No charges announced over shotgun used in Bend school shooting

Five days after a 16-year-old killed three children and a teacher at a Bend, Oregon, elementary school, no charges have been announced over the shotgun he used, a gun his mother bought legally in August and gave to him.

Law enforcement sources told CBS News that Shauntai Nickerson bought the Maverick 88 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun in August 2026 and gave it to her son, Griffin J. John II, for recreational use. Two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News the purchase came around the teenager's birthday that month. Nickerson has been cooperative with law enforcement, other officials familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

John had attended Silver Rail Elementary School as a special needs student and was not enrolled in the district at the time of the attack, Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said. All of the victims were in a special needs classroom. Three boys, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher, Megan Lambert, were killed on Oct. 15; a 7-year-old girl and a 54-year-old teacher were wounded.

What the Oregon statutes say

Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at the conservative group Advancing American Freedom, wrote in a post on X that two Oregon statutes carve out parents. ORS 166.470 bars transferring a gun to anyone under 18 but exempts parents who transfer long guns to their children. ORS 166.250 bars minors from possessing firearms, with an exemption for those who receive long guns from a parent.

It would seem that if the kid didn't have a disqualifying history, the mom was absolutely within her rights under Oregon law to gift him a shotgun.

That exemption covers minors without disqualifying mental health or juvenile histories. Under ORS 166.403, a parent who transfers a gun to a minor must supervise its use unless the minor becomes its owner. Ownership also matters for ORS 166.395, which requires owners to keep guns on their person or locked away and makes it a Class A violation, a fineable infraction, if a minor gains access. Swearer wrote that it was not clear who the owner or possessor was.

Whether charges are brought against the shooter's mother or anyone else will depend on whether prosecutors find evidence of crimes such as criminal negligence, The Source, a Bend news outlet, reported on Oct. 18. The Deschutes District Attorney's Office would not confirm details about the shotgun that day, and the Bend Police Department also declined. Spokesperson Sheila Miller said the department would have more details on Monday; its Oct. 19 update said it was not sharing more about the suspect or the weapon.

A 2023 case in the record

Bend police arrested Nickerson in March 2023 on charges of fourth-degree assault, a violent Class A misdemeanor, and harassment, according to court records cited by The Source. The assault charge was dropped, and she pleaded guilty to harassment, a Class B misdemeanor.

Oregon law lists a violent misdemeanor within four years as a disqualifier for a gun purchase, and an assault conviction may have precluded Nickerson's purchase of the Mossberg Maverick 88, The Source reported.

As of that reporting, it was not clear when she had bought the gun, which holds six to eight rounds and retails for about $320.

CBS News reported the next day that the shotgun was purchased legally in August 2026, citing sources. Nickerson had spoken to KTVZ, the NBC affiliate in Bend, in 2020 about her son's enrollment in a special education program, saying in a package that aired Sept. 29 that she was not certified to teach a special needs student and welcomed his return to the classroom.

The sequence police described

John approached the school fence on foot, threw the shotgun over it and climbed after it, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said. He fired on a passing pickup truck, hitting it at least three times, and the driver drove on and placed the first 911 call. He then fired several rounds into the glass panes of a set of double doors and went into the first classroom to the left.

As he made entry through the forced open doors, he heard shooting and saw a teacher involved in a physical altercation with the suspect.

The bystander who shot him, 36-year-old Kaylub Giamanco, had seen the shooting at the pickup truck and drove into the school parking lot, Krantz said. Giamanco took a .40-caliber pistol he legally owned from his vehicle and went inside.

John fired as many as 15 rounds using birdshot, buckshot and slugs, and 44 more rounds were found at the scene. A female teacher threw her cellphone at him, tackled him and fought to take the shotgun from him. She was not hurt. Nine people, four adults and five children, were in the classroom, police said on Oct. 19.

Measure 114 and the courts

Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence prevention organization, ranks Oregon's laws the 12th strictest in the country, The Source reported. Recent state laws have mandated secure storage, prohibited guns at the state Capitol, given universities the power to bar guns on campus and banned 3D-printed and untraceable ghost guns.

Measure 114, which voters approved in November 2022 by a margin of 1.3%, would require a permit to purchase a gun, a completed federal background check and a safety class, and would cap magazines at 10 rounds. It would criminalize transferring a gun to someone without a valid permit. A Harney County judge ruled in 2023 that it violated Oregonians' rights under the Oregon Constitution. The Oregon Court of Appeals reversed that ruling in March 2025, and the measure awaits a ruling from the Oregon Supreme Court.

Where the investigation stands

Investigators are examining the computer, phone, social media and search history of the attacker and probing whether he had been obsessed with violence, including prior mass shootings, law enforcement sources told CBS News, which said the inquiry was in its preliminary stages. Police executed a search warrant at his house on Oct. 16 and collected evidence. NBC News said its attempts to reach Nickerson for comment were not successful.

The victims and the school

Lambert, who was killed in the classroom, coached volleyball, officials said. Police and his family identified the 5-year-old boy as Rhoam Summer, whose family said in a statement that his death left them broken and lost. The families of the other two children have not made their names public.

The 7-year-old girl was in serious but stable condition at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and the wounded teacher, identified to CBS News by her family as Becky Drury, had serious but non-life-threatening injuries and was being treated at St. Charles Medical Center.

John was an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, a federally recognized sovereign tribe, its chief executive, Kurtis Barker, confirmed on Oct. 17. Barker said the tribe was heartbroken by the loss of life at Silver Rail and extended condolences to the families, the injured, and the students and staff who lived through the attack.

Police and federal investigators have not publicly identified a motive for the attack, which officials said unfolded around 1 p.m. local time on Oct. 15.

What comes next

Neither the Deschutes District Attorney's Office nor the Bend Police Department has said when a decision on charges might come. Swearer wrote that the question could grow murkier if the gun was not fully transferred to the teenager's possession, or if he received it while his parents knew he was suicidal or inclined toward violence, facts that she said were not public.

Bend police said on Oct. 19 they expected to finish collecting evidence at the school by the end of the day and to turn the building back over to the school district. The district said it would publicize safety measures, and classes across Bend-La Pine Schools resume on Oct. 21. Silver Rail is suspended indefinitely.