Roughly 20 states have passed laws in recent years that target the parents of teen school shooters for prosecution. Oregon isn’t one of them.
But legal and law-enforcement experts believe a criminal case against the mother of the 16-year-old Silver Rail Elementary School shooter in Bend could be mounting anyway.
A dozen Oregon prosecutors, former prosecutors and defense attorneys, as well as a retired judge, told The Oregonian/OregonLive the same thing: That even in the absence of a specific state law holding parents criminally liable for the gun crimes of their children, the mother of the Bend teen shooter could be prosecuted under the state’s existing laws for homicide — if she glaringly ignored red flags.
“It’s more likely now than it’s ever been before, because we have precedents,” said Amber Kinney, who worked for 13 years as a deputy district attorney with the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office in Portland. She tried some of the highest-level cases, before going into private practice in 2022.
“And there is this public cry, this need for the public and the community to feel like someone is held responsible,” Kinney said.
The shooter was killed by a parent who rushed into the 450-student school. But that was not before the teen used a shotgun to fatally wound three students and a 25-year-old educator in a special needs classroom on Oct. 15. A 7-year-old student and a 54-year-old educational assistant were seriously injured, with a blast from the shotgun nearly severing the educator’s hand at the wrist.
Now, many of the questions about what went wrong are turning toward the mom.
The experts tapped by The Oregonian/OregonLive say they know of no other case in the state where parents have been prosecuted for school shootings committed by their children. But they say cases outside Oregon are helping pave the way.
In 2024, Michigan became the first state in the nation to convict a mass school shooter’s parents, sentencing the pair each to at least 10 years in prison for missing warning signs and buying their troubled 15-year-old son the gun he used to slaughter four classmates. The conviction of another father followed in 2026, after a massacre at a Georgia high school.
A third case, of a Wisconsin father, is still pending, after prosecutors say the father gifted his 15-year-old daughter two handguns. She later opened fire during study hall, killing a student and a teacher before killing herself.
An essential question: What did Bend mom know?
Though police and prosecutors in Bend have been tight-lipped about their investigation, legal experts with no inside knowledge of the case say a vigorous inquiry into the relationship between the teen shooter, Griffin J. John II, and his mother is surely underway.
What did the shooter’s 43-year-old, single mom know about his mental state? Had he expressed suicidal thoughts or a desire to harm others? Did emails from school or mental-health providers reveal warning signs?
And did the teen’s mother leave the shotgun unsecured in their home? Or did she gift it to her son for his birthday, knowing that he was talking to violent extremist groups online? Two law enforcement sources told The Oregonian/OregonLive that they were investigating the teen’s possible interactions with such groups.
Across the board, legal experts consulted by The Oregonian/OregonLive said these are the questions police and prosecutors will ask.
“Any prosecutor worth their salt is just saying to law enforcement, ‘Get me everything you can get,’” said Eric Bergstrom, a former prosecutor and retired Multnomah County judge who traveled the state to settle or preside over complex cases. “‘Find every conversation, every email, every text, everything the school sent, any conversations they had. Because until I see the whole picture, this remains a very tough case.’”
Oregon law prohibits anyone under 18 from buying a shotgun or ammunition, though it does allow parents to give their kids guns that aren’t handguns or temporarily let them use guns for hunting or target practice. Even so, prosecutors and defense attorneys say that doing either of those things could become criminal if parents knew — or should have known — the child posed a real and serious threat.
The teen’s mother, Shauntai Nickerson, did not respond to multiple attempts from The Oregonian/OregonLive to contact her via phone, door-knocking or mail. It’s unclear if she has hired a lawyer.
Nickerson appears to have been the main caregiver in the teen’s life. She and the teen’s father, Griffin John, divorced when the boy was three, and John lived hours away from them on the Oregon coast. John told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he has been homeless in Astoria and hadn’t seen his son in about a year.
Only bits and pieces have come to light about Nickerson, who was married to John for four years. They had one child together, Nickerson’s fourth, according to divorce filings.
Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels and his office haven’t shared a timeline for determining whether they will proceed with a prosecution, but legal experts outside central Oregon say it could take months.
A lot of ‘checked out’ parents
Bryan Brock, who retired two years ago after 25 years as a deputy district attorney at the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office, said he hopes to see charges filed if the evidence is there, even though he believes a prosecution will be challenging.
“A lot of times, the parents are ostriches,” said Brock, who now lives in Bend. “Their head is in the sand, and they don’t know what’s going on with their kids. They’re checked out.”
Brock said defense attorneys would likely argue that the parents aren’t responsible for their children’s crimes because, “Well, they didn’t know.” That leaves the DA’s office with a tough but not insurmountable task, he said: proving “that they didn’t know, but they should have.”
To secure a homicide conviction against a school shooter’s parent, prosecutors would have to prove that a parent acted with “criminal negligence” or “recklessness” by ignoring or “consciously disregarding” warning signs.
Charges on the low-end of the criminal spectrum include misdemeanor recklessly endangering another person, a crime that upon conviction typically garners probation but could result in jail time of up to a year under Oregon law.
On the high end of the range: criminally negligent homicide, which could draw up to an 18-month prison sentence under Oregon’s sentencing guidelines, or first- or second-degree manslaughter, which require minimum sentences of roughly six to 10 years behind bars.
Historically, parents in Oregon have seldom been held accountable when their guns are used by their children to inflict violence.
In 1998, a 15-year-old became the first mass school shooter in Oregon history. He killed two and wounded 25 others at Thurston High School in Springfield using a rifle bought by his father. He also killed his parents.
In 2014, a 15-year-old brought guns belonging to his father and brother to Reynolds High School in Troutdale, killing one student and wounding a teacher before killing himself. Prosecutors didn’t charge the dad or brother with crimes, saying the firearms had been locked away even though the teen was able to gain access.
But in a little-known case in Lake County, prosecutors charged the southern Oregon guardian of a 14-year-old boy with misdemeanor reckless endangerment after the boy accidentally shot and killed his 13-year-old friend while playing with an unsecured gun in the guardian’s home in 2018. The guardian was convicted and sentenced to probation.
The guardian also is facing an ongoing $9 million civil lawsuit filed by the parents of the dead child. But legal observers say lawsuits don’t often carry the sting of jail or prison time, especially because many of the people sued can’t pay.
In the case of the Silver Rail Elementary shooter’s mom, she’s been sued twice in the past few years by a bank and a credit card company for nearly $7,000 in unpaid debt. She has since paid back part of that debt plus court fees, according to court records.
‘A slap in the face’
Police haven’t publicly said how the teen obtained the weapon. But if the teen’s mom didn’t give him the gun and he took her unsecured gun from their home, it’s possible the mother could be cited. Since 2021, Oregon law has required gun owners to lock up their firearms when they are not in use or lawfully being carried.
If a minor accesses a gun that a parent or other adult failed to secure, the parent or other adult can be charged with a Class A violation and fined up to $2,000. That’s similar to a traffic citation, and it’s not a crime. Some say that’s not enough.
“That penalty is a slap on the wrist to the gun owner and a slap in the face to the families and survivors,” said Penny Okamoto, director of Ceasefire Oregon Action Fund, a political action committee for gun violence prevention.
The law has resulted in the convictions of only nine adults in its five-year history. Their penalties ranged from $25 to $440.
Okamoto has advocated for a felony charge to be added to Oregon’s law.
In 21 other states, plus Washington, D.C., laws are tougher, according to Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. They specifically make it at least a low-level crime for adults to allow access to unsecured guns if the guns are then used to hurt or kill others, with some exceptions. Some states say it’s a crime merely if a child could or is likely to access the firearm.
A few aren’t as strict, saying it’s only a crime if the child is under 14 or 16.
Jim Jagger, a Eugene gun owner and retired attorney of about 50 years, said issuing a non-criminal fine “doesn’t get the attention of gun owners.”
“I’m with all other gun owners who, I think, do not want to have Bend happen again,” Jagger said.
The weapon used in the Silver Rail Elementary shooting, a Mossberg Maverick 88, 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, is typically used for hunting and sport shooting, but is also marketed for home defense. At around $300, it is known as an affordable, versatile shotgun, though its capacity is limited, allowing just six to eight shots before requiring reload.
Amie Wexler, executive director of Alliance for a Safe Oregon, said that Measure 114, were it in effect, would be unlikely to have prevented the shooting.
“If someone is in a homicidal rage or a suicidal crisis, (Measure 114) does put barriers in their way,” she said.
But the measure wouldn’t have banned the weapon itself or stopped the mother from purchasing it, Wexler said.
Passed by a slim margin in 2022 shortly after 19 elementary-school children and two teachers were killed in Uvalde, Texas, Measure 114 requires a permit to purchase a weapon, including a completed background check. It also bans the sale of high-capacity magazines. It has never gone into effect because it has been held up in court since shortly after it passed.
Nickerson, the Bend shooter’s mother, was charged in 2023 with fourth-degree assault and harassment, but pleaded guilty only to harassment. Police records show she was involved in a fight over an ex-boyfriend and was accused of “pummeling” another woman in the head at a laundromat. Had Nickerson been convicted of the assault charge, she would have been prevented from buying guns until 2027.
Demands for accountability
Derek LeBlanc, founder of the Oregon Gun Owners Action League, said the Bend shooting should be a “wake-up call” for parents that will prompt them to make sure that no one gets unauthorized access to their firearms.
“As a parent, as a citizen, I feel like there needs to be accountability for this situation,” he said.
He said it’s common in Oregon for a parent to gift a gun to their child. “But I will say this is a caveat: The majority of those parents that get that gun, they’re taking all the precautions to make sure that gun is properly stored,” he said. “Most kids are not going to have free access to the gun. That’s where, I think, responsibility plays a really big part of this.”
Legal experts interviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive say they’re confident that the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office will take into account whether the gun used in the Silver Rail Elementary shooting was properly stored, as well as what — if any — gun-safety education the teen’s mother ensured her son had.
The day after the shooting, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said his department executed a search warrant at the teen’s home, about a 10-minute walk from Silver Rail. The teen was a former special-needs student at the school. He was last enrolled in Bend-La Pine schools in November 2025, according to a district official.
On Wednesday, police added that they’ve also started delving into the teen’s “electronic devices and his social media accounts on a variety of platforms.”
“This work continues, and it takes time,” police said in a news release.
Legal experts say police undoubtedly tried to question the teen’s mother about what she knew. But if she refused to talk, investigators still would unearth a “treasure trove” of information from gun-purchase records, the mother’s computer and cellphone, past school and mental-health providers’ records, if there are any, and doctor’s office questionnaires often given to teens about their mental state.
On top of that, investigators could search the mother’s financial records to find out who paid for the ammunition.
“Ammunition, it’s not cheap,” said Paige Clarkson, who retired three weeks ago from eight years as Marion County district attorney and 27 years as a prosecutor. “That’s something you have to think about.”
If the evidence is there, prosecutors could present the entire package to a grand jury and subpoena witnesses — including counselors, former teachers, neighbors and friends — for possible indictment of the mother.
Clarkson said she has confidence in Gunnels, the Deschutes County district attorney, to only pursue charges if he believes he can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
To protect the integrity of the investigation, experts say, all of this would be done out of the public eye.
“We know what people are wanting, what people are hoping,” Clarkson said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s possible under the state of the law.”
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