It took just 3 minutes. How the Bend school shooting unfolded

On a sunny Oregon fall morning, parents dressed their children up and sent them to Silver Rail Elementary School for picture day. It’s the kind of picture parents return to years later, marveling at how small their children once were and how their smiles looked before their faces changed.

But for some families, snapshots in their minds from that morning will carry a devastating, final memory of a child who never came home.

Just hours after Steven and Angela Nuchols sent their 8-year-old daughter to school, they raced back to Silver Rail, desperate to know whether she was alive, they told local news outlet , The Bend Source .

“It was crawling with police officers from all over the county,” Angela Nuchols told The Bend Source . “You’ve got guys in tactical gear, rifles. You’re just scared to death wondering, is your child OK?”

For the Nuchols family, the next few hours before they were reunited with their daughter at a church were “the worst three hours of our lives,” Angela said.

American schools have repeatedly seen the illusion of safety shattered within the walls of their classrooms. An elementary school in Bend, Oregon, was the latest among them, when a 16-year-old opened fire on Thursday, killing three children, including Rhoam Summer, aged 5; and two others, aged 8 and 11; as well as a 25-year-old teacher, Megan Lambert, police said. A 7-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were injured and taken to local hospitals, according to officials.

Another school turned into a crime scene; a violation of the sanctity of childhood.

Michelle was a freshman in high school in California when she survived a school shooting in 2001. The trauma followed her into adulthood; she learned to scan rooms for exits, sit facing doors and live with anxiety and panic attacks.

Long before the shooting, every school drop-off carried a quiet dread. Michelle, who is withholding her last name for privacy, would watch her children go, a pit in her stomach, wondering whether she would see them again.

Then, on Thursday, her fifth-grade son called from Silver Rail Elementary School.

“Mom, there’s a shooter.”

Michelle was eating at an Olive Garden when her son’s voice came through his Apple Watch. She cried while recounting the moment, and said she immediately knew from the sound of his voice that something was terribly wrong.

She told him she loved him, urged him to stay quiet and hung up to call 911. As she ran to her car, the call rang without an answer. She raced toward the school, about 10 minutes away.

“I was like, how can this happen?” Michelle wonders, her voice shaking. “How can lightning strike twice?”

The first 911 call came at 12:59 p.m., after the driver of a red pickup truck saw a man approach the school, throw his long gun over the fence and climb over after it, police said Friday. When the pickup driver confronted him, the suspect opened fire, striking the truck at least three times.

From her classroom window, fifth-grade teacher Kathy Sheil Smith watched the gunman walk toward the building. She called the main office, then pulled her students into a corner.

“They were so afraid. The looks on their faces, it was really hard to see,” Sheil Smith told CNN affiliate KPTV, trying to hold back tears. “Some kids were praying, some kids were consoling other kids. But they were doing so quietly because they know you don’t make any noise.”

She wondered whether she would live to see the end of the day. What mattered to her was that her students would.

“I’m sure that every teacher at the school thought, ‘Today is the day that I am going to die,’” Sheil Smith told CNN affiliate KPTV . “Save my kids.”

As Smith tried to shield her students inside the school, a terrifying picture was emerging. Around 12:59 p.m., emergency dispatchers received a flood of calls reporting that a person had entered the Silver Rail Elementary School and started shooting, according to Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz. At 1:01 p.m., police directed the school to go into lockdown.

The gunman went directly into the classroom just left of the entrance and fired as many as 15 rounds, according to Krantz. The classroom was dedicated to special needs students, according to Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook.

A second driver, a 36-year-old father whose children attend the school, had witnessed the initial shooting, drove into the school parking lot and followed the suspect into the school with his legally secured 40-caliber pistol, police said. The bystander was identified by his family as Kaylub Giamanco on Friday.

A teacher — who was not injured — threw her cellphone at the shooter and tackled him in an attempt to get the gun away from him, the police chief said. When Giamanco heard gunfire and saw the teacher physically struggling with the gunman, Giamanco entered the classroom and fired, striking the suspect multiple times and killing him, police said.

Less than half a mile away, business owner Sierra Jordan told CNN the familiar sound of children laughing and playing outside at recess gave way to the frantic arrival of ambulances.

About three minutes after the first 911 call, it was over: At 1:02 p.m., police arrived and reported the shooter had been shot and killed by Giamanco. President Donald Trump called Giamanco “a great hero” who “took care of business.”

“Had this not happened, had the bystander not neutralized the shooter? This could have been a much more tragic event than it was,” former FBI special agent Ken Gray told CNN.

The shooter was identified as 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, a former special needs student at the school, Krantz said Friday. A Maverick 88 pump-action, 12-gauge shotgun was found near the suspect, who had about 44 remaining rounds of 12-gauge ammunition, Krantz added.

The gun had been purchased by his mother, a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told CNN earlier Friday.

Bend, a picturesque city of about 100,000 people, sits in the high desert landscape of central Oregon. It is a city of sage-scented air, snow-capped peaks and the Deschutes River that cuts through the heart of downtown; a magnet for thrill-seekers finding solace in the nearby mountain trails, red rock cliffs and star-filled skies.

Although the city has boomed in recent years, it remains a quiet corner of the American West where the wilderness begins just beyond the city streets and its brick front stores and breweries.

“Bend is a place that people move to from bigger cities,” Former Bend Mayor Jeff Eager told CNN . “They move here because it’s relatively safe here; they move here because we have schools you can walk your kids to,” Eager said. “You can’t imagine that it happens here.”

But against Bend’s picturesque backdrop, the aftermath looked devastatingly familiar. Parents rushing to a reunification center, hearts clenched with the hope of finding their children among the survivors. Police tape cordoned off the school as officers stood guard.

The minutes had passed so quickly for the rest of the world, but for the families waiting to learn whether their children were alive, the abrupt end of the gunfire wasn’t the end of their agony.

The prevalence of school shootings in America should prompt a conversation about “responsible gun ownership,” Democratic Rep. Janelle Bynum of Oregon told CNN.

“This school, we had invested money in to make sure that it was locked. They did all of their drills as expected — everything that we’ve said that will protect kids up to now, and yet it didn’t work,” she said.

“The laws don’t go far enough, fast enough for us to be able to intervene,” Bynum said.

“We have to stop allowing our children to be shredded in schools, grocery stores, parks, churches. We have to stop this violence.”

The Bend-La Pine school district — of which Silver Rail Elementary School is part — has multiple security measures in place such as secure entry vestibules, photo ID checks and visitor screenings, indoor and outdoor security cameras and upgraded locks on classroom doors that can be secured from inside, according to the district.

Despite those measures, some of which were upgraded in 2022, the gunman was able to force his way into the elementary school by shooting at locked doors.

It is not yet clear why the shooter was able to bypass security measures, the district’s superintendent said.

Shadows in the valley: Nearly eight years after a shooting at Umpqua Community College left nine people dead, an Oregon community is still trying to heal

Investigators are still working to establish a motive for the shooting, authorities said Friday.

A search warrant was executed at the alleged shooter’s house on Thursday, according to a senior law enforcement official, who told CNN c omputers and other electronics were taken. Search warrants have also been obtained to gain access to the devices and extract data, according to the source.

Local law enforcement and the FBI will examine the material for evidence that could help explain what led to the shooting. The shooter’s parents were cooperative and told investigators their son had attended Silver Rail Elementary School during their interview, the source said.

During the pandemic, the shooter’s mother spoke with CNN affiliate KTVZ about her hopes that in-person classes would resume for children with special needs. The program was described as serving children with “intensive behavioral and social skills challenges.”

She spoke briefly with CNN off camera from her balcony on Friday but declined to comment on how her son got access to the weapon. Authorities say that is still under investigation. The woman told CNN there were no warning signs.

“I miss my boy. I’m so sorry,” the woman said as she cried and smoked a cigarette.

In a message to the families of those killed, she said: “I’m so sorry, I wish I could have done something. I’m sorry for their loss.”

Members of the Bend community gathered downtown in Drake Park on Thursday evening for a prayer vigil to support each other and grieve. Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler spoke while in tears alongside Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, who was also crying.

A large crowd of mourners held candles and hugged one another as they listened to prayers, music and community leaders. People wrote tributes in chalk. “NEVER again,” one person wrote. “Be at peace,” scribbled another. A young child knelt to place a lit candle on a step.

By Friday, a makeshift memorial had taken shape outside Silver Rail Elementary School. Bouquets of flowers, toys and red, heart-shaped balloons lined a nearby crosswalk, just beyond yellow police tape.

One mother, Ally Land, brought her children, 8 and 5, to the memorial. Her children don’t attend Silver Rail, but Land said she wanted to help them understand what had happened, answering their questions as best she could.

“I asked them what they knew, and they just said, ‘I know that school’s canceled, so that they can make school safer tomorrow,’” Land told CNN . “We told them something terrible had happened, and we just followed their questions from there.”

All Bend-La Pine Schools were closed on Friday, including activities and athletic events, the district said.

But a day without classes cannot prevent the next shooting.

The Silver Rail Elementary tragedy is the 36th shooting in the United States this year on K-12 school grounds, according to CNN’s analysis of multiple databases, including the Gun Violence Archive.

“As a country, we still lack the courage to do anything to try to prevent these things from occurring,” CNN’s Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Charles Ramsey told CNN’s Elex Michaelson on Friday. “And it’s going to happen again.”

Blake and Danielle Brinker were at their home outside Bend with Blake’s mother when they learned of the shooting, they told CNN. Blake said, describing his emotions at the time, as “just absolutely gutted.” The pair, who know people directly affected by the shooting, also visited the memorial.

“Immediately could feel the energy of the community just stop on a dime,” Blake said.

Danielle described Bend as “a very magical place.”

The town was named in the top 75 safest midsize cities in the country, according to a SmartAsset study earlier this year. But Thursday’s deadly shooting isn’t the first in Bend. In 2022, a 20-year-old gunman, a Bend resident, killed two people after walking into a grocery store with an AR-15-style rifle and opening fire.

Back in Bend, Cook, the district superintendent at Bend-La Pine Schools, spent Friday with staff at the school who are grappling with the devastating aftermath.

“They are in so much pain, as we all are,” Cook said. “This has been a terrifying and traumatic experience that will affect us all profoundly for years to come.”

Michelle, the 2001 school shooting survivor and a mother of children at Silver Rail Elementary School, carried for years the knowledge that gun violence could shatter an ordinary day without warning. But she’d hoped her children would never have to know what that’s like.

“My friend said to me, this is generational trauma, this is a second generation that’s been through school shooting trauma,” Michelle told CNN. “How sick is that?”

CNN’s Taylor Galgano, Helen Regan, Emma Tucker, Norma Galeana, Caroll Alvarado, Alisha Ebrahimji, Amanda Jackson, Leigh Waldman, John Miller, Rebekah Riess and Elise Hammond contributed to this report.

在一个阳光明媚的俄勒冈州秋日清晨，家长们给孩子们精心打扮，送他们到银轨小学拍摄毕业照。多年以后，家长们还会翻看这些照片，惊叹于孩子们曾经的稚嫩，以及他们容颜尚未改变时那灿烂的笑容。

但对于一些家庭来说，那天早晨的画面将永远留在他们脑海中，成为他们心中令人心碎的最后记忆——一个再也没有回家的孩子。

据当地新闻媒体《本德之源》报道，史蒂文和安吉拉·努科尔斯在送他们 8 岁的女儿去上学几个小时后，就匆匆赶回银轨，迫切想知道她是否还活着。

“那里挤满了来自全县各地的警察，”安吉拉·努科尔斯告诉《本德之源》报。“到处都是穿着战术装备、拿着步枪的警察。你吓得魂飞魄散，心里不停地想着，你的孩子到底有没有安全感？”

安吉拉说，对于努科尔斯一家来说，在教堂与女儿团聚之前的那几个小时是“我们一生中最糟糕的三个小时”。

美国学校屡次发生安全假象破灭的悲剧。俄勒冈州本德市的一所小学就是最新的例证。周四，一名16岁少年开枪射击，造成三名儿童死亡，其中包括5岁的罗姆·萨默（Rhoam Summer）和两名分别为8岁和11岁的儿童；此外，一名25岁的教师梅根·兰伯特（Megan Lambert）也不幸遇难。警方称，另有一名7岁儿童和一名54岁的教师受伤，已被送往当地医院。

又一所学校变成了犯罪现场；这是对童年神圣性的侵犯。

2001 年，米歇尔在加州读高中一年级时，在一场校园枪击案中幸存下来。这场创伤伴随她进入成年；她学会了环顾房间寻找出口，习惯面向门口坐着，并与焦虑和恐慌症作斗争。

早在枪击案发生之前，每次送孩子上学都让她感到一种莫名的恐惧。为了保护隐私，米歇尔隐去了她的姓氏。她看着孩子们离开，心里忐忑不安，不知道是否还能再见到他们。

周四，她上五年级的儿子从银轨小学打来电话。

“妈妈，有枪手。”

米歇尔正在橄榄园餐厅吃饭，这时她儿子的声音从他的苹果手表里传了出来。她一边哭一边回忆起那一刻，说她从儿子的声音里立刻就知道出大事了。

她告诉他她爱他，让他保持安静，然后挂断电话拨打了911。她跑向自己的车，电话一直响着却无人接听。她飞奔向学校，大约10分钟的路程。

“我当时就想，这怎么可能？”米歇尔颤抖着声音说道，“怎么会两次击中同一个地方呢？”

警方周五表示，第一个911报警电话是在下午12点59分接到的。当时，一辆红色皮卡车的司机看到一名男子靠近学校，将一支长枪扔过围栏，然后自己也翻了过去。皮卡车司机上前质问时，嫌疑人开枪射击，至少击中皮卡车三次。

五年级教师凯西·希尔·史密斯从教室窗户望出去，看到枪手朝教学楼走来。她打电话给学校办公室，然后把学生们都带到角落里。

“他们当时非常害怕。看到他们脸上的表情，真的让人心疼，”希尔·史密斯强忍着泪水告诉CNN附属电视台KPTV。“有些孩子在祈祷，有些孩子在安慰其他孩子。但他们都轻声细语，因为他们知道不能发出任何声音。”

她不知道自己能否活到今天结束。她最关心的是她的学生们能否活到今天。

“我确信学校里的每个老师当时都在想，‘今天就是我死的日子了，’”希尔·史密斯告诉CNN附属电视台KPTV。“救救我的孩子们。”

当史密斯试图保护学校里的学生时，一幅可怕的画面逐渐浮现。据本德市警察局长迈克·克兰茨称，下午12点59分左右，紧急调度员接到大量电话，报告称有人闯入银轨小学并开始射击。下午1点01分，警方指示学校进入封锁状态。

据克兰茨称，枪手径直进入入口左侧的教室，开了多达15枪。本德-拉派恩学区总监史蒂文·库克表示，这间教室是专门为特殊需求学生准备的。

警方称，第二名司机是一名36岁的父亲，他的孩子在该校就读。他目睹了最初的枪击事件，随后驾车驶入学校停车场，并携带合法持有的40口径手枪跟随嫌疑人进入学校。周五，这名旁观者的身份被其家人确认为凯鲁布·贾曼科。

警方称，一名未受伤的教师向枪手扔出手机并扑倒他，试图夺走他的枪。当贾曼科听到枪声并看到这名教师与枪手扭打在一起时，他冲进教室开枪，多次击中嫌疑人并将其击毙。

不到半英里外，企业主塞拉·乔丹告诉 CNN，孩子们在课间休息时在外面嬉笑玩耍的熟悉声音，被救护车急速驶来的声音所取代。

大约在接到第一个911报警电话三分钟后，事件结束：下午1点02分，警方赶到现场并报告称，枪手已被贾曼科击毙。唐纳德·特朗普总统称贾曼科是“一位伟大的英雄”，他“完成了任务”。

“如果不是这样，如果不是旁观者制服了枪手，这起事件可能会比现在更加悲惨，”前联邦调查局特工肯·格雷告诉CNN。

克兰茨周五表示，枪手已被确认为16岁的格里芬·J·约翰二世，他曾是该校的一名特殊教育学生。克兰茨补充说，警方在嫌疑人附近发现了一支Maverick 88型泵动式12号口径霰弹枪，嫌疑人身上还剩下约44发12号口径子弹。

一位了解调查情况的高级执法官员周五早些时候告诉 CNN，这把枪是他母亲购买的。

本德是一座风景如画的城市，人口约10万，坐落在俄勒冈州中部的高沙漠地带。这里空气中弥漫着鼠尾草的香气，白雪皑皑的山峰巍峨耸立，德舒特河蜿蜒流经市中心；对于寻求刺激的冒险家来说，这里极具吸引力，他们可以在附近的山间小径、红色岩壁和繁星点点的夜空中找到慰藉。

虽然近年来这座城市发展迅猛，但它仍然是美国西部一个安静的角落，荒野就在城市街道、砖砌门面的商店和啤酒厂之外。

“本德是人们从大城市搬来的地方，”本德前市长杰夫·伊格尔告诉CNN。“他们搬到这里是因为这里相对安全；他们搬到这里是因为这里有可以步行送孩子上学的学校，”伊格尔说。“你无法想象这种事会发生在这里。”

但在本德风景如画的背景下，惨剧的余波却显得格外令人心碎，似曾相识。家长们急忙赶往团聚中心，心中充满着在幸存者中找到自己孩子的希望。警戒线封锁了学校，警察在现场警戒。

对于世界其他地方的人来说，时间过得飞快，但对于焦急等待孩子生死消息的家庭来说，枪声的突然停止并不意味着他们痛苦的结束。

俄勒冈州民主党众议员珍妮尔·拜纳姆告诉 CNN，美国校园枪击案的频发应该引发关于“负责任的枪支拥有”的讨论。

“我们在这所学校投入了资金，确保它安全无虞。他们按照预期进行了所有演习——我们之前所说的所有能保护孩子的措施，然而却都失败了，”她说。

拜纳姆说：“法律力度不够，速度也不够快，我们无法及时介入。”

“我们必须制止孩子们在学校、超市、公园、教堂里被残忍杀害。我们必须制止这种暴力行为。”

据该学区称，本德-拉派恩学区（银轨小学是其一部分）已采取多项安全措施，例如安全入口门厅、照片身份检查和访客筛查、室内外安全摄像头以及可从内部锁上的升级版教室门锁。

尽管采取了这些措施（其中一些措施在 2022 年进行了升级），枪手还是通过向锁着的门开枪强行闯入了这所小学。

该学区负责人表示，目前尚不清楚枪手为何能够绕过安全措施。

山谷中的阴影：俄勒冈州安普瓜社区学院枪击案造成九人死亡，近八年后，当地社区仍在努力疗愈创伤。

当局周五表示，调查人员仍在努力查明枪击事件的动机。

据一位高级执法官员向CNN透露，周四，警方对涉嫌枪击案嫌疑人的住所执行了搜查令，并带走了电脑和其他电子设备。该官员还表示，警方已获得搜查令，可以访问这些设备并提取数据。

当地执法部门和联邦调查局将对物证进行检查，以寻找有助于解释枪击事件起因的证据。消息人士称，枪手的父母很配合，在接受调查人员询问时表示，他们的儿子曾就读于银轨小学。

疫情期间，枪手的母亲接受CNN附属电视台KTVZ采访时，表达了她希望特殊儿童能够恢复线下课程的愿望。该项目旨在服务于“存在严重行为和社交技能障碍”的儿童。

周五，她在阳台上接受了CNN的非镜头采访，但拒绝透露儿子是如何获得武器的。当局表示，此事仍在调查中。这位女士告诉CNN，此前没有任何征兆。

“我想念我的儿子。我很抱歉，”女人一边哭一边抽着烟说道。

她在给遇难者家属的信息中说：“我非常抱歉，我真希望我能做点什么。我对他们的损失深感悲痛。”

周四晚间，本德市居民聚集在市中心的德雷克公园举行祈祷守夜活动，互相支持，共同哀悼。本德市市长梅兰妮·凯布勒在发言时泪流满面，俄勒冈州州长蒂娜·科泰克也同样落泪。

一大群哀悼者手持蜡烛，互相拥抱，聆听着祈祷、音乐和社区领袖的讲话。人们用粉笔写下悼词。“永不再发生，”有人写道。“安息吧，”另一个人潦草地写道。一个小孩跪下来，把点燃的蜡烛放在台阶上。

到周五，银轨小学外已经形成了一个临时纪念场所。鲜花、玩具和红色心形气球摆放在附近的人行横道旁，就在黄色警戒线之外。

一位名叫艾莉·兰德的母亲带着她8岁和5岁的孩子来参加追悼会。她的孩子并非银轨学校的学生，但兰德说她想帮助他们理解发生了什么事，并尽她所能地回答他们的问题。

兰德告诉CNN：“我问他们知道些什么，他们只说，‘我知道学校停课了，这样明天学校才能更安全。’我们告诉他们发生了可怕的事情，然后我们就顺着他们的问题继续问下去。”

本德-拉派恩学区表示，所有学校周五停课，包括所有活动和体育赛事。

但是停课一天并不能阻止下一次枪击事件的发生。

根据 CNN 对包括枪支暴力档案库在内的多个数据库的分析，银轨小学枪击案是今年美国 K-12 学校发生的第 36 起枪击事件。

“作为一个国家，我们仍然缺乏勇气采取任何措施来阻止这类事件的发生，”美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）高级执法分析师查尔斯·拉姆齐周五告诉CNN记者埃莱克斯·米凯尔森。“而且，这种事还会再次发生。”

据CNN报道，布莱克和丹妮尔·布林克夫妇当时正和布莱克的母亲在位于本德郊外的家中，得知了枪击事件的消息。布莱克形容自己当时的心情是“彻底崩溃”。这对夫妇认识一些直接受到枪击事件影响的人，他们也前往了纪念馆。

布莱克说：“我立刻就能感觉到社区的活力瞬间消失殆尽。”

丹妮尔形容本德是“一个非常神奇的地方”。

根据SmartAsset今年早些时候的一项研究，本德市被评为全美最安全的75个中型城市之一。但周四发生的致命枪击案并非本德市首例。2022年，一名20岁的本德市居民持AR-15式步枪闯入一家杂货店，开枪扫射，造成两人死亡。

回到本德后，本德-拉派恩学区的负责人库克周五与学校工作人员一起度过了一天，他们正在努力应对这场灾难性的后果。

库克说：“他们和我们所有人一样，都承受着巨大的痛苦。这是一次可怕而痛苦的经历，它将在未来的很多年里对我们所有人产生深远的影响。”

米歇尔是2001年校园枪击案的幸存者，也是银轨小学学生的母亲。多年来，她深知枪支暴力可能毫无预兆地摧毁平凡的一天。但她一直希望自己的孩子永远不必经历这种痛苦。

“我的朋友对我说，这是代际创伤，这是第二代经历过校园枪击案创伤的人，”米歇尔告诉CNN。“这太令人作呕了！”

CNN 的 Taylor Galgano、Helen Regan、Emma Tucker、Norma Galeana、Caroll Alvarado、Alisha Ebrahimji、Amanda Jackson、Leigh Waldman、John Miller、Rebekah Riess 和 Elise Hammond 对本报道亦有贡献。