A teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, is being praised as a hero after confronting and tackling the gunman during a shooting that killed four people 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 tackling him and struggling to wrestle away his firearm.
The teacher escaped without injury, and Krantz said her “incredible” actions almost certainly prevented further loss of life. The victims included children aged five, eight and 11, along with 25-year-old teacher Meghan Lambert.
Joe Camarlinghi, whose third-grade child attends Silver Rail Elementary, said Thursday’s deadly attack unfolded as the school held its annual picture day.
That morning, parents had sent their children to school smiling and dressed for photographs. Within hours, however, families were left waiting anxiously for confirmation that their children were safe.
During the reunification process, some parents came to the devastating realization that the pictures taken that day would be the final photographs of their children, Camarlinghi said.
“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 attack. A seven-year-old child who uses a wheelchair and 54-year-old educational assistant Becky Drury were also wounded.
The shooting erupted during picture day at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday
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 alongside a seven-year-old child who uses a wheelchair
Camarlinghi also honored 36-year-old father Kaylub Giamanco, who rushed into the school 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.”
Describing the fear he felt while waiting to be reunited with his daughter, Camarlinghi said: “It just builds and builds and builds, and there’s a little bit of relief when I saw my daughter.
“But it’s so minor because you’re feeling the hurt of friends, community members and teachers. And so that’s the part that today is still just processing.”
Krantz said Giamanco’s decision to pursue the shooter into the building had “undoubtedly saved people,” crediting him with acting quickly under extraordinary circumstances.
“I don’t think we can underestimate or underappreciate that courage,” Krantz said.
The police chief likewise praised the teacher for being willing to “stand and fight for her children,” calling her actions “incredible.”
“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 face 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.
John fired as many as 15 shots during the shooting and had 44 left when he was shot dead, according to police.
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
People take part in a vigil for victims of the Silver Rail Elementary School shooting, the day after a shooting on October 16
A woman from the community places flowers at an impromptu memorial at Silver Rail Elementary School
‘You’re feeling the hurt of friends, community members, and teachers. And so that’s the part that today is still just processing,’ one father, whose daughter attends the school, said
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.
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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.
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.’
