Oregon School Gunman’s Shotgun Was Bought By His Mother: Sources

Police in Bend, Oregon, say they are still working out how a 16-year-old got the shotgun he used to kill three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary, even as multiple outlets, citing unnamed officials, say that his mother bought it.

The shooter, identified by Police Chief Mike Krantz as Griffin J. John II, walked up to the school’s fence at 12:58 p.m. Thursday, threw the weapon over it and climbed after it. A pickup driver who confronted him made the first 911 call; he fired at the truck, hitting it at least three times, and the driver was unhurt. He then shot out the glass in the school’s locked doors and went into the special needs classroom just inside, where he fired “as many as 15 rounds,” Krantz said. Three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher were killed. A 7-year-old girl and a 54-year-old staff member were wounded.

Every victim was shot in the special needs classroom of the school John once attended, where he had been a special needs student, according to Superintendent Steven Cook and the police chief. “All of the victims were shot in that classroom,” Krantz said, per CBS. No motive has been given; Krantz told reporters, “we may never get that full answer, but we want it.”

The gun was a Maverick 88, a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, which Krantz said was found near him with a backpack. John fired birdshot, buckshot and slugs, and ABC reports another 44 rounds were recovered from him and his backpack.

Police have not confirmed on the record that the mother bought the gun. NBC says multiple officials told it she bought the shotgun around his August birthday, and two law enforcement officials told it she has been cooperative. CBS and ABC cite sources too, and ABC says officials haven’t confirmed it. The Bend Source reports that police declined to say whether the parents were cooperating or to confirm the purchase. Investigators have searched the family’s home under a warrant. No charges against anyone have been reported. Our earlier post carried an Associated Press source’s claim that the purchase was legal; nothing police have said on the record establishes that.

Oregon law is permissive on the purchase itself. A person must be 18 to buy a rifle or shotgun, NBC notes, and ORS 166.470 bars transferring a firearm to anyone under 18, but exempts a parent, or someone with a parent’s consent, handing a minor a firearm other than a handgun, as well as temporary transfers for hunting, target practice or another lawful purpose. A violation is a Class A misdemeanor. A mother buying a shotgun and giving it to her son would not, on those facts alone, fall under the ban.

The storage rules are the harder test. Oregon’s 2021 gun law, SB 554, requires firearms to be secured with a trigger or cable lock, in a locked container or in a gun room. The Giffords Law Center, a gun-control group, summarizes the rest: owners must secure a gun whenever it is not carried or controlled by an authorized person, penalties rise if a minor gets an unsecured firearm, and whoever transfers a firearm to a minor must directly supervise its use, with failure counted as negligence per se in a civil suit.

The facts that decide it are not public: where the gun was kept, who held the key, whether anyone supervised him. Investigators are going through his computer, phone, social media and search history, CBS reports, including whether he was fixated on earlier mass shootings; sources stressed the inquiry is preliminary. Police have asked the public for video from Oct. 15 around Third Street and Brosterhous Road, and the Bend Source says the scene is expected to be released Oct. 20.

A bystander ended the attack. Kaylub Giamanco, 36, a carpenter with two daughters at the school and a concealed-weapon permit, according to his brother, followed the shooter in with a .40-caliber pistol that Krantz said he had “legally secured in his vehicle,” saw a teacher struggling with the gunman, and fired, “striking the suspect multiple times.”