She threw her phone at the gunman, then tackled him. Two adults stopped an Oregon school shooting, police say

Thursday's attack

A 16-year-old former student opened fire Thursday at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, police said. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told a news conference Friday that the gunman approached the school carrying a pump-action shotgun, threw it over a fence and climbed onto campus.

The attacker shot at a driver in a pickup truck who confronted him, then shot through locked glass door panes to force his way into the building, Krantz said. Inside a special education classroom, the gunman fired about 15 rounds, killing three children — aged five, eight and 11 — and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert. A seven-year-old and a second teacher were hospitalized with serious injuries. The school resource officer was not on campus; the officer covers about six buildings and was at a nearby school, police said.

The teacher who fought back

As the shooting unfolded, a teacher in the classroom threw her cellphone at the gunman, then tackled him and fought to take the firearm from him, Krantz said. Police did not identify her. She was not seriously injured.

"She was not injured in that incident, but she almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed," Krantz said at the Friday news conference, calling her actions "heroic." He added of the two interveners: "I don't think we can underestimate or underappreciate that courage. When someone is willing to risk their own life for others, we recognize that."

The father who followed him in

As the teacher wrestled with the attacker, a 36-year-old father of two Silver Rail students — who had seen the gunman firing at the truck outside — followed him into the school with a .40-caliber pistol he had legally secured in his vehicle, Krantz said. The father entered the classroom, saw the struggle, and shot the gunman multiple times, killing him.

Krantz identified the attacker as 16-year-old Griffin J. John II — a name the chief said he would utter only once. The teen died inside the school just before police arrived, about three minutes after the first 911 call. The father's mother, Kenda Freeman, confirmed to reporters that her son, Kaylub Giamanco, a Bend carpenter, shot the gunman, saying he was not seeking recognition and had asked for privacy, according to the Associated Press. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek praised the intervention, telling the community member: "Your actions carry a heavy emotional burden, and my thoughts are with you as well."

What it means across the border

The details land in a country where armed civilians intervening in school shootings is a recurring feature of the national gun debate — and they will echo across the border in Canada, where the conversation runs in the opposite direction. Canada's 2022 handgun freeze halted most sales and transfers of handguns, and restricted firearms here require licences, registration, authorization to transport and strict storage rules. In Oregon, the father's legally owned pistol was in his vehicle and went with him into a school.

Canadian schools run their own lockdown drills — active-threat training is routine on both sides of the border — but Canada has not faced a school shooting of this scale in its modern history, and its policy instinct has been restriction rather than armed response. The Bend shooting will not settle America's gun debate; it will add two more hard facts to it: a teacher who fought with a cellphone, and a parent whose pistol ended the killing in about three minutes.