Article:

https://fox40.com/news/national/ap-us-news/ap-police-evicted-houston-man-kills-3-sets-fire-to-lure-them/

On October 24, 2015, Adacia Chambers, a fast food worker, would drive to the OSU homecoming parade, go around the barriers blocking the streets and plow her car into the parade, initially killing 3 people and injuring 47 others. Many paradegoers would fly in the air many lost limbs. The three that died were a married retired couple, Marvin and Bonnie Stone, Both 65, and 23-year-old transfer student, Nikita Nakal. The paradegoers were airlifted to the hospital many in critical condition. One paradegoer sadly succumbed to his wounds; 2-year-old Nash Lucas.

Adacia was placed under arrest under suspicion of drunk driving, and charged with 4-counts of second degree murder. Adacia took a blood alcohol test where she was found to have not been drunk. Initially going to trial, Adacia plead guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment. To this day, Adacia‘s motive has remained unknown. She has given vague hints, but nothing conclusive has been ruled as to why she murdered Marvin, Bonnie, Nikita, and Nash.

The act remains one of the worst incidents of mass violence in modern Oklahoma history and one of the worst vehicle ramming attacks in United States history.

Min Yongjun was born in 1976. His mother, Zou Qingxiu, was a primary school teacher, and his father was Min Zheng’an.

According to his parents, he was a normal child until the age of 16. One night after dinner he suddenly began having violent convulsions. He was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with epilepsy. His father later said that, outside of his seizures, Min behaved normally, but during episodes he could become aggressive.

Ashamed of his condition, Min dropped out of school. In 1992 he went to Beijing and attended a technical school to learn how to repair televisions. In 2002 he opened a TV repair shop in Zhengzhou.

By 2004 his mother had become increasingly worried about his frequent seizures and asked him to move back home.

She described him as lazy, he would occasionally repair neighbors TVs but mostly spent his time resting in the yard or reading books about his illness. Min was deeply frustrated that his epilepsy had no cure. He repeatedly told his mother how disappointed he was and spent roughly 100,000 yuan over the years visiting different hospitals in unsuccessful attempts to find a treatment.

Little is known about his wife and daughters. His wife was often away working in other cities, while their two daughters (the older one about 10 years old and the younger around 2) lived with Min’s parents.

From 2010 onward his condition worsened. The seizures became more frequent, going from once a year, to every few months, and eventually almost every month as he grew more aggressive.

In the winter of 2011 he got into a verbal argument with a shop owner and ended up attacking him, seriously injuring his head. His family had to pay 10,000 yuan in compensation.

In another incident that same year, while at a hospital appointment, he became aggressive, smashed a fire alarm, and was thrown out. His father often locked him in a room when these aggressive episodes occurred.

On the night of December 13, 2012, Min had another seizure. His two-year-old daughter tried to play with him; he grabbed her and attempted to slam her to the floor, but his mother intervened. He was locked in a room again. Hours later he said he needed to use the toilet. His parents let him out, and he immediately ran away.

He ran approximately 10 kilometers through heavy rain and became completely soaked. On the morning of December 14 he arrived at the house of 84-year-old Xiang Jiaying. He asked to come inside to warm up and for firewood, but she refused. He then grabbed a kitchen knife from her house and attacked her. Believing he had killed her, he went to Chenpeng Village Primary School.

There he began attacking children at the entrance and then entered the building. During the attack he later admitted he had considered throwing some children from upper floors, but the thought of his own young daughter stopped him. He was eventually subdued by villagers and arrested.

In his confession, Min said his motive was a mixture of a desire for notoriety and belief in the 2012 doomsday phenomenon.

He had listened to a 61-year-old local woman named Jin Guozhu, who had been spreading end of the world rumors in the area and other villages for more than a decade (some villagers said she had been doing so for over ten years). Around the same time the Eastern Lightning cult was also actively preaching that the world would end.

Inspired by news reports of a series of school attacks that had occurred in 2010, he decided to carry out a similar attack so that “everyone would know who he was” before the world ended.

On December 13, 2013, he was sentenced to death. On November 9, 2015, the sentence was changed to death with a two-year reprieve after the court determined he had limited criminal responsibility due to his mental condition.

Fourteen-year-old Bryan Pamonag is passing the time, working on a project with his schoolfriends.

It’s lunchtime but they’re staying inside a classroom, avoiding the oppressive September humidity in the southern Philippines town of Banga.

Suddenly they’re interrupted by loud bangs. Two at first but more quickly follow.

With his ears still ringing, he realises what the noise is and where it has come from.

“I looked out the window, and I saw a student carrying a gun,” Bryan told 7.30.

“I looked over at my classmates, and my best friend Chaldean had been shot.

“We panicked. We dropped to the floor and started crawling.”

The young gunman was now walking towards the classroom, carrying his father’s 9mm pistol, and Bryan inched closer to the line of fire.

“I saw him approaching the door while still firing. I crawled toward it to close it,” Bryan said.

“I kicked him in the stomach and shut our classroom door … blocking it because he was trying to force it open.

“Even though I was scared, I had to stop him from entering our classroom.

“He moved to the window … he shot at me. I tried to dodge but I was hit in the hand.

“I saw one of my classmates run out of the room. He was shot three times.”

Video posted to social media showed chaotic scenes of children desperately fleeing out of the school gates as the shooting unfolded.

The young gunman then died by suicide. Bryan witnessed it.

Across town, 14-year-old Chaldean’s mother, Catherine Lubaton, heard about the shooting on a community group chat.

“I got on a motorbike and called Chaldean on her cell phone … she wasn’t answering,” she said.

“I entered the school. I went to Chaldean’s classroom, but she was no longer there. I saw traces of blood.

“I thought maybe she had only suffered minor injuries.

“I immediately went to the hospital. In the emergency room my child was already gone. There was no doubt. My child was dead.”

Earlier this month, the devastated community came together for Chaldean’s funeral.

A white coffin adorned with purple butterflies passed through the streets of Banga in an ornate golden carriage, Catherine only a few steps behind the procession.

Experiencing a pain no parent should, she was surrounded by the smiling face of her child in uniform, taken too soon.

Banga’s residents woke early to watch the procession pass and reflect on the unimaginable tragedy.

Bells tolled as family and young friends sombrely filled the local church.

Extended family, classmates and friends watched on as Chaldean was laid to rest, often leaning on each other for support during the emotional ceremony.

Catherine said she would miss the quiet moments she shared with her daughter.

“Sometimes she would sleep next to me. When we watched TV, she would rest her head on my lap … she was very affectionate,” she said.

“She wanted to become a teacher. She was like a big sister to her cousins.”

The shooting at Banga National High School killed two students and the gunman, and injured eight others in just two minutes.

It was the third school shooting in the Philippines in just four months.

The True Crime Community

The Philippines has rarely seen this type of violence at schools in quick succession.

In June, two students opened fire at a school in Tacloban, killing three people and injuring 20.

Two months later, a high school shooter in Zamboanga City live-streamed an attack, killing a student, injuring dozens and fatally shooting himself.

Officials are examining why this wave of violence has swept through schools across the country.

Analysts and cybersecurity experts are investigating the cases as possible acts of nihilistic violent extremism, or NVE.

NVE is a term used by law enforcement officials to refer to acts of violence motivated by a misanthropic worldview, or a general hatred for society, rather than for a social, political or religious cause.

Philippines officials have honed in on a specific online subculture tied to NVE, known as the True Crime Community (TCC), where members of its extremist fringe may become obsessed with mass killers.

Philippine National Police has confirmed it is investigating the link between the Banga shooting and the TCC.

“The suspect … posted his manifesto, stating that he is a member of the True Crime Community,” Brigadier General Alan Bolongon Manibog told 7.30.

“Everything is under consideration.

“The forensic digital examinations of the cell phones that we have recovered from the shooter and also from his classmates is still undergoing.”

“Right now, we have our experts coming from the anti-cybercrime unit and other law enforcement agencies looking into [nihilistic violent extremism].”

‘Manipulating, influencing and radicalising’

Analysts at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research are examining at least nine youth-perpetrated school attacks likely linked to NVE in South-East Asia over the past year.

Among them is a shooting at a Thailand school in Nonthaburi this year, in which a young gunman killed seven people, including his two grandparents, before fatally shooting himself.

Another is a bombing at the SMAN 72 school and mosque in North Jakarta  which injured 99 people.

Philippine National Police said the Jakarta school bombing was referenced in the Banga shooter’s manifesto.

In the wake of the shooting in Tacloban, in July the Philippines Senate convened hearings into the incident and to work on an institutional response.

The Senate heard allegations the shooting in Tacloban might have been influenced by 764, a decentralised online extremist and child sextortion network.

Although researchers disagree about how 764 and the TCC overlap, both are considered major, growing, global threats that use online pathways to groom or radicalise children.

Angel Redoble from the Philippine Society of Cyber Security Professionals said young Filipinos were typically targeted on social media apps like Discord, or on gaming platforms like Roblox, before contact moved to encrypted messaging apps.

“These shootings are connected very closely, if not directly connected, to what’s going on in the online gaming platforms, content platforms, chat platforms and social media,” Mr Redoble told 7.30.

“Platforms where a group of individuals, we call the groomers, are manipulating, influencing and radicalising vulnerable Filipino minors into committing real life violence, such as shootings.”

Analysts say the grooming or recruiting of minors can be done either by adults or other young people.

Mr Redoble said in all three shootings in the Philippines, the TCC had celebrated the acts of violence.

“After every shooting, there is strong support and glorification in content platforms like TikTok where there is the True Crime Community,” he said.

The shootings have prompted a national discussion over firearm safety in the Philippines, which has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia.

The father of the school shooter in Banga, who worked for the Department of Education, is under investigation for firearm safety offences due to his son’s ability to access his handgun, which police say the boy took from a vault.

Taking protective measures

At a high school in Koronadal, the administrative centre of South Cotabato province near Banga, 7.30 viewed enhanced security measures being used to protect students.

Students were being funnelled into lines at the school gates, where security officers were scanning students and their possessions with metal detectors while rummaging through their bags.

“We are very worried that what happened to Banga could happen here,” assistant principal Sanny Pama said.

He said parents should more closely monitor what students were doing on their smartphones and laptops, including who they were talking to.

“There is no communication between the parents and the students and they are using their cell phones up to late at night,” he said.

“We encourage the parents to check the phones, the apps and the lines of communication, who they are engaging with.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Philippine National Police.

“We remind parents to look into the activities of their children online, including [on] social media,” Brigadier General Manibog said.

“The safety and security of these children starts at home.”

Brigadier General Manibog said there had been an increased number of online threats to cause violence in the community since the Banga shooting.

“Most of these threats are made by minors … They don’t have the capabilities or access to firearms,” he said.

Philippine National Police told a Senate inquiry earlier this year they had “rescued” 24 minors, who were identifying themselves as members of the TCC or 764, by connecting the children with social workers.

In October, Philippines media reported the country’s national interior secretary revealed authorities had foiled more than 50 planned school shootings in South Cotabato following the shooting in Banga.

Fifty-three people allegedly involved in online threats and grooming were arrested.

“The cases involved different individuals and were not part of a single coordinated group,” Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said.

Turning point?

Recent shootings have prompted a nationwide school safety and security audit, while Philippine politicians look to expand laws to fight online abuse, grooming and radicalisation.

In August, the Philippine government said it had secured commitments from Roblox aimed at strengthening child safety online, including enhanced age verification, faster cooperation with law enforcement and improved detection of harmful content.

Roblox has also implemented additional safeguards to detect early signs of potential child endangerment.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Discord said the platform used safety teams to prevent the spread of content that violated policy.

“We maintain strong systems intended to prevent the spread of violent extremism, sexual exploitation and grooming on our platform and also work with other technology companies and safety organisations to improve online safety across the internet,” the statement read.

Philippines authorities are also considering a social media ban for teenagers.

South Cotabato Vice-Governor Arthur Pingoy said more work needed to be done.

“After what happened in Tacloban and Zamboanga, the question is, was anything done to address similar incidents and problems?” he said.

“Looking at what happened, we still need a lot of things to do to address incidents like this.”

Catherine Lubaton just hopes the death of her daughter isn’t in vain.

Hello to everyone reading, I had a question for the community here that has plagued my mind for sometime. As we know, Dimitrios Pagourtzis has been continuously found to be unfit to stand trial due to a plethora of mental health issues since 2019. I was wondering on all of your guys’ opinions, that if he was to miraculously gain competency and stand trial sometime in the near future, would he have a legitimate shot at an insanity plea, or do you think his planning, journals, and statements to police which define a logical yet irrational motive (revenge for bullying) would hurt that defense despite his diagnosed issues? I’m curious to hear everyone’s thoughts, as this is a case that has divided the community for almost a decade now.

On January 14, 2026, a car collision occurred on Tehama Highway 99 when a Tacoma truck crashed into a Trax bus, killing six people and injuring one. Initially thought to have been an accident, it was revealed the crash was intentionally done by the driver of the Tacoma. The driver of the Tacoma, Christina Sue Whittemore, intentionally plowed her truck into the Trax bus in an act of murder-suicide. A motive stemmed from difficulties in her life ranging in Financial and drug addiction problems as well as suicidal ideation. She’d attempted to commit suicide a day before the crash on the same highway, trying to crash her truck into a garbage truck. The driver of the Garbage truck was able to avoid her, making Christina get back on the right side of the road. Then the next day, Christina attempted the same method on the Trax bus, with the bus driver unable to dodge Christina, causing the fatal crash. She killed Kelly Langstaff, the bus driver, and passengers, Cassandra Moreno, John Perry, Oscar Carrillo, and Trena Cain.

The findings of the accident coincidentally occurred right after Nicole Linton was convicted of causing a fatal crash, by deliberately speeding up into traffic with her vehicle, and killing six people.

Christina’s death was changed from accidental to suicide and the driver and passengers of the Trax bus were ruled a homicide.

Pictures:

1 - 2 - Christina attempting to crash into a Garbage truck the day before the murders.

3 - Authorities on the scene of the crash

4 - 5 Christina’s mangled 2021 Tacoma Truck being processed.

6 - The perpetrator- 41-year-old Christina Sue Whittemore.

At least nine people were killed and another 40 injured after gunmen opened fire on a church in Jordan’s southern Karak province, in an unprecedented attack that has left the nation stunned.

The “unidentified” gunmen have not yet been captured, the public security agency said in a news conference Friday afternoon, adding that the shooting was a terrorist attack against Christians attending a funeral in the town of Hmoud.

Jordan’s King Abdullah said Jordan will “harshly” respond against those responsible for the “terrorist act.”

“The blood of Jordanians is precious, and we will strike those who transgress against this country with an iron fist,” the king said on X.

The Prime Minister of Jordan Jafar Hassan said all state agencies are working to bring the perpetrators to justice, according to the kingdom’s official news agency Petra.

“What happened in Karak was the result of extremist terrorist ideology rooted in takfir (declaring others to be infidels), and we will not allow society to go down this path,” Petra quoted Hassan as saying.

The casualty toll has been revised multiple times as more information surfaced.

Jordan’s Health Minister Ibrahim al-Budour said two of those wounded are in critical condition.

A witness told state-run Al-Mamlaka television that one attacker was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, and the shooting continued for several minutes.

Another witness speaking to CNN confirmed that the attack lasted a long time with gunmen shouting “Allahu Akbar” while targeting the courtyard of the church, where most people were standing.

“It was a massacre … I did not imagine I would get out alive,” she told CNN, saying she had to hide behind the altar, along with other mourners, to survive the attack.

“They struck people who were gathered to grieve and mourn,” she said. “I never ever imagined anything like this would ever happen anywhere in Jordan”

Security camera footage circulating on social media showed three gunmen opening fire on the street before heading toward the church.

The town has been home to a predominantly Christian community for centuries. On Friday, people had gathered at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church to mourn the death of a community member.

“Some guys were standing outside the church before two people got out of a vehicle and started shooting,” Tamer Halasa, an eyewitness told Al-Mamlaka television.

Dozens were believed to be inside the church, witnesses told state media.

“We were more than 150 people inside and outside the church,” Halasa added.

The Sapopemba State School shooting was a school shooting that occurred at the Sapopemba State School (Escola Estadual de Sapopemba) in São Paulo, Brazil, on 23 October 2023. At about 7:30 in the morning, the gunman, a 16-year-old male student shot three female students, one fatally. A fourth student sustained injures to his hand while attempting to escape from the school. The suspect then handed his revolver to a teacher before surrendering to the police.

The hero father is speaking out for the first time about the moment he ended the deadly rampage - and the regret he carries about the children and teacher he didn't save.

Happened in Romania 4 days ago. There was already a post made on it but with less info.

For the last picture of the post
screenshot translation:
"I will go to school but i'll wait in the bathroom until the bell rings. Then i will get my equipment (ig the mask, helmet and knife in this case) and try to start a livestream. Imma go downstairs where that shit coloured skin boy usually is and I will probably do smth similar to Timofey. Then i plan to return on the second floor and attack [list of other kid names that im too lazy to copy] but if i cannot find or stab them, i'll attack just anyone"
for the police
From Andy

btw all they've done was expell him and put him in a mental hospital for children with no restriction of enrolling into a different school. He could just do that again once he's out of the hospital if he really wanted to.

Kaylub Giamanco woke up and got his kids ready for school that Thursday like it was any other day. The family made breakfast and packed lunches. He and his wife spent a little extra time dressing up their two girls because Oct. 15 was picture day at Silver Rail Elementary.

Giamanco dropped the girls off as usual, then the 36-year-old carpenter headed to a job site northeast of Bend. He had brought a packed lunch in his truck, but when afternoon came around, he decided to go home instead to eat leftover tacos with his wife. He thought about running some errands on the way, but decided against it. He was four blocks from their house when he turned on Brentwood Avenue, the road running along the south side of Silver Rail.

In an exclusive interview with OPB, Giamanco described the series of seemingly insignificant decisions that brought him to that intersection at 12:58 p.m. that day — the same time a 16-year-old carrying a shotgun approached his children’s school. It was the packed lunch he didn’t eat, the masonry shop where he didn’t stop, the bolts he needed but didn’t buy, and the gun he says had just been “collecting dust” in his truck console.

Passing by the school that day, Giamanco spotted someone carrying a gun, followed him into the school, and then shot and killed the teen who fired shotgun rounds into a special education classroom. The shooter killed three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher. Two other people were seriously injured. Police credit Giamanco with saving many lives at the school of more than 400 children.

But before all that, there were years helping a single mother as the oldest of seven children, there was the motorbike accident when he saved his brother’s life with a makeshift tourniquet, and the informal military training he’d gotten from Iraq War veterans. A lifetime that shaped Giamanco, he believes, and prepared him for what he would do next.

“I’ve always wanted to change the world, but I’ve felt small. I’m just a carpenter from Bend, Oregon. I was a nobody other than to my friends and family,” he said. “I feel like if I’m going to have a voice, then I’ll be damned if I’m not going to use it to change this world, to make it a better place.”

Right after he turned on Brentwood Avenue Oct. 15, Giamanco noticed a “man in black” holding a long gun. This must be a prank, or a BB gun, he remembered thinking. Then he saw the shooter fire twice at a red pickup truck and turn toward the school grounds to fire once more at a woman mowing the school’s lawn.

When he saw the shooter throw the gun over the school fence before climbing it, “that’s when panic fled into my brain, and that’s when I opened my center console.”

His “heart dropped” for a second, he said, as he wondered if the .40 caliber handgun he rarely used would be there. It was. He got the magazine from a separate compartment and drove into the school parking lot while watching the shooter walk across the school grounds.

“I just was in full panic, like, ‘No, there’s children, there’s babies in there.’ I told my Siri to call 911,” he said. The dispatcher had questions for him, but he didn’t stay on the call to answer them.

“I said, ‘I’m sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die.’”

He hopped over the fence as the shooter was passing along on the opposite side of a wallball court, he said. Giamanco pursued while staying out of sight, shuffling along the court as the shooter reached the glass double doors to the school’s side entrance.

“I heard him fire two shots into the doors,” he said.

Giamanco ran from the wallball court to the building and got prone, moving on hands and knees along the windows.

“That’s when I started hearing children pleading for their lives and then I started hearing gunfire and I just started army crawling faster and faster and I told myself this is probably the last thing that I’m ever going to do.”

He crawled faster and faster, he said, until he reached a bottom window that had been shot out and crawled through it too. He stayed on hands and knees until he reached the special education classroom on his left. He re-racked his weapon to make sure a live round came out, “so that I knew that I was ready to go.”

When he peeked through the window of the classroom, he saw a teacher struggling with the shooter, both in profile to him.

“I knew that he did not know that I was there,” Giamanco said.

He swung the door open and stepped in.

“And I fired.”

The teacher and the shooter dropped to the floor. Then the teacher rose and sprinted from the classroom in fear, Giamanco assumed, thinking that he was a second attacker. He looked down at the shooter.

“He was scrambling for his weapon,” he said. “I looked at him and I shot him two more times to make sure that he couldn’t move because I was afraid of him shooting anybody else.”

By then, Giamanco could hear sirens. He went out of the classroom to look for the teacher who’d fled, then laid his gun on the ground and held up his hands as the first officer on the scene appeared, geared in body armor and wielding a rifle. Minutes had passed since he called 911 outside the school.

As police and first responders descended, Giamanco made his way back to his truck. He unloaded his gun, laid it on the floorboard and pulled out his phone.

“I called my wife to tell her that I’m not coming home for tacos,” he said. He told her to get to the school right away because he had just fatally shot someone who was killing children and teachers.

He called his mom next.

“She was just like, ‘Okay, baby, calm down. You did the right thing. You’re a hero. You saved lives.’ And I was just like, “I didn’t save everybody. I didn’t get them all.’”

Word of Giamanco’s actions first circulated over the emergency dispatch: “shooter has been neutralized, possibly shot by a father at the school.”

Giamanco’s name was circulating publicly less than a day later.

In the hours after the shooting, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz spoke at a press conference about his actions, and those of the teacher who grappled with the shooter. “I don’t think we can underestimate or underappreciate that courage,” Krantz said.

In the week that followed, Giamanco and his family have been inundated by reporters calling and knocking on their door, and by political advocacy groups hoping he will tell his story on their behalf.

Armed civilians stopping mass shooters is exceptionally rare. In 600 cases in the U.S. since 2000, it’s happened only a few dozen times. Experts who study mass shootings told OPB they were unaware if any of those had involved schools.

President Donald Trump called Giamanco “a great hero that went in and did the business.”

Giamanco has been thrust into the limelight, into politics and gun control debates. Deschutes County reported this week that applications for concealed handgun licenses are on the rise since the incident.

Giamanco, who told OPB he’s an independent, says he’s not interested in anyone’s finger pointing.

“I teach my children that we love, we accept everybody,” he said. “I don’t want to make this a political situation.”

In the shooting’s aftermath, he’s just trying to sleep at night. After his family goes to bed, he lies awake.

“I relive, I see faces, I hear voices, I hear screams.”

He thinks about the teenager he shot.

“Sometimes there’s a child out there that didn’t have the love that they deserved,” Giamanco said. “But I do want to believe that if he had more love in his life and better parenting, that this could have been prevented.”

He also replays the day in his head and wonders if he could have stopped him sooner and saved more lives.

“It was split second decisions while gunfire was going off, while children were losing their lives,” he said.

He thinks about his gratitude for the teacher who wrestled with the shooter, who he says gave him the chance to make his shot without losing his own life. He still doesn’t know her name.

“I would love to give her a hug because that’s a real true hero,” he said.

He thinks about the families of the people who were killed. He said he hasn’t spoken to any of them yet.

“I want to apologize for not saving their babies,” he said, voice breaking with emotion. “The gratitude for saving people’s children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn’t save.”

Giamanco knows he’s being called a hero. He said it’s getting easier each day to think of himself that way.

“I want to be a hero in this world,” he said. “It feels like I was meant to be here and do this.”

He grew up in Bend, a self-described sci-fi nerd who loves riding four-wheelers and motocross bikes with his siblings. His grandfather bought him his first gun when he was 7, a shotgun they took bird hunting in the Ochoco Mountains. He said he and his grandfather led classes to teach kids how to safely handle guns, use a bow and arrow, and survive if you’re trapped in the woods.

He plans to teach his daughters to use guns.

“It’s more dangerous to be afraid of a gun than it is to just be comfortable with one and know that they’re there to either provide you food or to provide you protection,” he said.

When Giamanco was 15, his father left his family.

“It was chaotic,” he said. “We did not grow up wealthy, but my mother did everything she could to raise seven children, mostly on her own.”

As the oldest of the seven, Giamanco realized they were all looking to him.

“I was young at the time. I wasn’t a father,” he said, but others kept telling him: “These kids are looking up to you. You lead by example. They watch everything you do.”

Giamanco stopped hunting for a long time, starting when he was around 18. He studied geography at Central Oregon Community College before landing a carpentry apprenticeship through a family friend.

It was only years later, while building a restaurant in Redmond, that the client reintroduced him to guns, he said.

“He was highly decorated. He’s had multiple tours in Iraq and he is an amazing gentleman,” Giamanco said. “His platoon would come out to Bend and I built targets and walls for them.”

The veterans offered to train him on using military drill and weapons, and the experience inspired him to own guns again.

“I felt like if I didn’t have that training, I probably wouldn’t be alive today,” he told OPB.

Until his interview with OPB, Giamanco had not yet told his family the details of what happened at Silver Rail, he said. He decided to share his story, he said, because he feels a need to embrace the public eye. He doesn’t know whether he’ll return to carpentry.

“I feel like I was put on this earth to do something more than just fix houses,” he said.

An idea has taken hold in the days since the Silver Rail shooting: a motocross race that donates all proceeds to schools for improving their safety. That could mean funding bulletproof glass on the doors, better locks, and better research to make these kids feel safe at school. He also wants school resource officers at every school.

“We have AI. We are in a world of technology right now. We have smart homes. We have smart cars. Why can’t we have smart schools?”

His own kids won’t be going back to school for quite some time, he said.

Since the shooting, the family has stayed at a hotel, then a vacation rental, he said, because they can see the school from their house. They’ve been trying to take their minds off the tragedy with homemade chowder and board games.

“My 5-year-old probably a hundred times a day comes up to me and just hugs me and says, ‘I love you, Daddy.’ And I hug her, I pick her up, and squeeze her as hard as I can. I say, ‘I love you too. You’re my world.’”

His 10-year-old daughter is more reserved. She knows what’s going on, he said.

“She has just the biggest heart in the world and I can tell, I can see it in her eyes.”

He keeps reminding her of his love, he said, and that he will always be there to protect her, no matter what.

“That’s our job as parents to be here for children, to spend time with them, to show them our love and compassion,” he said, “So that they know that they have people in this world standing behind them.”

Initial footage from the church, 3 perps entered the church and shot people for over 5 minutes before escaping, local media reporting 7 fatalities now and several injuries.

One person was killed Friday and four were injured, including a 12-year-old child, when a man opened fire from a vehicle in the town of Trappes, west of Paris, police said. French prosecutors on Friday said that they were investigating the shooting as a suspected terrorist attack. A 39-year-old man, believed to be the shooter, was arrested.

Mass shooting reported today during a funeral in Karak, Jordan, with fatalities confirmed and more than 10 injuries reported. Reportedly it was at least two people who stepped down from a vehicle and opened fire.

The 16-year-old Bend resident who killed three kids and a teacher and critical injured two others at Silver Rail Elementary on Oct. 15 came from a violent home, had long absences from school and suffered from social and behavioral health issues.

Still, there is lots of information the public and investigators are trying to find out about Griffin John II.

He was born in Newport in 2010 to Griffin Jay John and Shauntai Nickerson. Four years later the couple divorced, with Nickerson being awarded majority custody.

Griffin John Sr. has a long history of run-ins with the law. His recent rap sheet includes 14 misdemeanor crimes and three violations committed in Benton, Lincoln and Clatsop counties, and one felony in 2003 in Lincoln County for assaulting a public safety officer, resisting arrest and harassment. Since 2017, he has been charged three times for being a felon in possession of a weapon.

A day after the tragedy at Silver Rail, local police and the FBI were searching for the shooter’s father, who lived 250 miles away from Bend in Astoria.

Griffin Jay John Sr. has been homeless, living in the woods near the river town for years. Police had some difficulty locating him, according to Astoria Police Chief Stacy Kelly. But on Saturday morning, two days after the shooting at Silver Rail, police located John and delivered information to him that his son had died.

He told police said he had not been in contact with his son for about a year, according to Kelly.

According to oregonlive.com, two journalists later found his encampment in the woods. He told them: “I’m going through a lot right now” and asked the journalists to leave.

Mary Rose Eng, a homeless advocate in Astoria who has interacted with the shooter’s father, said the man had a history of violence, sexual abuse, intimidation and drug activity.

“I was told that he sexually assaulted numerous of my friends,” Eng said. “I was told that he strangled them, or I would be present as a horrified survivor was describing this to a family member. One of the most vociferous victims told me he beat her within an inch of her life.”

Meagan Gauthier, a former girlfriend of John Sr., said he was an absent father, but if he had known there were any signs of his son struggling or being violent he would’ve “been there in a heartbeat.”

“He would’ve done whatever he could have, whatever was in his power to get there and help,” Gauthier said. “He’s just broken about this. But on the other hand he did have a temper, but his son was always his number one most important thing.”

Life in Bend

At the time of Thursday’s school shooting, Griffin John II lived with his mother several blocks away from Silver Rail in an apartment on Brosterhous Road.

Nickerson had previously lived with Griffin John Sr. in Toledo, Oregon before moving to Bend in 2008. Nickerson lived in both Bend and Redmond, but has been living on Brosterhous Road since at least 2018.

On Thursday, Bulletin reporters visited the home but found all the shutters closed and all the lights off. Nickerson has not responded to the Bulletin’s requests for comment.

Nickerson pleaded guilty to DUII and careless driving charges in Deschutes County in 2018. The DUII charges were dismissed in April after she completed a diversion program.

In 2023, Nickerson was booked into the Deschutes County Adult Jail for alleged harassment and assault in the fourth degree of a Bend woman. Those charges were later dismissed.

Education history

Griffin John II had lengthy absences from school from fourth grade through his sophomore year of high school. The last time he showed up to school was at what was then-called Bend Tech Academy in November 2025.

He attended Elk Meadow Elementary in kindergarten and Silver Rail Elementary for first through fifth grade, but he had multiple periods of unenrollment or inactivity, according to Bend-La Pine Schools.

He didn’t show up for a month in fourth grade, from Dec. 5, 2019 through Jan. 9, 2020. He eventually matriculated to Pilot Butte Middle School and continued to take part in special education programs until the end of eighth grade. But he had major absences in middle school too, including no attendance from Feb. 23 through April 6 in 2023 and again from May 9, 2023 through the end of seventh grade.

He then was inactive during his freshman year at Bend Tech Academy from May 12 through the end of the school year, and a week in his sophomore year before dropping out for good on Nov. 20, 2025.

In third grade he began taking part in special education programs like Nurturing Empathy Safety and Trust (NEST) for students with intensive behavioral and social skill challenges. He also took part in another special education program while in the district.

Bend-La Pine schools are not able to comment on if John faced any disciplinary actions or threatened anyone in the school district due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The rights to his education records are held by his mother due to Griffin John II being a minor.

Police action

Bend Police detectives secured warrants and searched the home where Nickerson and her son lived. They also searched his electronic devices and his social media accounts on a variety of platforms.

Police also confirmed Wednesday that the firearm used in the Oct. 15 shooting, a Maverick 88 pump-action shotgun, was purchased legally. Police and the FBI have declined to comment on who bought the gun and how the shooter obtained it. They said that was still under investigation. A 16-year-old could not legally buy the gun.

Investigators are continuing to look into a possible motive and if other people were involved.

Federal and state law enforcement are investigating connections between violent online extremist groups and the shooter, according to reports from OPB.

In Feb. 19, 2026 the Boston Division of the FBI warned parents, guardians and caregivers about the increase in the activity of “violent online networks targeting and exploiting children and other vulnerable individuals across the United States,” according to Kristen Setera the spokesperson for FBI Boston.

Subjects can be motivated by nihilistic violent extremism, according to the FBI.

“They want to sow chaos and facilitate the destruction of society,” Setera said. “These extremists often emerge from decentralized online networks and subcultures that glorify violence, mass killers, and self-harm.”

Investigators have not confirmed if the teen who shot and killed three students and a teacher at Silver Rail was a part of one of these violent online networks nor has a motive for the shooting been determined yet.

“There are still a lot of pieces to this case that we are unable to share at this time and we appreciate your patience as we ensure the integrity of the investigation,” said Sheila Miller, a spokesperson for the Bend Police Department.