One week ago, on Thursday, October 15, a 16-year-old former student, Griffin J. John II, fired a pump-action shotgun through the locked doors of Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, and killed three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a teacher, 25. A 7-year-old and a teacher, Becky Drury, 54, were critically wounded. The shotgun had been purchased by the attacker’s mother, a law-enforcement official told the Associated Press.
The attack ended inside the school. An armed father who had followed the attacker in shot him dead, after another teacher threw her phone at the attacker and tackled him. The first 911 call came just before 1 p.m. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz has described the response, and Gov. Tina Kotek called the father’s intervention heroic.
On Wednesday, Drury spoke for herself, in a statement that corrects the account given of her. She was shot at close range as she turned to close her classroom door. The blast nearly severed her left hand. She survived, she said, by playing dead. And she corrected reports that she had shielded a student: she never had the chance.
The district’s schools reopened Wednesday, a week after the shooting, with police officers posted at each campus.
The Facts
- Thursday, October 15: Griffin J. John II, 16, a former student, attacked Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, with a pump-action shotgun, per police and AP reporting.
- Killed: three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a teacher, 25. Critically wounded: a 7-year-old and teacher Becky Drury, 54.
- An armed father who followed the attacker into the school shot him dead; another teacher threw her phone at him and tackled him first.
- Drury’s statement (Wednesday): shot at close range closing her door; left hand nearly severed; survived by playing dead; she corrects reports that she shielded a student.
- District schools reopened Wednesday with officers at each campus.
Sources: The Associated Press, including police statements and the teacher’s statement.
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