Oregon School Shooter Identified as 16-Year-Old John J. Griffin, a Former Silver Rail Student
Law enforcement sources identified 16-year-old John J. Griffin II as the gunman who killed three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend. Police said he fired his mother's shotgun at a pickup truck, then shot the lock off the school door.
The teenager who killed three elementary school students and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday has been identified as 16-year-old John J. Griffin II, a former student at the school, law enforcement sources told the New York Post.
Griffin was armed with his mother’s pump-action shotgun when he opened fire, killing children ages 5, 8 and 11 and a teacher, the sources said. A 7-year-old student and a 54-year-old teacher were critically wounded.
The 5-year-old victim was identified as Rhoam Summer, who had started kindergarten last month. “My son Rhoam was killed in a school shooting,” his father, Kelik Summer, wrote on Facebook. “We are broken and lost, but are surrounded by friends and family who are keeping us safe.”
Police tape and patrol cars outside an elementary school in daylight”>
Truck shot at, door lock blasted off
Police received a 911 call just before 1 p.m. from a man whose red pickup truck had been shot at outside the school. Griffin then climbed a fence with the shotgun, walked to the school door and shot the lock off, according to police.
Officers arrived at 1:02 p.m., about three minutes after the first call, and found that a bystander had already shot Griffin dead. The man, believed to be the father of two students at the school, had run into the building before police got there.
A chain-link fence and an exterior school door, with police activity nearby”>
Parents cooperating, press conference set
Griffin’s parents told investigators he had attended Silver Rail Elementary, CNN reported. They are cooperating with authorities, who executed a search warrant at the family home and took computers and other electronics to look for a motive, sources told the Post. A motive remains unknown.
The Bend Police Department planned a press conference on the shooting for 5 p.m. Friday. The attack was Oregon’s eighth fatal mass shooting since 1998.
Candles and flowers at a roadside memorial outside a school at dusk”>
Reporting based on coverage by the New York Post and CNN.
