Bend police name school shooting victims and hail a teacher and a father who stopped the gunman

Police in Bend, Oregon, on Friday named a kindergartner and a young teacher among the four people killed at Silver Rail Elementary School. They also described how a teacher in the room and a father of two students moved to stop the 16-year-old gunman within minutes of the first shots.

Chief Mike Krantz told reporters at an emotional briefing that every victim was inside one special education classroom a few steps from the entrance. Three boys ages 5, 8 and 11 died along with 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert. The youngest was 5-year-old Rhoam Summer. The families of the other two boys asked that their names be kept private.

A teacher fights back

Krantz singled out a teacher in that classroom who hurled her phone at the attacker before tackling him and wrestling for his shotgun. She came through without injury. The chief called her stand true heroism and said her fight almost surely kept the death toll from climbing. Police did not release her name.

The father who followed him in

The man who ended the attack is Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter who has spent his whole life in Bend and has two daughters at Silver Rail. Police said the teen tossed his gun over a fence near the campus and climbed after it. A driver in a red pickup yelled at him. The teen answered by firing at the truck, hitting it at least three times. That driver pulled away to call 911.

Giamanco was in a second vehicle. He trailed the teen toward the building, grabbed his legally stored .40-caliber pistol from his car and went in through the doors the gunman had shot open. He found the teacher grappling with the attacker and shot him several times. No other students were left in the room by then, officials said.

Giamanco's mother read a short family statement outside his home. It said he is not looking for praise and wants to thank first responders, school staff and neighbors for their support. The family said it will not give interviews.

How it unfolded

The first 911 call came in at 12:59 p.m. Thursday. Officers arrived in under five minutes and found the shooter already dead. Investigators said he blew out the glass on the school's locked doors and then fired as many as 15 rounds from a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun inside the classroom. About 44 more shells were found on him or in his backpack.

Police identified the shooter as Griffin J. John II. He once attended Silver Rail as a special education student but was not enrolled anywhere in the Bend-La Pine district. No motive has been determined. Officers served a search warrant at his home while roughly 150 local, state and federal personnel work the case.

The wounded

A 7-year-old girl hurt in the attack was moved to OHSU in Portland and was in serious but stable condition Friday. Becky Drury, a 54-year-old special education teacher, is being treated at St. Charles Bend and is expected to recover. Her husband thanked the community for its prayers and kindness.

Her dream job

Lambert grew up in Bend. She finished Mountain View High School in 2019 and Boise State University in 2023. She played and coached volleyball and worked as a substitute at Silver Rail before the school hired her for her first full-time teaching post. Her family said the school was her dream job and that she always stood up for the underdog and for kids with special needs.

Rhoam's grandfather remembered a playful boy who zoomed his scooter up and down the hallway, loved reading books together and never left without a big hug.

Superintendent Steve Cook promised a hard look at what the district does to keep students safe. The school's resource officer covers several campuses and was at a nearby school when the shooting began. Police plan to keep the building as a crime scene until at least Tuesday.