Washington:
The 16-year-old, who shot and killed three children and a teacher at an elementary school in the US state of Oregon last week, reportedly received the gun as a birthday gift from his mother. Shauntai Nickerson, the mother of shooter Griffin J. John II, purchased the Maverick 88 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun legally in August 2026, CBS News reported, citing sources.
She then gifted it to him for recreational use, the sources said.
The teenager carried out the murderous rampage at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, last Thursday, where he had once been a special needs student.
John II initially fired at a passing pickup truck, whose driver made the initial 911 call. Police said John got into the school by shooting through locked glass doors.
The shooter then entered the first classroom to the left of those doors and killed all four victims and wounded two others.
Rhoam Summer, 5, was one of three children killed in the attack. The other two children killed were ages 8 and 11, while the teacher killed in the shooting was identified as 25-year-old Megan Lambert. Police have said that a fourth student-- a 7-year-old girl-- and a 54-year-old teacher were also wounded.
According to police, a total of nine people, including four adults and five children, were in the classroom at the time when John II opened fire.
The shooter was shot and killed by a bystander, 36-year-old Kaylub Giamanco, who saw John 11 shooting at the pickup truck and followed him into the school. One teacher was grappling with John II for the weapon when the father of two students came in and shot him to death.
Giamanco is a Bend resident with two daughters who attend Silver Rail Elementary School.
While police continued to investigate John's motive, distraught parents of one of three children killed in last week's shooting at an elementary school in Oregon have hired attorneys to investigate the school's protocols and how the teenage gunman got his weapon.
Prosecutors are now trying to determine whether the school district is "liable or not".