Zack Hall, who is acting as a family spokesperson, told OPB that Becky Drury, who works in special education, is recovering at St. Charles Bend.
Three children and a teacher in Bend were shot and killed at Silver Rail Elementary School Thursday afternoon. Another child and teacher are hospitalized. The suspected killer, a 16-year-old boy, is also dead, after a community member shot him.
As Bend residents come together to mourn and ask what comes next, OPB journalists are in Central Oregon. Watch this story for updates and dispatches throughout the day.
1:03 p.m. — A 54-year-old teacher who was shot during the attack on Silver Rail Elementary School on Thursday suffered “serious injuries” but is expected to live, according to a family friend.
Zack Hall, who is acting as a family spokesperson, told OPB that Becky Drury, who works in special education, is recovering at St. Charles Bend. He did not know anything more about what happened at the school.
“She is going to live and she knows what’s happened,” Hall told OPB.
In a statement, Will Drury, her husband, said the family is “incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support, prayers, and well-wishes” since the shooting.
“We live in a truly special community,” Drury said. “Right now, our focus is on my wife, Becky, and her recovery, and on supporting our family through an unimaginably difficult time. We respectfully ask for privacy and space as we navigate the days ahead.”
— Bryce Dole
1:00 p.m. – Tina Pesenti lives two doors down from the family of Kaylub Giamanco, the bystander who shot the suspected 16-year-old gunman.
Pesenti and her teenage granddaughter were making cookies Friday to take to the library in Bend. It’s one of the places affected community members are gathering.
“It’s all we can do right now — is do something to support those who are grieving,” Pesenti told OPB. “They’re having grief counselors there all day, so we just came up with that idea.”
Each year, Pesenti says students from Silver Rail Elementary leave little presents and messages on her doorstep that reflect what they’re learning.
“This one is a flower pot that says welcome,” Pesenti said while pointing to the gift. “It has hearts and flowers, and it was drawn by a first grader.”
Pesenti has also gotten a birdfeeder, wildflower seeds and bird seeds from the first grade classes over the years. The gifts make the neighborhood more colorful, she said.
Living near the school means Pesenti frequently interacts with the students. Kids will stop and ask to pet her dog, and one even offered to shovel snow from her driveway.
Pesenti said she’s still processing the violence that happened at the school this week.
“I just – I can’t wrap my head around it yet.”
— OPB staff
12:30 p.m. — The man who intervened to stop Thursday’s deadly shooting is a father of two students at Silver Rail Elementary School, where the attack took place.
Kaylub Giamanco is the person credited by police with confronting and killing the shooter shortly after the incident began. Giamanco’s role was confirmed by his mother, Kenda Freeman, on Friday, the Associated Press reported. Giamanco’s two young daughters attend the elementary school, the outlet said.
“He is not seeking recognition, but instead wishes to express his gratitude to the first responders, school personnel and community for the outpouring of love and support,” Freeman said, reading from a prepared statement to reporters outside her son’s residence near the school.
Freeman declined to speak with OPB on Thursday morning. She told reporters the family is not granting interviews.
— Dirk VanderHart
11:30 a.m. — The grandfather of the 5-year-old killed during the Silver Rail Elementary School shooting said his family is devastated by the tragedy.
Brad Jolly, of Bend, said his grandson Rhoam Summer was a “lovely little kid” who was playful, bright and “busy.” He and his wife regularly babysat Rhoam, he said.
“He had a scooter he would run up and down the hallway of our house,” Jolly told OPB. “We talked about many things. Read books together. He always gave me a big hug when he left.”
According to Jolly, the school remains an active crime scene and the family has not yet been able to retrieve Rhoam.
Jolly said he thought Rhoam may have been outside a classroom when the shooting began because he “likes to play games with the teacher, like running out of the classroom.”
Jolly criticized the online discourse around the shooting, saying people are quick to “get their opinions in there.” Born in West Linn, the 76-year-old said he has been a hunter all his life.
“People are too anxious to jump on social media and make hay out of something like this, get their opinion in there. ‘Guns save lives,’ whatever (expletive),” he said. “I’m a hunter. I own hunting weapons. I would never own a man-killing weapon.”
— Troy Brynelson
10 a.m. — Officials in Bend are planning a public update at 2 p.m. Friday about the Silver Rail Elementary school shooting.
Leaders from the Bend Police Department are expected to discuss the latest in the investigation. Representatives from the Bend-La Pine school district and Deschutes County Behavioral Health Services are planning to share resources for community members.
The public update will be streamed on the City of Bend YouTube page.
— OPB staff
9:45 a.m. — The teen suspect in Thursday’s deadly shooting at Silver Rail Elementary school was using a shotgun, law enforcement sources confirmed to OPB.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the investigation ahead of official statements. Law enforcement agencies are expected to meet this morning for a briefing.
According to the Associated Press, the shotgun was a pump-action shotgun that was bought by the suspect’s mother. OPB has not been able to independently verify that detail.
— Troy Brynelson
Oct. 16, 6:50 a.m. — All classes in the Bend-La Pine school district are canceled this morning.
Specifics about the shooter’s motivations and relationship to the school are still unclear, leaving grieving residents with more questions than answers. Last night, hundreds of Bend residents sought solace at a candlelit prayer vigil led by local clergy at Drake Park. People sang Christian hymns together as Gov. Tina Kotek and the mayor of Bend offered their condolences.
Local mom Kyra Peterson said that, as a new mother, she wanted to show support that night for the parents who had lost their children.
“It’s very heartbreaking to kind of understand what it’s like to be a parent and to think about losing the life of your child,” Peterson said, as her 1-year-old son cooed in the arms of his grandmother.
Peterson reflected on a previous deadly shooting in Bend at a local grocery store in 2022.
“Our family members were working at Safeway when it was shot up,” Peterson said. But even with past experience, she still was caught off guard by the sudden bloodshed at a local school.
“You never think that something like this would happen in your hometown where you live,” she said. “It’s just very shocking.”
Local Mountain View High School student Payton Stewart said threats of school shootings have become normalized as a part of her everyday school experience as a Gen Z student.
“Every kid has to have a conversation that their parents have to talk to them, ‘Hey this might happen,’“ Stewart said. “We have to have drills about it.” She said she’s seen her own classmates struggle with trauma after surviving shootings.
Gracie Cromie, a local nanny, arrived at the vigil with her friends and said she struggled to explain the violence to her 7-year-old charge after he overheard the news from a stranger while they were visiting a museum.
“We didn’t want to leave him in the dark,” Cromie said. “But he understands what’s going on and it was a hard conversation.”
Cromie and her peers attend nearby Eastmont Church, one of the local assemblies that had canceled services so congregants could attend the vigil. She said local pastors had rallied together their faith communities to offer spiritual counseling and support to victims and Bend residents.
“There is real evil in this world,” she said. One by one, pastors prayed over distraught families. “But that doesn’t mean that God isn’t with us in these times.”
Bend is a tight-knit community that’s “not too small, not too big,” and tragedies like this hit hard, Cromie said.
“It’s the type of place where every time you go out you’re guaranteed to run into someone,” she said.
— Jireh Deng
This is a developing story and will be updated.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.