More than 72 hours after the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, police are still trying to answer the question that matters most: why John J. Griffin II went back and opened fire. Officers say the 16-year-old former student broke into the school on Thursday afternoon and fired at least 15 rounds into a special education classroom, killing three students and a 25-year-old teacher.
The dead children included Rhoam Summer, 5, along with students ages 8 and 11. Seven-year-old Saylor Graham and 54-year-old teacher Becky Drury were seriously wounded. By Sunday, verified fundraising pages for the victims had brought in more than $1.5 million combined, a measure of how far the grief has spread beyond the school doors and how quickly the community has been forced to pull together.
Police identified Griffin as a former special education student at Silver Rail Elementary School, but they have not said what drove him back to the campus. Ken Gray said it remains unknown what exactly the motive was for Griffin to return and attack the school when he did, and that a teenager who carries out an assault like this often arrives by finding an open door or by forcing his way in. In this case, police said, the attack started after the school was breached and ended only after a teacher tackled the suspect for control of the weapon.
What followed was just as violent and just as fast. A father of two students then entered the building and fatally shot the suspect, and police and school officials said the two men are believed to have saved many lives. The FBI has created a virtual family assistance center, while Bend-La Pine Schools will remain closed to students Monday and Tuesday and Silver Rail Elementary School will stay closed until further notice.
Bend police said the school will remain an active crime scene through at least Tuesday, which means investigators are still working through the wreckage long after the gunfire stopped. The facts of the attack are now largely clear; the reason for it is not, and until that gap is filled, the most important part of the story is still missing.
