{"id":227827,"date":"2026-10-17T14:16:03","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T14:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/oregon-school-shooter-was-16-year-old-whose-mother-purchased-the-gun-he-used-sources-say-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T14:16:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T14:16:03","slug":"oregon-school-shooter-was-16-year-old-whose-mother-purchased-the-gun-he-used-sources-say-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/oregon-school-shooter-was-16-year-old-whose-mother-purchased-the-gun-he-used-sources-say-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon school shooter was 16-year-old whose mother purchased the gun he used, sources say – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A teenager who gunned down three children and a teacher at an Oregon elementary school Thursday was a 16-year-old former student, officials said Friday.
Griffin J. John II had previously attended Silver Rail Elementary School, Police Chief Mike Krantz said. He was shot and killed by a bystander.
John had been a special needs student at the school, Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said. He was not currently enrolled in the district, Cook said.
All of the victims were in a special needs classroom, he said.
Three boys, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher were killed. A 7-year-old student and a 54-year-old teacher were injured, police said.
A female teacher struggled with John to try to take control of the firearm, a Mossberg Maverick 88 pump-action shotgun, officials said on Friday.
\u201cShe was not injured in that incident but she almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed,\u201d Krantz said, and praised both the bystander and the teacher as heroic and selfless.
The youngest victim, Rhoam Summer, had long, curly hair and his death has left his family \u201cbroken and lost,\u201d they said in a statement.
Officials identified the teacher killed as Megan Lambert, a volleyball coach. The names of the other victims killed were not released at the request of their families, officials said.
Krantz said the teen gunman shot at a vehicle multiple times before he threw his weapon over a property fence and climbed it to enter the premises.
Officials said the gunman shot through a locked door to gain entry into the school around 1 p.m. local time and fired as many as 15 rounds in total, using three types of ammunition.
The shooter had 44 more rounds of ammunition with him, police said.
Two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News that the teen\u2019s mother purchased the long gun he used around his birthday in August.
The mother has been cooperative with law enforcement, according to other law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.
Police said they executed a search warrant at the shooter\u2019s house Friday and collected evidence.
The shooter\u2019s mother, identified through public records as Shauntai Nickerson, spoke to NBC affiliate KTVZ of Bend in 2020 about her son\u2019s enrollment in a special education program.
In the news package<\/a>, which aired on Sept. 29 of that year, Nickerson says her son Griffin, then 10, struggled to learn from home and she welcomed his return to the classroom amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
\u201cI think that it\u2019ll be great for Griffin, because, you know, I am not certified in teaching, you know, a special needs student,\u201d Nickerson said in the news package. \u201cAnd so I think that it\u2019ll 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.\u201d
Attempts to reach Nickerson for comment were not successful.
Police and federal investigators have not publicly identified a motive.
\u201cTo the people who showed courage in the face of such violence and intervened to prevent this tragedy from being any worse, we owe you a debt of gratitude,\u201d Krantz said. \u201cAnd to the school district personnel who follow protocol with lockdown, evacuation, and reunification to keep your students and staff as safe as possible. Thank you for your help.\u201d
CORRECTION<\/strong> (Oct. 16, 2026, 8:20 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article identified the shooter as John. J. Griffin II, based on information NBC News received from three senior law enforcement officials. The Bend, Oregon, police chief said the shooter\u2019s name is Griffin J. John II.
Tom Winter is NBC\u2019s National Law Enforcement and Intelligence Correspondent.
Andrew Blankstein is an investigative reporter\u00a0for NBC News. He\u00a0covers the Western U.S., specializing in crime, courts and homeland security.\u00a0
Jonathan Dienst is chief justice contributor for NBC News and chief investigative reporter for WNBC-TV in New York.
Shayna Jacobs is a national reporter for NBC News digital.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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For YouSettings news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeA teenager who gunned down three children and a teacher at an Oregon elementary school Thursday was a 16-year-old former student, officials said Friday.Griffin J. John II had previously attended Silver Rail Elementary School, Police Chief Mike Krantz said. He was shot and killed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}