Five weeks before he went on a shooting rampage at an elementary school, a teenage mass killer stared at a camera with a murderous gaze.

Griffin John II, 16, killed three children aged five, eight, and 11, and their 25-year-old teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday afternoon.

He also critically wounded a 54-year-old teacher and shot a seven-year-old child who uses a wheelchair in the face, both of whom are still in hospital.

The first victim of the shooting has been named as five-year-old Rhoam Summer. 

His teacher has been identified as 25-year-old Megan Lambert of Bend, while the other child victims will not be named at this time out of respect for the victims’ families, Bend police said at a press conference Friday. 

Police said that John II – who was not currently enrolled in a Bend public school – traveled to Silver Rail Elementary on foot. 

John II began firing after entering a special education class, where he himself was a student when he attended the school as a young child.

Authorities are unclear on how John II was able to get his ammunition, stating the investigation was still ‘very active.’ 

He was so determined to target his former class that when he was fired upon when he tried to enter the front door, he ran around to the back entrance, police said.

Griffin John II, 16, who killed three children aged five, eight, and 11 at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday is pictured with his mother Shauntai Nickerson

Rhoam Summer, left, has been named as one of the victims of the shooting. He is pictured with his mother 

The teen killer first threw the Maverick 88 12-gauge pump-action shotgun over the fence before jumping over – but found himself blocked from entering.

John II was fired upon by hero dad Kalub Giamanco – who would later shoot the teen dead – and blocked by another bystander’s van that he riddled with bullets.

Instead of giving up, he ran to the back entrance and blasted his way through a ‘safety vestibule’ system designed to keep children at the school safe from school shooters. 

John II was gangly with a patchy moustache and goatee and looked sullen in a haunting photo posted by his mother Shauntai Nickerson last month.

Nickerson told a TV station in 2020 that she was pleased students were going back to the classroom as her son was struggling with distance learning during Covid lockdowns.

‘I think it will be great for Griffin, because I am not certified teaching a special needs student,’ she told KTVZ 21. 

‘And I think it will be great for my son to get the help that he needs from the skilled teachers that he needs to get it from.’

Griffin was shot dead minutes after he began his rampage by Kalub Giamanco, 36, (pictured) a dad of two children at the school who heard the gunshots as he drove home for his lunch break

Giamanco’s wife Kelsey (center) confirmed he was the hero who intervened by running inside the school. The couple have two children at Silver Rail Elementary School

The future murderer was in the NEST (Nurturing Empathy Safety and Trust) program, which helped special education students ‘experiencing intensive behavioral and social skills challenges’.

John II used his mother’s shotgun to carry out the massacre, which police said was bought about the time of his 16th birthday.

Nickerson, 43, a medical aide at Touchmark Living Centers, has a long list of traffic violations and was charged with DUI at 1.37am on July 29, 2018, by local police in Bend.

She was also convicted of harassment in 2023 with a second charge of fourth-degree assault from the same incident dismissed.

Nickerson insisted to reporters who confronted her outside her home in Bend that her son was ‘a good boy’ and she would have stopped him if she could. 

John II’s motive is unknown, but he attended the school as a child before moving on to the local high school. 

Silver Lake Elementary School in Bend is pictured on Friday afternoon in the wake of Thursday’s mass shooting that killed three young students and a teacher 

Police raided John II’s family home on Thursday night, seizing computers and other electronic devices. Family was said to be cooperative.

John II was shot dead minutes after he began his rampage by Kalub Giamanco, 36, a dad of two children at the school who heard the gunshots as he drove home for his lunch break.

Giamanco’s wife Kelsey and brother Kyle, along with several of his friends, confirmed he was the hero who intervened by running inside the school.

He holds a concealed carry permit and is friends with the family of the seven-year-old in the wheelchair who was wounded. 

Giamanco shot John II dead within moments of the massacre beginning just before 1pm on Thursday.