A teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, is being praised as a hero after confronting and tackling the gunman during a deadly shooting on the school’s picture day.
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the unidentified teacher first threw her cellphone at 16-year-old Griffin John II before taking him to the ground and struggling to wrest away his firearm.
The teacher escaped without injury. Krantz called her actions “incredible,” saying they almost certainly prevented further loss of life. The attack claimed the lives of three children, ages five, eight and 11, along with 25-year-old teacher Meghan Lambert.
Joe Camarlinghi, whose third-grade child attends Silver Rail Elementary, said the shooting took place Thursday as the school was holding its annual picture day.
Families had sent their children into school smiling and dressed for their photographs. Instead, parents endured hours of uncertainty as they waited to learn whether their children had survived the attack.
When families eventually gathered for reunification, Camarlinghi said some parents understood that the photographs taken that morning could become the final pictures ever captured of their children.
“I would use the word sickening,” Camarlinghi told The Oregonian on Friday. “You are seeing the faces of parents you’ve seen at pickup all feeling the same thing: is my child safe?”
Four people were killed in the shooting. A seven-year-old child who uses a wheelchair and 54-year-old educational assistant Becky Drury were also wounded.
A school picture day at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, turned deadly on Thursday when the shooting began
Meghan Lambert, 25, of Bend, was the teacher killed in the Oregon elementary school shooting
Becky Drury, right, a 54-year-old educational assistant, was injured along with a seven-year-old wheelchair user
Camarlinghi also honored 36-year-old father Kaylub Giamanco, who rushed into the building in an effort to stop John’s rampage.
“Doing what he did, saving the lives that he did,” Camarlinghi told the outlet, “it is the answer to the prayers of a lot of parents.”
Krantz said Giamanco’s decision to follow the shooter into the school had “undoubtedly saved people,” crediting him with acting quickly in an extremely dangerous situation.
“I don’t think we can underestimate or underappreciate that courage,” Krantz said.
The police chief also praised the teacher for being willing to confront the attacker and fight to protect her students, describing her response as extraordinary.
“We all recognize that is true heroism,” Krantz said. “We don’t see that a lot in society.”
On Friday, Drury’s husband asked the public to respect the family’s privacy as they faced what he described as an “unimaginably difficult time.”
“The kindness and concern shown to our family and everyone affected mean more than we can express,” he said in a statement to NBC News.
Police said John fired up to 15 rounds during the attack and still had 44 rounds remaining when he was shot and killed.
Griffin John II, 16, who killed three children aged five, eight, and 11 at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday is pictured with his mother Shauntai Nickerson
Silver Lake Elementary in Bend is pictured on Friday afternoon in the wake of Thursday’s shooting that killed three students and a teacher
The shooter fired on everyone inside a special education class, where he himself was a student when he attended the school as a young child.
Police said that John was so intent on targeting his former class that he ran around to the back entrance after being fired upon while trying to go in through the front.
John, who was not enrolled in a Bend public school at the time, traveled to Silver Rail Elementary on foot. The route is being investigated.
He threw the Maverick 88 12–gauge pump–action shotgun over the fence before jumping over but found himself blocked from entering.
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He then ran to the back entrance and blasted his way in through a ‘safety vestibule’ system designed to keep children at the school safe from shooters.
Law enforcement remained unsure as to how John obtained his ammunition, saying the investigation was ‘very active.’
Giamanco’s wife Kelsey and brother Kyle, along with several of his friends, confirmed he was the hero who intervened by running inside the school.
He holds a concealed carry permit and is friends with the family of the seven-year-old in the wheelchair who was wounded.
Griffin was shot dead minutes after he began his rampage by Kalub Giamanco, 36, (pictured) a dad of two children at the school who heard the gunshots as he drove home for his lunch break
Bend Chief of Police Mike Krantz praised the heroic dad and teacher during a press conference on Friday
John, who looked gangly with a patchy mustache and goatee, could be seen staring into the camera with a sullen glaze in a haunting photo posted by his mother Shauntai Nickerson last month.
Nickerson told a TV station in 2020 that she was pleased students were going back to the classroom because her son was struggling with distance learning during Covid lockdowns.
‘I think it will be great for Griffin, because I am not certified teaching a special needs student,’ she told KTVZ 21. ‘And I think it will be great for my son to get the help that he needs from the skilled teachers that he needs to get it from.’
The future murderer was in the Nurturing Empathy Safety and Trust program, which helped special education students ‘experiencing intensive behavioral and social skills challenges.’
John used his mother’s shotgun to carry out the massacre, which police said was bought about the time of his 16th birthday.
Nickerson insisted to reporters who confronted her outside her home in Bend that her son was ‘a good boy’ and she would have stopped him if she could. John’s motive is unknown.
Police raided his family’s home on Thursday night, seizing computers and other electronic devices. Family was said to be cooperative.
Rhoam Summer (left) was named as one of the victims of Thursday’s shooting. He is pictured with his mother
The first victim of Thursday’s shooting was named as five–year–old Rhoam Summer by his father, Kelik Summer.
Summer wrote on Facebook: ‘Today has been the worst day of my life. My son Rhoam was killed in a school shooting.
‘We are broken and lost, but are surrounded by friends and family who are keeping us safe.’
Lambert, of Bend, was identified by police and family on Friday at a press conference.
Her family remembered her as having a passion for sports and an ambition for teaching. She ‘lit up the room’ and was ‘compassionate’ with a ‘huge heart.’
That was exemplified when Lambert turned down pay for her first season as a volleyball coach so that families ‘who couldn’t afford to participate could have the chance to play the sport she loved,’ according to her family’s statement.
Lambert’s family emphasized that she was funny, opinionated, ‘fought for the underdog’ and ‘those with special needs.’
‘Meghan loved those children,’ the family said.
Lambert’s goal was to be an educator and teach in the school district she ‘loved growing up in,’ her family said.
Her first job as a teacher was at Silver Rail Elementary, according to her family, though she had been a substitute teacher there ‘for many years.’
‘She loved Silver Rail,’ the statement from Lambert’s family continued. ‘This was her dream job.’
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