Oregon Gun Sale Rules Left Shotgun Available to Bend Shooter's Mother

The shotgun used by a 16-year-old in a Bend elementary school attack was bought legally, state records show, because the buyer's prior charges never became convictions.

Investigators say Shauntai Nickerson, the shooter's mother, acquired a Mossberg Maverick 88 pump-action firearm in August. The Oregon Journalism Project reviewed records showing the weapon is registered to her. Retail listings place that model between $250 and $300. Law enforcement officials have not identified the retailer.

Oregon statute prohibits firearm sales to anyone convicted of a violent misdemeanor within the preceding four years. Nickerson was charged twice in 2023, and neither case produced an assault conviction. A conviction in either proceeding would have blocked the sale.

Bend police documented the first case in January 2023. Officers reported that Nickerson, then 40, and her daughter Ariel Swan, then 19, pursued a woman in a white SUV, attempted to strike her with the vehicle, and then attacked her physically after exiting. A witness told police the pair "definitely hunted her down." Swan was arrested on harassment and attempted fourth-degree assault counts. Police wrote that Nickerson "charged" at officers during that arrest, though she was not charged.

A second case followed roughly six weeks later involving a different woman in her early 40s. Court files record an allegation of physical injury. Nickerson pleaded guilty to harassment in October 2023. Two weeks afterward, Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels dismissed the assault count. In an Oct. 23 statement, the district attorney's office said the prosecutor lacked sufficient evidence to prevail at trial.

Tung Yin, who teaches at Lewis & Clark Law School, said the disposition likely stemmed from a plea bargain designed to avoid trial costs and uncertainty. "There are so many crimes that people commit, prosecutors just can't charge them all, so they have to pick and choose," Yin said.

Four people died at Silver Rail Elementary School in the Oct. 16 attack. A parent of two students at the school shot and killed the assailant. Oregon Public Broadcasting has reported that investigators are checking possible ties to extremist organizations. Police have not stated a motive.

Court files show the shooter's father, Griffin J. John, 47, carries a felony record for assaulting a police officer alongside misdemeanor assault and harassment charges, and lives without housing in Astoria. Nickerson has her own history as a domestic violence victim; Kyle Duncan, her boyfriend at the time, entered guilty pleas in 2014 for felony assault and coercion against her, and the convictions were later vacated after he finished a deferred sentencing program.

Dr. Harold Schwartz, a University of Connecticut psychiatry professor who studies school shootings, said weapon access separates violent actors from others who share anger and isolation. "The single most significant difference is the availability of the weapon," he said. National Institute of Justice figures show 77% of mass shooters obtained their weapons legally, while more than 80% of school shooters took guns from relatives. Reports that the shotgun was a birthday gift remain unverified by the Oregon Journalism Project. Nickerson, Duncan and Swan did not return calls seeking comment.