Teacher tackled Oregon school shooter; armed father finished it before police arrived

Four minutes. That is how long it took a 16-year-old with a pump-action shotgun to kill three children and a 25-year-old teacher inside a special-needs classroom at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon — and how long it took a teacher, then an armed father, to stop him before a single police officer reached the scene.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz laid out that timeline at an emotional Friday news conference, one day after what he called the first deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Oregon. The attacker, identified as 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, a former special-needs student at the school, was already dead when the first officers arrived at 1:02 p.m. Thursday. Beside his body, investigators found 44 rounds of ammunition that had not been fired.

The sequence began at 12:58 p.m., according to Krantz. A driver in a red Toyota pickup spotted the teen throw a shotgun over the school fence, climb after it and walk toward the building. The driver verbally confronted him. The teen responded by opening fire at the truck, striking it at least three times. The driver, unhurt, pulled away and called 911.

A second driver — a 36-year-old man whose two daughters attend Silver Rail — witnessed the teen shoot at the pickup. He pulled into the school parking lot, retrieved a legally secured .40-caliber pistol from his car and followed the teen on foot. At that point, the shooter had already forced his way through locked glass doors beside the playground and entered the building.

Inside, the teen turned immediately into a special-needs classroom and fired as many as 15 rounds from his Maverick 88, 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. Three students — ages 5, 8 and 11 — and 25-year-old learning specialist Megan Lambert were killed. A 7-year-old student and a 54-year-old educational assistant suffered serious gunshot wounds.

A teacher in the classroom threw her cell phone at the gunman and tackled him, fighting to wrest the weapon away. She was not injured. That is when the 36-year-old father reached the room, found the teacher and the teen struggling, and fired multiple times, killing the shooter.

The teacher who was willing to stand and fight for her children, that's true heroism.— Mike Krantz, Bend Police Chief

The teacher in the classroom threw her cell phone at the suspect, then tackled him and fought to take the firearm from him. She was not injured in that incident, but she almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed.— Mike Krantz, Bend Police Chief

The father has been identified by the Associated Press as Kaylub Giamanco, a lifelong Bend resident. His mother, Kenda Freeman, read a brief statement to reporters outside her son's home Friday. She said he is not seeking recognition.

He is not seeking recognition, but instead wishes to express his gratitude to the first responders, school personnel and community for the outpouring of love and support.— Kenda Freeman, mother of Kaylub Giamanco

Freeman said the family was asking for privacy and would not grant interviews. Lambert's family, in a statement read aloud at the news conference, said of Giamanco: 'We think he is a hero.'

President Donald Trump praised the father at the White House on Friday, calling him a 'great hero' and saying the tragedy 'likely would have been much worse,' according to 1news.co.nz. At a news conference Thursday, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek spoke directly to the father without using his name, saying, 'Your actions carry a heavy emotional burden, and I just want you to know that my thoughts are with you as well,' according to 1news.co.nz.

Two of the victims were identified by police: kindergartener Rhoam Summer, age 5, and learning specialist Megan Lambert, age 25. The families of the two other children — ages 8 and 11 — asked that their names not be released. According to Lambert's family, she graduated from Bend's Mountain View High School in 2019 and from Boise State University in 2023, had previously worked as a substitute at Silver Rail, and had been hired full time less than two months ago.

She loved Silver Rail. This was her dream job.— Family of Megan Lambert, in statement read at news conference

Brad Jolly, grandfather of Rhoam Summer, described the boy to OPB as bright and playful. 'He had a scooter he would run up and down the hallway of our house,' Jolly said. Jolly added that the two read books together and that the child always embraced him warmly before leaving. His aunt, Swan Sheridan, described him as 'a little ball of energy from the moment he was born' who 'never met a stuffie that he didn't think needed to be rescued and cared for,' according to 1news.co.nz.

The 54-year-old educational assistant, identified by her husband as Becky Drury, was treated at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend for gunshot wounds to both arms described as non-life-threatening. The 7-year-old student received emergency care at the scene and was later transferred to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, where police said the child was in serious but stable condition.

Right now, our focus is on my wife, Becky, and her recovery, and on supporting our family through an unimaginably difficult time.— Will Drury, husband of Becky Drury

In the wake of the first 911 call, more than 150 law-enforcement personnel and first responders descended on the school. Krantz said investigators are still working to determine how the shooter obtained the shotgun and why he targeted the school. He said John had previously attended Silver Rail as a special-needs student but was not currently enrolled in Bend-La Pine public schools.

Everyone wants to know why, including us.— Mike Krantz, Bend Police Chief

I know many of you are asking hard questions, and some of you are angry, scared and simply exhausted. Those are all valid feelings.— Mike Krantz, Bend Police Chief

Krantz acknowledged that some of the community's questions 'may never be answered.' Classes and all other activities were cancelled Friday across all 32 schools in the area. Silver Rail, which had about 450 students enrolled last year, serves kindergarten through fifth grade. Children were bused to a nearby church as a reunification center for families.

Kalani Journeigh, a 9-year-old fourth-grader who heard the shots from a nearby classroom, spoke to Reuters about the experience. She said all the students were screaming and very frightened, that her heart was pounding, and that once the gunfire stopped, the school fell silent.

According to a database maintained by the Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University, the attack was the 28th mass killing recorded in the United States so far this year. Since January 2026, the Gun Violence Archive — which defines mass shootings as incidents in which four or more people, not counting the shooter, are struck by gunfire — has logged 371 such events; three of those took place at public schools, including the attack in Bend, according to yahoo.com.

Why it matters — The Bend shooting — Oregon's first deadly elementary school mass shooting — raises urgent questions about how a 16-year-old accessed a shotgun and entered a school, while the actions of an unarmed teacher and an armed civilian father are already reshaping the public debate over school safety and armed bystander intervention.

Reported by reuters.com, spokesman.com, nytimes.com, yahoo.com, opb.org, 1news.co.nz