A teacher tried to wrestle a shotgun away from a 16-year-old who jumped a playground fence and bypassed front-door security to open fire on a special education classroom at an Oregon elementary school that he once attended, officials said Friday. The attacker killed another teacher and all three students in the classroom before a passerby raced in and shot the shooter dead.

The police said the assailant fired 15 rounds and had 44 more in a backpack. The attack Thursday at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, would have been much deadlier, officials said, if not for the teacher, who also threw her cellphone at the shooter and tried to tackle him, and the armed bystander, who is the father of two students at the school.

The teacher survived the encounter, though a 25-year-old colleague and three students, ages 5, 8 and 11, were killed. A 7-year-old and another teacher were critically wounded. Authorities named two of the slain victims, Rhoam Summer, the 5-year-old, and Megan Lambert, the teacher.

Police identified the suspect as Griffin J. John II. Several news outlets, including The New York Times, had previously reported that his name was John J. Griffin II, relying on information from law enforcement.

Investigators have searched the home of the suspect, according to a law enforcement official granted anonymity to discuss details of the case. His mother was cooperative, the official said, and investigators took the boy’s electronic devices under a search warrant. They believe the shooter used a weapon that belonged to his mother.

Police said the attacker was once a special education student at Silver Rail, but he was not enrolled in the school district at the time of the shooting.

The attack was part of a history of deadly shootings at U.S. schools over the past three decades, leaving deep and lasting scars on communities.

Here’s what we’re covering:

— The bystander: The man who killed the attacker was identified as Kaylub Giamanco by family members, including his mother. Giamanco was on his lunch break near the school when he intervened Thursday. On Friday, his white pickup sat where he had left it, right by the school’s playground.

— The shooter: In a brief interview outside her apartment near the school, the shooter’s mother said she wasn’t sure how her son got the weapon used in the attack. A law enforcement official granted anonymity to discuss details of the case said it was a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun registered to his mother.

— Shaken families: Parents of children who survived the attack said they were struggling to help their children manage feelings of trauma, fear and guilt.

— Protecting classrooms: Experts said fortifying schools would never be enough to thwart a heavily armed gunman.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Anna Griffin and Chelsia Rose Marcius/Jordan Gale
c. 2026 The New York Times Company