An Oregon elementary teacher says she played dead after a teenage gunman shot her at close range in a special needs classroom where four people were killed.
Becky Drury, a 54-year-old teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, released a statement making clear she was hit before she could move to help anyone else. Four people died in the attack. Two others were hurt, including Drury.
ABC News reported that Drury spoke out Wednesday to correct what she called contradictory accounts of her actions that day. She said she ran toward the noise, saw the gunman, and turned back toward her classroom door.
"I turned to shut the door behind me, but the shooter was already there," Drury said.
"Before I could do anything more, he shot me at close range and I fell to the ground."
She could not stand, fight, or shield students. So she did the only thing left.
"I could not get up, defend myself, or protect anyone else," she said. "So, I did the only thing I could do, which was to pretend to be dead in the hope he would not shoot me again."
Drury said her left hand was almost completely severed. Her right arm was severely injured. She stressed she was shot before she had any chance to act, rejecting earlier claims that she had thrown herself over a student.
Bend police said the 16-year-old suspect first shot at a truck outside the building, then fired on locked doors to get inside. He carried a twelve-gauge shotgun into a special needs classroom.
Breitbart reported that police were called around 1 p.m. after the shot into a vehicle, with 911 calls about an active shooter inside following quickly. The school went on lockdown. Oregon already has some of the nation’s stricter gun laws, yet the attack still unfolded on an elementary campus.
Three boys, ages 5, 8, and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher died at the scene. Another student was injured along with Drury. The shooting remains under investigation.
Just The News reported that the suspected shooter, identified as Griffin J. John II, had been a former special needs student at Silver Rail and targeted that classroom. The slain teacher was named as 25-year-old Megan Lambert. The youngest victim was identified as 5-year-old Rhoam Summer.
Police said another teacher in the special needs classroom threw her cellphone at the gunman, tackled him to the floor, and tried to take the shotgun. She was not injured. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz later said her courage almost certainly prevented more deaths.
A father of two Silver Rail students saw the shots fired at the truck, followed the teen inside, and fatally shot the suspect. That armed bystander ended the attack. School shooting cases keep testing communities and courts, including the Apalachee High School mass shooting sentencing that left another campus reeling.
Police confirmed the firearm used in Bend was legally purchased. They said they would not release further details on the gun at this time. Search warrants were served on the suspect’s home and on his electronic devices and social media accounts.
Drury’s account puts the sequence in plain terms. She was already down and playing dead while another adult fought for the weapon and a parent closed the distance with his own gun. The people forced to live with the consequences did the hard work when seconds mattered.
District schools reopened Wednesday for the first time since the shooting. Dozens of officers stood at each campus. Bend police said the higher presence would continue.
"You'll likely see an increase in police presence in and around our schools over the coming days and weeks," the department said. "That's because we want students and staff to feel as comfortable as they can during a difficult, emotional time."
Drury thanked the community for support and said her heart is broken for everyone hurt or lost. Families across Bend are left burying children and a young teacher while investigators dig through warrants and devices. Other sudden attacks on ordinary people, from a fatal Times Square knife attack to classroom violence elsewhere, leave the same hollow aftershock.
Photo captions tied to the scene show police tape outside Silver Rail on Oct. 15, 2026. The article detailing Drury’s statement published the following week. Motive has not been stated. Names of the father who stopped the gunman and the teacher who tackled him have not been released in the accounts used here.
Classroom shootings keep producing the same grim ledger of young victims and staff forced into life-or-death choices, much like the Virginia teacher shooting case that later drew heavy civil scrutiny. In Bend, the record shows a legally purchased shotgun, a locked door that failed to hold, and civilians who finished what locked doors and statutes did not.
Drury wanted the public record corrected so her actions that day were not rewritten for her. She was shot at the door, fell, and stayed still. A colleague risked everything for the gun. A father ended the threat. Four people still went home in body bags.
When a killer forces entry into a grade-school classroom, the adults who refuse to freeze are the ones who save lives, and the laws on the books did not stop the first shot.
