Court documents reviewed in the aftermath of last week’s deadly shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, show that the attacker, 16-year-old Griffin John II, was born into a household already marked by domestic violence.
According to the records, John’s father, Griffin John, had a history of alcohol abuse and beat and threatened the boy’s mother, Shauntai Nickerson, with a knife before their son was even born. The violence forced Nickerson to relocate across the state while she was pregnant.
The elder John was sentenced to 48 months in prison for the attack on Nickerson but was released early. Court filings show he asked a judge to lift a restraining order against him so he could, in his words, see his son “grow up” in Newport, the coastal Oregon town where the family had settled. Griffin John II was born roughly eight months later, but his parents did not remain together. Within months, Nickerson moved with her son three hours west to Bend.
The elder John’s freedom did not last. He was arrested again in 2012 in Newport, accused of head-butting a police officer and of drinking and smoking marijuana in violation of his parole. It is unclear whether he was ultimately convicted in that case. Court filings also note he admitted to having been jailed “several times in the past.” A bartender in Toledo, Nickerson’s hometown near Newport, separately said John had once made inappropriate remarks toward a teenage girl.
Last Thursday, authorities say Griffin John II used his mother’s shotgun to force his way into Silver Rail Elementary and opened fire inside a special education classroom. The attack killed 5-year-old Rhoam Summer, an 8-year-old, an 11-year-old, and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert. A 7-year-old who uses a wheelchair was shot in the face and hospitalized, and a 54-year-old teacher was also wounded. An armed parent confronted John inside the school and killed him.
Neither John II nor Nickerson could be reached for comment, and several family members declined to speak with reporters; one threatened a reporter with dogs. Nickerson did offer a brief statement the day after the shooting.
“I’m sorry … I miss him,” she said, adding that he was “a good boy, he really was.”
Nickerson declined to explain how her son obtained the shotgun used in the attack. “If I could have prevented this, I would have,” she said.
Add comment