A passerby in a pickup truck, a local father, and an elementary school teacher all acted quickly and likely prevented an even worse tragedy at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, where three students and another teacher died in a shooting in a special education classroom, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Friday.
“The teacher in the classroom threw her cell phone at the suspect, then tackled him and fought to take the firearm from him. She was not injured in that incident, but she almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed,” he said in an emotional press conference.
“The teacher who was willing to stand, fight for her children: incredible. And I think we all recognize that that is true heroism,” he said.
Of the person who intervened to stop the shooting, Krantz said, “We owe you a debt of gratitude.”
A 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were seriously injured in the attack Thursday, authorities said. The shooter, a 16-year-old boy who had attended Silver Rail Elementary, was killed at the scene by a bystander who followed him into the building and confronted him. He was not currently enrolled in Bend-La Pine public schools.
Krantz identified 5-year-old Rhoam Summer, a kindergartener, and 25-year-old Megan Lambert, a teacher, among the dead. He did not release the names of the other boys, ages 8 and 11, who died, at the request of their families.
The deadly shooting at Silver Rail unfolded in mere moments. The first call to Deschutes County dispatchers came in at 12:59 p.m. from the driver of a passing pickup truck outside the school who said somebody was shooting at them. Less than five minutes later, police were on the scene and the suspected shooter was already dead, Krantz said, repeating details police previously shared on Thursday.
In that short time period, multiple people attempted to intervene, he said on Friday.
At least two drivers saw Griffin J. John II, a 16-year-old who previously attended Silver Rail Elementary, approach the school with a gun, Krantz said. The teen threw his weapon over a fence, then climbed that fence to access the school campus, he said.
One driver, in a pickup truck, verbally confronted the suspect, who then shot at the truck and struck it at least three times, he said. That driver proceeded down the street to call 911, while the driver of a second vehicle, the father of two students at Silver Rail, followed the armed teen into the school’s parking lot, Krantz said.
That man, who the Associated Press has identified as Kaylub Giamanco, grabbed his legally secured .40-caliber pistol and followed the teen into the school, Krantz said.
The gunman gained access to the school by shooting out the windows on its locked doors, then went into a classroom immediately to the left of where he’d entered the building, and fired as many as 15 rounds, Krantz said.
Teachers responded immediately. By the time Giamanco entered the classroom, one teacher, who had thrown a cell phone at the suspect, was fighting with the teen, said Krantz, noting that this teacher was not seriously injured.
That’s when Giamanco shot and killed the 16-year-old shooter, Krantz said.
Investigators say they found a Maverick .88 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun and 44 rounds of ammunition with or near the teen.
Specifics about the shooter’s motivations still unclear, though Krantz said Friday he was previously a student at the school.
Krantz said the injured 7-year-old received life-saving care at the scene and is now in serious but stable condition at OHSU in Portland, and the 54-year-old female teacher who was seriously injured is being treated at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.
Zack Hall, who is acting as a family spokesperson, told OPB that the teacher, Becky Drury, is expected to survive. She worked in special education, he said.
The family is “incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support, prayers, and well-wishes” since the shooting,” her husband, Will Drury, said in a statement provided to OPB.
Remembering the dead
Surviving family members of teacher Meghan Lambert issued a statement about the 25-year-old through Bend police.
Lambert was a 2019 graduate of Bend’s Mountain View High School and a 2023 graduate of Boise State University, they said.
“Her goal was to be an educator and teach in the school district she loved,” Lambert’s family statement said. She worked at Silver Rail Elementary as a substitute teacher before the school hired her for her first teaching position.
“She loved Silver Rail. This was her dream job,” the family said in the statement.
Brad Jolly, grandfather of 5-year-old Rhoam Summer, told OPB his grandson was a bright, playful “lovely little kid.”
“He had a scooter he would run up and down the hallway of our house,” Jolly told OPB. “We talked about many things. Read books together. He always gave me a big hug when he left.”
People in the community have been quick to praise Giamanco for preventing further tragedy.
Giamanco’s mother, Kenda Freeman, confirmed his role, the Associated Press reported Friday.
“He is not seeking recognition, but instead wishes to express his gratitude to the first responders, school personnel and community for the outpouring of love and support,” Freeman said, reading from a prepared statement to reporters outside her son’s residence near the school.
Freeman declined to speak with OPB on Friday morning. She told reporters the family is not granting interviews.
Thousands have attended vigils in Bend over the last two days, including 19-year-old Matthew McCarthy.
He lives just two minutes from Silver Rail Elementary School, where his mom is a teacher.
When he learned about an active shooter at the school, his first reaction was to get there as soon as he could. But he called his mom first.
“She didn’t know what was happening so she told me to lock the doors,” he said.
“I locked the doors.”
He said he could tell from her voice that she was safe.
“Right when she told me I can come, I went and found her,” he said during a vigil Friday night in downtown Bend. “She was with the whole kindergarten class, helping them.”
In the aftermath, he said his mom is “getting through it,” and the school district has been supportive.
For 80-year-old Inge Fryklund, the vigil reminded her of a previous shooting that happened four years ago at a Safeway in Bend.
Until then, “It seemed like Bend was a fairly safe place,” she said.
“Like every school since Columbine, somehow you keep going, and then there’s going to be another one,” she said. “We’re just the most recent.”
Across town at Silver Rail Elementary Friday night, dozens of people gathered on the other side of yellow crime scene tape. They brought heart-shaped balloons and candles. They placed crayons, children’s books and stuffed animals in honor of the victims.
Most were completely silent, except for some children in the crowd, like a toddler eventually carried off by an adult.
People wrote out messages of hope, love and mourning on a giant piece of white paper laid out in front of the sidewalk. One young boy wrote with marker, “I hope this never happens again.”
This story was reported by Jireh Deng, Jen Baires, Holly Bartholomew and Joni Auden Land in Bend and Dirk Vanderhart, Troy Brynelson, Bryce Dole and Amelia Templeton in Portland. It was written by Courtney Sherwood in Portland.
