Oregon teacher says she played dead after school shooting

Becky Drury tried to close her classroom door when she saw a gunman at an Oregon elementary school. He shot her before she could, leaving her on the floor with severe injuries to both arms. She said she pretended to be dead so he would not shoot her again.

“I know there has been contradictory reporting about my actions that day, but the truth is I was shot before I had any chance to act,” the 54-year-old teacher said in a statement released Wednesday, her first public account of the Oct. 15 shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend.

The attack killed three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher. A 7-year-old student was seriously wounded. Drury’s injuries were serious but not life-threatening.

Drury said she had gone to see what was happening outside her classroom when she spotted the shooter. “I turned to shut the door behind me, but the shooter was already there,” she wrote. “Before I could do anything more, he shot me at close range and I fell to the ground.”

Her left hand was almost completely severed by the gunshot, she said, and her other arm was severely injured. “I could not get up, defend myself, or protect anyone else. 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.”

Police identified the gunman as Griffin J. John II, 16, a former student at the school. According to CBS News, police said he shot through locked school doors before entering a special-needs classroom and opening fire. The BBC reported that officials said he had been a student with special-education needs at Silver Rail. Police have not shared a motive, the BBC said.

Accounts of how others responded have included differing details. CBS News reported that police said another teacher tackled the gunman and that Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old armed bystander who followed him into the school, fatally shot him. The BBC described the person who shot the attacker as a parent of two children and said police reported that an unnamed teacher tried to disarm the gunman by throwing her mobile phone. That teacher was not injured, according to the BBC.

The BBC identified two of those killed as 5-year-old Rhoam Summer and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert. It also reported that accounts had circulated of a teacher throwing herself over a student to protect the child. Drury said she issued her statement because she wanted the events of that day, and her own actions, reported accurately.

She thanked those who had supported her since the shooting. “What happened in that classroom was unimaginable, and like so many in this community, my heart is broken for everyone affected by this tragedy,” she said.