Public Safety · Bend, OR
A 16-year-old former student, identified as Griffin J. John II, killed four people and wounded a 7-year-old child and teacher Becky Drury with a 12-gauge shotgun at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday. Police Chief Mike Krantz said the shooter fired up to 15 shots before being shot by a father who followed him into the building; a teacher also tackled and fought the gunman. Classes across Bend were canceled Friday as memorials appeared near the school, which enrolls about 450 students in grades K-5. Authorities are investigating how the teenager obtained the shotgun, which a law enforcement official said was purchased by his mother.
Public Safety · Bend, OR
A Thursday shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon killed teacher Megan Lambert, 25, and three children ages 5, 8, and 11, with a 7-year-old child and another teacher injured. All victims were in the same classroom near a school entrance, according to Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz. The 16-year-old shooter was shot and killed by a man who entered the school during the attack. Lambert, a Mountain View High School graduate who returned to her hometown after earning her degree at Boise State University in May 2023, was in her first teaching position but had previously worked at Silver Rail as a substitute educator.
Public Safety · Bend, OR
Following a school shooting in Bend, an armed bystander—a father of two students at the school with no law enforcement background—stopped the shooter, an intervention researchers say is unprecedented. James Densley of Metro State University, who tracked roughly 400 K-12 school homicide incidents since 2000, found no prior case of a civilian shooting to stop an attacker. ALERRT at Texas State University advises civilians to run first, block access second, and fight only as a last resort. The NRA issued a statement referencing "law-abiding gun owners" while sociologist Jennifer Carlson of Arizona State University said the "good guy with a gun" framing oversimplifies deeper safety anxieties.
