The 16-year-old gunman who shot and killed three children and one 25-year-old teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday has been identified as Griffin J. John II, Bend's police chief announced in a news conference Friday.

Authorities said he was shot and killed by a bystander at the school. The suspect was a former student of Silver Rail Elementary, police said.

The attacker used a shotgun purchased by his mother, law enforcement sources told CBS News. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Friday that a Maverick 88 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun was located near the suspect, as well as a backpack. Krantz said that three types of ammunition were used in the shooting: birdshot, buckshot and slugs.

The suspect fired as many as 15 rounds, Krantz said Friday, and another 44 remaining rounds of ammunition were located at the scene.

A motive for the attack has not been provided. Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said in Friday's news conference that the classroom where the shooting occurred was a special needs classroom, and he disclosed that the suspect had been a special needs student at that school.

An undated photo of Griffin J. John II, the suspected shooter who authorities said opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Oct. 15, 2026. Shauntai Nickerson/Facebook

In 2020, the suspect's mother, Shauntai Nickerson, spoke to a local television station about her then-10-year-old son, who she said had special needs and struggled to learn from home during the pandemic. She told KTVZ,  It'll be great for my son to get back in there and get the help that he needs with the skilled teachers that he needs to get it from. 

Krantz said the suspect approached the fence of the school on foot, threw the shotgun over the fence, and then climbed it himself.

When he was confronted by a man who was passing in a pickup truck, he fired on the truck, striking it at least three times, Krantz said. That driver then drove on and made the initial 911 call.

It was at that time that the bystander who would later kill the suspect, a 36-year-old man whos
#cbsnews   #crimewatchdallas