A 16-year-old identified as Griffin J. John II opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday, killing three children and one teacher and leaving a 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher in critical condition. Police say he shot out the school’s glass doors to get inside, then fired up to 15 rounds inside a single classroom using a pump-action shotgun his mother had purchased, along with three types of 12-gauge ammunition.
The attack ended, according to Bend police, because two people inside the building and one parent outside of it refused to wait for help to arrive. A teacher threw her phone at the shooter and physically tackled him, and 36-year-old parent Kaylub Giamanco followed the gunman into the school and shot him with a legally stored pistol. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz and Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook both publicly credited their actions with saving lives.
Investigators are still working to determine how the shooter obtained the weapon and ammunition, and a news conference is scheduled for later today. Two victims remain hospitalized in critical condition, and families across Bend are waiting for answers that no press briefing can really provide. For Suncoast listeners, especially families with kids in school or grandparents with grandkids in the classroom, this is a story about the ninety seconds before anyone in uniform can arrive. What conversations are you having in your household this week?
