After four people were gunned down at a Bend, Oregon, elementary school, questions continue to swirl about whether anyone will be held accountable for the mass shooting.
Law enforcement said a shooter opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School on Oct. 15, killing students Rhoam Summer, 5, and two boys, ages 8 and 11, along with teacher Megan Lambert, 25. Another teacher, Becky Drury,and a 7-year-old girl, Saylor Graham-Poarch, were wounded in the attack before the alleged gunman was tackled by a teacher and killed by an armed bystander.
The attack has left the community wondering how the 16-year-old suspect gained access to the weapon, which police said was legally purchased. As the law enforcement investigation continues, attorney Tim Williams
told USA TODAY that a legal team hired by the Summer family is conducting an independent investigation into questions surrounding the shooting.
The parallel investigations come amid a growing push to hold not only mass shooters but school officials, law enforcement, weapons manufacturers, social media companies and, notably, parents liable after horrific acts of violence.
While there have been successful convictions of parents in similar cases around the country − including Colin Gray in Georgia and Jennifer and James Crumbley in Michigan − legal experts say giving a minor a weapon they later use in a mass shooting is not, by itself, enough to warrant punishing a parent for the homicides.
Dyllan Moreno Taxman, a professor of law at Baylor University who has written about such cases, said even if the parents in the Bend case provided the firearm and knew the suspect displayed some signs of mental illness, it would be an expansion of the precedent set in the Crumbley and Gray cases if they faced such charges. Especially, he said, "if the parents were held criminally liable without that sort of indication of violent homicidal intent."
Was it legal for 16-year-old Bend shooting suspect to have a gun?
Bend police have said that the Maverick 88 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun used in the shooting was legally purchased, but not by whom. Multiple media outlets have reported that the suspect's mother purchased the weapon, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.
Sheila Miller, a spokesperson for the Bend police department, declined to confirm those reports or answer other questions due to the ongoing investigation. USA TODAY has reached out to the suspect’s mother for comment.
Stacy Kelly, the police chief in Astoria, Oregon, confirmed to USA TODAY that the suspect's father has been in that city, which is about 250 miles from Bend, for over 10 years and said he hadn't seen his son in about a year.
"Nothing else to add," Kelly said.
Federal law generally prohibits licensed gun dealers from selling firearms directly to anyone under 18.
Oregon law also generally restricts firearm possession by people under 18, but allows exceptions for some long guns, including rifles and shotguns under certain circumstances. Minors may lawfully possess certain firearms if a parent or guardian transferred the weapon to them or temporarily during activities such as hunting and target practice.
Investigators must determine if the weapon was transferred to the alleged shooter and if so, whether that transfer was lawful, according to Laura Appleman, a professor of law at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. She noted that while the state has relatively strict gun laws – Oregon is ranked 12th in the nation by Everytown for Gun Safety. – it also has clear carveouts to accommodate popular outdoor activities for families like hunting.
“Right now, I don’t see any really obvious violations of Oregon law,” Appleman said of the Bend case.
Police will also likely be working to determine how the weapon was stored, Appleman said. Oregon recently passed a broad range of gun safety measures, including a requirement that guns be securely stored when they are not in the owner’s immediate control, Everytown has said. Violating the safe storage law can result in a fine but not imprisonment, according to Oregon law.
“It can turn into a higher level of violation if a minor child gets access to the gun, but it’s still not a criminal violation,” said Aliza Kaplan, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon.
If the unsecured weapon is used to injure a person within two years of the violation, the gun owner is automatically considered negligent in subsequent civil litigation to recover damages for the injury unless certain exceptions apply, Oregon law indicates. Williams, the attorney for the Summer family, said how the weapon was stored was among the issues the legal team is investigating.
“There’s various questions about her potential liability that we’re trying to suss out as well,” he said of the shooter's mother.
Could parents face criminal charges in Bend shooting?
Police have not announced any such charges in connection with the Bend shooting. Unlike some other states, Oregon does not have a specific law that can be used to punish parents when a child uses their weapon to hurt or kill others, Kaplan said.
But she said an Oregon parent whose child commits a mass shooting could possibly face a range of charges, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, child neglect or reckless conduct, depending on the facts of the case.
Parents and guardians have faced serious criminal charges in a handful of other similar cases.
Jeffrey Rupnow, who is accused of giving his daughter the gun she used to open fire at a Wisconsin school, pleaded not guilty in October to three criminal charges and will stand trial in 2027. Officials have said Rupnow’s daughter, 15, died by suicide after she opened fire inside Abundant Life Christian School on Dec. 16, 2024.
In 2026, Gray was convicted of charges including second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison after prosecutors said he gifted his son the gun he used to kill two teachers and two students at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
The charges against Gray came just months after the Crumbleys, the parents of a 15-year-old who prosecutors said killed four of his classmates at Oxford High School in Michigan with a gifted weapon, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison. All three parents are challenging their convictions.
Taxman, the Baylor law professor, said a key element of the Georgia and Michigan cases was that the parents ignored serious red flags.
In the Georgia case, officials have said the teenage gunman, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, had a shrine to another school shooter in his bedroom. And months before the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting a sheriff's deputy informed Gray that his son had been accused of threatening to commit such an attack online and urged him to keep his guns locked up during a visit to their home.
On the morning of Nov. 30, 2021, Jennifer and James Crumbley were summoned to the school after their son had created a troubling drawing on a math worksheet featuring a gun, a bleeding human body and the words, "The thoughts won't stop. Help me." Hours later, their son, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, opened fire. Alona Sharon, an attorney for James Crumbley, said the media has “repeatedly” failed to accurately report on some of the events leading up to the shooting but declined to comment further.
Reid Meloy, a board-certified forensic psychologist who consults for the FBI, and on criminal and civil cases in the United States and Europe, previously told USA TODAY that indications of coming violence called "leakage" occur ahead of time in 60% to 90% of targeted attacks. But Meloy and other experts said these signs, which frequently appear online, are too often ignored by members of the community or identified only in retrospect.
When asked about potential warning signs, Bend officials said at a news conference that the suspect’s mental health would be part of the investigation. Police said in a statement Oct. 21 that detectives have served search warrants at his home, his electronic devices and his social media accounts as part of the “complex investigation.”
“That work continues, and it takes time,” the police statement said.
Both Taxman and Appleman said prosecuting the mother of the Bend shooting suspect on charges directly related to the killings would be difficult if there were no such warning signs.
“My guess is that they’ll certainly be able to get some misdemeanors for the mother, right?” Appleman said. “But will they have enough to bring manslaughter or even second-degree murder, or negligent homicide? I think that really depends on what we find out about the shooter.”
Contributing: James Ward and Tresa Baldas, USA TODAY NETWORK; Laura Schulte, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Jeanine Santucci, Tami Abdollahand Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tragic school shooting, familiar question: Will a parent be charged?
