A Teacher With a Cellphone and a Father With a Gun Stopped a School Shooter

Shortly after 1 p.m. on Thursday, a motorist driving a red pickup noticed a teenager climbing a fence onto the grounds of Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, holding a shotgun. When the motorist confronted him, the teenager opened fire on the vehicle several times. The motorist then dialed 911.

The teenager moved toward the school. The entrances were locked, but he got inside after firing multiple rounds at the locked doors and entered a special education classroom.

Police say several people stepped in to try to stop the attack from becoming worse than it was: the driver who called 911, the teacher who fought for the gun, and Caleb Giammanco, the father who followed him inside. The attack left four people dead: three pupils and an educator.

Inside the classroom, a teacher confronted the gunman and tried to take his weapon. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz described it this way: "A teacher in the classroom threw her cellphone at the suspect and then tackled him and fought to take the firearm from him. She was not injured in that incident, but she almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed."

At almost the same time, a second bystander was pulling into the parking lot. Caleb Giammanco, a lifelong Bend resident whose two young children attend Silver Rail, had witnessed the gunfire outside moments earlier. He grabbed a gun that police say he legally kept in his car, ran after the teenager into the building, and shot and killed him. News accounts have called him heroic.

His mother shared his name with reporters in a statement and said the family requested privacy.

Police say the gunman was 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, who had earlier attended special education classes at Silver Rail. That detail matters since the attack occurred inside a classroom for special education. He was armed with a Maverick 88 shotgun. Police found a backpack he left at the scene. They also found 44 more rounds of ammunition.

A seven-year-old pupil and a teacher aged 54 were wounded and are being treated. Since the shooting, hundreds of residents have gone to the local library to speak with crisis counselors. Police say the gun had been kept at the house where the teenager lived. How he got it is still an open question.