Bend police name school shooter as Griffin J. John II, 16
Police in Bend, Oregon, named the 16-year-old who killed three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary and said he was a former student there, KTVZ and NBC News reported. Officials named the teacher as Megan Lambert, 25, and the youngest boy as Rhoam Summer, 5. The other two boys' families asked that their names be kept private.
Bend police on Friday identified the teen who killed three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School on Thursday as Griffin J. John II, 16, a former student at the school, KTVZ and NBC News reported. He had been a special needs student at Silver Rail and was not enrolled in Bend-La Pine Schools, officials said, according to KTVZ and NBC. He was shot and killed by an armed bystander. Police and federal investigators have not given a motive, NBC reported.
Officials identified the teacher who was killed as Megan Lambert, 25, and the youngest victim as Rhoam Summer, 5, KTVZ and NBC reported. The families of the other two boys who died, ages 8 and 11, asked that their names not be released, officials said. A 7-year-old girl was taken to OHSU in Portland, Police Chief Mike Krantz said, according to KTVZ. The wounded teacher, identified by officials as Becky Drury, 54, is being treated for serious but non-life-threatening injuries at St. Charles Bend, KTVZ reported. NBC News described the two as critically injured.
Krantz said the teen fired at a pickup truck, threw his gun over a fence and climbed it, then shot through the school's glass doors, KTVZ reported. Police said he fired up to 15 rounds from a Maverick 88 12-gauge pump-action shotgun in a special needs classroom, and about 44 more rounds were found on him and in a backpack, according to KTVZ. Another teacher in the classroom threw her cellphone at him, tackled him and fought for the gun before the bystander shot him, Krantz said, according to KTVZ. She "almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed," Krantz said, according to KTVZ and NBC.
The teen's mother bought the shotgun around his birthday in August, according to two senior law enforcement officials cited by NBC. The AP earlier reported that his mother bought the gun, citing a law enforcement official. Police served a search warrant at his home on Friday, KTVZ and NBC reported. Police do not plan to release the school crime scene until Tuesday at the earliest, Krantz said, according to KTVZ.
What we know: Police have named the 16-year-old shooter, a former Silver Rail student, and officials have named two of the four people killed.
What we don't: Why he attacked the school.
Where outlets agree KTVZ and NBC News both report that Bend police identified the shooter as a 16-year-old former Silver Rail student and that officials named Megan Lambert and Rhoam Summer among the dead.
Where they differ The outlets cited here report the same key facts so far.