BEND, Ore. — New details from Bend police credit a teacher and an armed father with stopping the Silver Rail Elementary School shooting that killed three children and a teacher Thursday.
According to police accounts reported by The Associated Press, The Washington Post and Oregon media, a teacher threw her cellphone at 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, tackled him and fought for control of his shotgun. She was not injured.
Kaylub Giamanco, a father of two students at the school, followed the attacker into the building with a legally secured .40-caliber pistol and fatally shot him, authorities said. Giamanco’s mother later told AP he has two daughters at the school.
Police Chief Mike Krantz said the teacher’s and father’s actions likely prevented further deaths while acknowledging “hard questions” remain about how the attack unfolded. The first 911 calls came just before 1 p.m.; officers arrived within minutes.
The Bend-La Pine Schools community is mourning the victims while counselors and investigators continue work at the K-5 campus southeast of Portland.
Sources: AP News, AP News latest, BBC. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Gerald England / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
