Make New York Post a Preferred Source The Oregon school shooter went to extreme lengths to carry out his evil carnage and make his way to his target: his former special-needs classroom, law-enforcement sources told The Post on Friday.
John J. Griffin II, 16, first threw his Maverick 88, a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, over the fence at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend around 1 p.m. Thursday and hopped over, sources aid.
The gun-toting young madman then tried to enter through the school’s front door but was blocked by two bystanders, sources said.
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Refusing to give up, he ran around to the school’s back door and blew off its lock — which was designed to prevent such tragedies, sources said.
He entered the school and headed straight for his former special-needs classroom and opened fire, killing three students, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a teacher, while also injuring a 7-year-old in a wheelchair and a 54-year-old teacher before being gunned down by a heroic witness who was carrying a concealed weapon.
Griffin’s weapon had been legally purchased by his mother Shauntai Nickerson around the time of his August birthday, sources said.
Nickerson was seen on the porch of her second-story home by reporters Friday smoking a cigarette and crying.
“I’m sorry … I miss him,” Nickerson reportedly said, adding that the suspected killer was “a good boy, he really was.”
She did not discuss her purchase of the murder weapon but said, “If I could have prevented this, I would have.”
Griffin’s special-education history had been documented in a KTVZ report from 2020 that quoted his mother discussing his troubles with remote learning during the pandemic.
“I think it will be great for Griffin [to return to the classroom] because I am not certified teaching a special-needs student,” Nickerson told the outlet.
