with John, went to the classroom and shot John multiple times, he said.
Police said officers responded within minutes to 911 calls from the school. They found John and the victims inside, police said.
Giamanco’s family said in a statement Friday that he is not seeking recognition. The Bend resident, whose two daughters attend the school, thanked first responders, school staff and the community for their support, the family said.
Police have not given a motive. Law enforcement sources told CBS News that investigators are reviewing John’s computer, phone, social media, search history and other online activity, and are examining whether he may have been obsessed with violence, including earlier mass shootings.
The sources stressed that the investigation is in its preliminary stages.
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