John J. Griffin II’s mother broke down Friday as she spoke about the son who had carried out one of Oregon’s deadliest school shootings.
Shauntai Nickerson was seen on the porch of her second-story home smoking a cigarette and crying when reporters approached her the day after the massacre at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend. “I’m sorry … I miss him,” Nickerson reportedly said. She described the suspected killer as “a good boy, he really was.”
Nickerson did not discuss her purchase of the murder weapon, but she told reporters, “If I could have prevented this, I would have.” Griffin’s Maverick 88, a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, had been legally purchased by Nickerson around the time of his August birthday, law-enforcement sources said Friday.
The 16-year-old gunman went to extreme lengths to reach his target: his former special-needs classroom. Around 1 p.m. Thursday, Griffin first threw his shotgun over the fence at Silver Rail Elementary and hopped over after it, sources said.
He then tried to enter through the school’s front door but was blocked by two bystanders. Refusing to give up, Griffin ran around to the back door and blew off its lock, which had been designed to prevent such tragedies, sources said.
Once inside, Griffin headed straight for his former special-education classroom and opened fire. He killed three students, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a teacher. He also injured a 7-year-old in a wheelchair and a 54-year-old teacher before a heroic witness carrying a concealed weapon gunned him down.
Griffin’s special-education history had been documented in a KTVZ report from 2020 that quoted his mother discussing his struggles with remote learning during the pandemic. “I think it will be great for Griffin [to return to the classroom] because I am not certified teaching a special-needs student,” Nickerson told the outlet at the time.
The shooting has left Bend, a city of roughly 100,000 in central Oregon, reeling as investigators continue to piece together what led the teenager to target the very classroom where he had once received special-education services. Law-enforcement sources have not publicly disclosed a motive for why Griffin specifically chose that room.
The massacre unfolded Thursday afternoon at Silver Rail Elementary, a school serving young children in the Bend-La Pine Schools district. Griffin’s breach of the back-door lock, designed as a security measure against intruders, has raised questions about whether additional safeguards could have stopped his advance.
The two bystanders who initially blocked Griffin at the front door have not been identified, nor has the armed witness who ultimately shot and killed the teen gunman inside the school. The 7-year-old in the wheelchair and the 54-year-old teacher who survived their injuries have not been publicly named.
Nickerson’s purchase of the shotgun for her son’s birthday has drawn scrutiny as communities nationwide debate gun access and responsibility. Her expressions of grief Friday offered little insight into how Griffin obtained the weapon or what warning signs, if any, she had observed.