On Thursday, October 15, a horrific tragedy took the lives of three students aged 5, 8, and 11 and a teacher after a teen opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, at around 1 p.m.
Another student, 7, and a teacher, 54, were critically injured before a bystander used his own weapon to fatally wound the attacker.
Highlights
- Police have identified the teen who opened fire at an Oregon elementary school and ended four lives.
- Cops found the attacker already deceased when they responded within three minutes of the first 911 call.
- Several witnesses opened up about their experiences of the tragedy, including a 10-year-old student.
Authorities responded to 911 calls within three minutes, but the aggressor was already deceased when they arrived at the scene.
While the motive remains unclear, the police have now revealed the identity of the assailant as disturbing accounts continue pouring in from parents and witnesses.
The attacker was a 16-year-old student who used his mother’s weapon
On Friday, Bend Police Department officials revealed that the attacker was John J. Griffin II, a 16-year-old Bend resident who also attended Silver Rail Elementary School.
He used his mother’s pump-action firearm, purchased around the time of Griffin’s birthday in August, according to NBC News.
In Oregon, a person must be 18 to buy rifles and shotg*ns and 21 to purchase a handg*n. Those under 18 can possess non-handg*n weapons with parental consent. It’s unclear if Griffin had consent to use the weapon.
Griffin’s parents are reportedly cooperating with the authorities, who searched the family’s home, taking the teen’s computers and other electronic devices to determine the reason behind the bloodbath.
“I’m so sorry. I wish I could have done something. I’m sorry for their loss,” the mother told CNN.
As per the 911 dispatch audio call, Griffin first opened fire outside the school at a bystander in a red Toyota Tacoma car, who made the 911 call about “being s**t at multiple times by a person with a long g*n.”
“Boom boom, through my canopy, shattered out the back window, shattered the f**king window,” the eyewitness recalled the nightmare in a video, according to the New York Post.
Showing the numerous bullet holes on his car, the man added that one flew “right above” his head after going through the windshield.
Multiple witnesses opened up about their experiences of the horrific tragedy
After attacking the previous witness, Griffin then hopped a fence, ran to the school’s door, and forced his way inside by firing at the lock, the police said.
According to the accounts of parents and guardians, the assailant then went into the special education area, which some believe explains the different ages of the victims.
Fifth-grade teacher Kathy Sheil Smith said she saw the teen walk into the school through her classroom window and immediately called the main office to warn them. She then moved her students into a corner of the classroom.
“They were so afraid,” she told KPTV. “The look on their faces was really hard to see. Some kids were praying, some kids were consoling other kids.”
“We were definitely scared, and most people were crying, and it was really hard,” said a 10-year-old student, Aizen, who locked the classroom door before taking cover with his classmates after hearing bullets.
Jenn Johnston, the mother of a fifth-grader, recalled receiving a terrifying text message from her son that said, “Mom, there was a school sh**ting. We’re okay though,” the message read.
She immediately turned to social media, and about 20 minutes earlier, the school sent an automated phone call and text saying there was a lockdown in place.
She and her husband quickly drove to the school. They and other families were rerouted to a nearby church, where they waited until about 6 p.m. when they finally reunited with their son.
The man who took down Griffin feels “guilty,” his brother said
The man who took down the attacker on Thursday was identified as Kaylub Giamanco, 36, by his brother, Kyle.
Kaylub, a carpenter and a father of two girls who attend the school, was driving home for his lunch break when he heard bullets being fired while crossing the school. He then saw Griffin and followed him into the school.
Kyle told NBC News that his brother has a concealed-weapon permit, which he used to subdue and end the life of Griffin. However, Kaylub doesn't want to speak to the media right away because he doesn’t feel like the “hero” everyone is labeling him.
“He can’t get the children out of his head and feels guilty he didn’t save more people,” Kyle said.
“There was a great hero, and it could have been — as bad as it was, we had a great hero that went in and did the business. He took care of business,” President Donald Trump told the reporters about Kaylub.
“So the person … followed the shooter into the school and stopped them from getting any further access into the school,” former FBI officer Ken Gray weighed in on CNN’s The Situation Room.
“Had this not happened, had the bystander not neutralized the sh**ter? This could have been a much more tragic event than it was.”
According to CNN, this was the 36th school sh**ting on K-12 grounds, and 52 overall, just this year in the United States.
"Thank you, hero, for answering the call," one user reacted to Kaylub's actions
