A wheelchair-bound 7-year-old remains in critical condition after an Oregon school shooter hit him in the face, and a father with a gun stopped the attack.
John J. Griffin II, 16, opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday, killing three students ages 5, 8, and 11 and a teacher before a bystander ended the assault.
Among the wounded was a 7-year-old student shot in the face while in a wheelchair. A 54-year-old teacher was also left in critical condition. The youngest child killed was identified as kindergartner Rhoam Summer, 5.
The New York Post reported the 7-year-old was fighting for life after the face wound and was recovering from surgery. Griffin carried out the attack with a pump-action shotgun his mother had allegedly purchased, a law enforcement source told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Griffin moved into a special education room inside the building. That is where the shooting stopped, not by a locked door or a delayed response, but by an armed civilian who refused to wait.
Kaylub Giamanco, a carpenter with a concealed-weapon permit and two daughters enrolled at Silver Rail Elementary, was driving past the school on his lunch break when he heard gunshots and saw Griffin.
Giamanco followed the 16-year-old into the special education room and fatally shot him. Four people were already dead. Two more were critically hurt. The attack ended there.
His brother, Kyle Giamanco, told NBC News he is friends with the family of the injured child and described his brother’s actions that day. Kaylub Giamanco did not grant interviews seeking praise.
Just the News reported that Giamanco, 36, wants to keep a low profile. His family said he is not seeking recognition and instead wants to thank first responders, school staff, and the community for their support. Relatives also said he feels the weight of lives he could not reach in time.
"He is not seeking recognition, but instead wishes to express his gratitude to the first responders, school personnel, and community for the outpouring of love and support."
His mother, Kenda Freeman, spoke plainly about what her son did and what it has cost him.
"He is absolutely a hero.... It’s not an easy time, and he’s going through a lot.... I’m super proud of him, and I couldn’t ask for more."
Rhoam Summer’s father identified the kindergartner as the youngest victim. On Friday, an aunt spoke at the family’s home about the parents’ condition after the loss.
"They’re not good. They’re devastated right now."
Three children, 5, 8, and 11, never came home. A teacher was killed with them. A second teacher, 54, clung to life alongside the 7-year-old shot in the face. Those are the verified human costs from Thursday’s attack at Silver Rail Elementary.
Giamanco held a lawful concealed-weapon permit. He was not a campus officer. He was a dad on a break whose daughters attend the same school where Griffin was killing students and staff.
He heard shots, saw the gunman, entered the special education room, and stopped him. No motive for Griffin has been stated in the available accounts. No formal charging narrative applies to a shooter already dead at the scene. What is known is the sequence: four killed, two critically wounded, and the attack halted by a permit holder who chose to go in.
School shootings are often framed around what lawmakers might do next. This one also shows what one trained, armed adult did in the minutes that mattered. Giamanco’s family is not selling a political brand. They are describing a carpenter who is grieving the children he could not save and asking for quiet.
The 7-year-old shot in the face remained in critical condition after surgery. The 54-year-old teacher was listed in the same fight. Names of the other slain students and the killed teacher were not fully detailed in early accounts beyond ages and Rhoam Summer’s identification by his father.
Griffin was 16. The shotgun used in the attack was a pump-action model that, according to the anonymous law-enforcement account relayed through the Associated Press, his mother had purchased. How the teenager gained control of that weapon inside an elementary school remains a central unanswered point for investigators and for parents who sent their kids to class on an ordinary Thursday.
Silver Rail Elementary is where Giamanco’s two daughters go to school. It is also where three children and a teacher were murdered, and where a wheelchair-bound 7-year-old took a blast to the face. Those facts sit side by side without polish.
When a 16-year-old is killing children in a classroom, the difference between more victims and fewer can be a father with a permit who runs toward the gunfire instead of away from it.
