A teacher and the father of two Silver Rail Elementary School students stopped a 16-year-old gunman after he killed a teacher and three children in a special-needs classroom in Bend, Oregon, police said Friday. The father, who was legally carrying a .40-caliber pistol, shot the teenager after another teacher threw her phone at him, tackled him and fought with him, authorities said.

The shooting occurred Thursday at the school in Bend, a city of about 100,000 people roughly 175 miles (280 kilometres) southeast of Portland. The dead were identified as 25-year-old teacher Meghan Lambert and three pupils aged 5, 8 and 11.

A 7-year-old child remained in serious but stable condition, while another teacher sustained serious injuries that were not considered life-threatening, police said.

Police describe intervention

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the teacher who physically confronted the gunman was not injured. At a Friday news conference, where he at times became emotional, Krantz said her response “almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed.”

“The teacher who was willing to stand and fight for her children, that's true heroism,” Krantz said. Police did not identify the teacher.

Authorities said the 36-year-old father entered the confrontation and fired several times at the suspect, killing him shortly before officers arrived. Police reached the school within three minutes of the first emergency call, Krantz said.

Kenda Freeman told the New York Times that her son, Kaylub Giamanco, was the father who shot the attacker. Giamanco has two daughters at the school. In video posted by the New York Times, Freeman read a statement saying he was seeking privacy and did not wish to speak to reporters.

“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,” Freeman said.

Investigation into attack continues

Police identified the shooter as Griffin J. John II, a former special-needs student at Silver Rail Elementary. He was armed with a Maverick 88 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun and fired about 15 rounds inside the classroom, according to police. Investigators said he had another 44 rounds of ammunition with him.

Before entering the campus, the teen was seen throwing the firearm over a school fence and climbing over after it. A passing truck driver confronted him verbally, and the teen fired at the vehicle, police said.

The gunman then shot through locked glass doors before entering a mixed-grade classroom for special-needs students, authorities said. Krantz said investigators were still trying to establish both a motive and how the teenager obtained the shotgun.

“Everyone wants to know why, including us,” Krantz said. “We may never get that full answer, but we want it.”

Community mourns victims

Residents gathered near the school Friday morning, leaving flowers and candles outside yellow police tape around the site.

Michael Zappa, 71, who lives a few blocks from the school, said through tears that the father’s intervention had saved lives. “Thank God for that father,” he said. “He saved a lot of lives yesterday, and our prayers should go out for him because he has a lot on his mind today.”

Kalani Journeigh, a 9-year-old fourth-grade student, told Reuters that she and classmates in a nearby room heard the gunfire. “All of us were screaming and we were all, like, really scared,” she said, adding that she feared, “We might die.”

She said the shots eventually stopped and that a friend planned to seek therapy because the experience had been traumatic.

Lambert’s family said in a statement read at the news conference that teaching at Silver Rail Elementary had been her “dream job.” They said she “always fought for the underdog and those with special needs.”

The family also thanked Giamanco and described him as a hero, according to the statement.

The K-12 School Shooting Database, a nonprofit online tracker, has recorded 149 incidents since the start of the year in which a gun was fired or displayed at a school, or gunfire struck school property. It said 118 people had been wounded or killed in those incidents.

Separately, the Gun Violence Archive said it had recorded 371 mass shootings since January 2026, using a definition of four or more people shot, excluding the gunman. It said three of those incidents, including the Bend shooting, took place at public schools.