School Shooting in Bend, Elon Musk's Power, MN Senate Race

The grief at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon is mixed with gratitude for the teacher and the dad who stopped a massacre. Please in bend shared details about that school shooting. I'm Aisha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon and this is up first from NPR News. Candelite visuals honor the dead from an elementary school shooting and the bravery of the people who stopped it. A new film about Elon Musk tries to puzzle out how he got so powerful we talked to one of the producers. And a surprisingly competitive Senate race in the normally blue state of Minnesota is making Democrats nervous. So please stay with us, we've got the news you need to start your weekend. Authorities are continuing to investigate a shooting at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon this past Thursday. Three children and one teacher were killed. Two others, a seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher are being treated for injuries. NPR Criminal Justice correspondent Jacqueline Diaz has been following the story and joins us now. Jacqueline, thanks for being with us. Yeah, thank you for having me. And officials have shared new details about how the shooting apparently unfolded. What do we know? Yeah, during a press briefing yesterday, police in Bend, Oregon laid out the series of events leading up to the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School. It started around 1 p.m. That's when a bystander and a red pickup truck spotted the shooter climbing off fence on the school property with a shotgun. The bystander confronted him and the gunman shot at the truck multiple times. That man called 911. Meanwhile, the gunman made his way to the building. The doors were locked, but he was able to get inside after he fired multiple rounds at the doors. A second bystander, a father of two children at the school, saw the shooting that unfolded moments earlier and pulled into the school parking lot. He grabbed his gun, which police say he carried in his car legally and he followed the suspect into the school shot and killed him. He's being killed as a hero. His mother read a statement to reporters identifying him as lifelong Ben resident Caleb, Giamonco, and said he asked for privacy during this difficult time. Amid this chaos, there was yet another person who tried to stop the gunman. Here's Ben, police chief Mike Kranz at yesterday's news conference. A teacher in the classroom threw her cell phone at the suspect and then tackled him and fought to take the firearm from him. She was not injured in that incident, but she almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed. So as you can tell, there were multiple people who intervened here to try to stop this attack from becoming any worse than it was. Jack, and what if we learned about the shooter? Well, he was 16 years old and he was formally a student in the school's special education program. This is notable because the shooting took place in a special education classroom. Police identified him as Griffin J. John II. They say used a Maverick 88, which is 12 gauge pump action shotgun. Authorities say they've searched his home and they're continuing to conduct interviews. After the shooting, police say they found the suspects backpack at the scene and 44 more rounds of ammunition. And I understand not all the victims have been named publicly, but tell us please about them. Yeah, three children aged 5, 8 and 11 were killed. The five year old was a boy named Rome summer. Officials did not release the names of the other child victims at the request of their families. The teacher who was killed was 25 year old Megan Lambert. She was from Bend. She had a passion for sports. She was a volleyball coach. Her family released a statement that officials read at Friday's briefing. They said the job at Silver Rail was her first teaching role and it was her dream job. Here's police spokesperson Sheila Miller reading from the family statement. Megan was compassionate and had a huge heart. She always fought for the underdog and those with special needs. She was an incredible sister, daughter, niece and granddaughter. The family says she was funny and opinionated and that she lit up the room. And watching the case Jacqueline, what will you be watching for next? Right, so authorities say this is very much an active criminal investigation and that it will take time. We're expecting more details to emerge about the shooter. Law enforcement officials will no doubt be looking more into who you was and what might have led him to carry out this horrible shooting. Also, the police chief said the weapon came from the shooter's home, but one question authorities are still digging into is how the teen got the gun. In the meantime, officials say hundreds of residents have already shown up at a local library to meet with crisis counselors as they grieve. And Pierce Jacqueline Diaz, thanks so much. Thank you. Elon Musk has spent at least $276 million on campaign donations to Republicans. But that's just a fraction of Musk's overall wealth around 0.03%. The power of that kind of money is hard to understand in technology, finance and politics. He has business ventures in space, AI, electric vehicles and even he showed off this week, flying cars. And I'm not sure it's necessarily legal in all jurisdictions, so it's going to be pretty well that you can have a rocket car. We're joined now by Ronan Farrow. He's an investigative reporter and contributing writer to the New Yorker and to help produce a new documentary about Elon Musk, called Musk. Mr. Farrow, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me. This week, Elon Musk's star field military communication service was briefly restricted in Ukraine. He says any decision would have come from the Pentagon, not his company. But does this remind us how dominant SpaceX is in the field? And should that be a concern? Absolutely. A few years ago, I reported in the New Yorker on US officials who were expressing alarm that the US government had let one man become infrastructure, Starlink for Ukraine's army, SpaceX for NASA and the Pentagon, and that they increasingly had no way to compel him to comply with their policy directives. And one of the cases that I dug into to illustrate this was an incident in the fall of 2022 when Ukrainian forces were advancing on Russian held territory. And Starlink was dropping, and the Ukrainians were signaling, well, we're in peril because of this. So US officials were calling Elon Musk to plead with him. Please restore contact. Now, in the latest incident, we have Zelensky and Ukraine saying people are dying as a result of us losing connectivity, and Musk saying, well, it's not me, it's the administration. And the administration, for some days, equivocating, and now saying very narrowly, well, it wasn't the president. The truth is, we don't know who flipped the switch in this case, but this goes to the larger theme. This is a moment where so often the infrastructure is controlled by private interests with as much by way of life or death stakes as turning off communication capacities in a theater of war. How would you assess the current relationship between Elon Musk and President Trump? They were close and seem to have a falling out. But in recent days, we have seen Musk get appointed to yet another government role, co-leading an initiative called Project Meridian, assessing the future of warfare. By the way, at a time when his companies have immense business with the US government. So there are real questions being raised about the conflicts of interests here to put it mildly. We of course mentioned Elon Musk's record campaign contributions. Yes. How do you see his spending in politics? Well, he said that he was done after the last cycle with spending big to support Republican politics. But as you noted, that has not happened. The biggest of his recent checks, 158 million to the Senate leadership fund, is one of the largest political gifts ever made by a person in this country. And this is part of a wider trend line. We are living through a moment in American history when wealth imbalances are immense and deepening. And an oligarchy, and particularly a tech oligarchy, is increasingly entwined with politics. The infrastructure the government runs on is now being provided by many of the same men that are bankrolling. Disproportionately, one side of the aisle. And Elon Musk is a particularly acute example of that. But I mean, we have to point out there are certainly big name contributors and all side just George Soros, who are contributing millions to Democrats, aren't there? Of course. But Elon Musk embodies a very particular and rising strain of politics in Silicon Valley that is empowering their companies to operate with less and less regulation. Absolutely money in politics, more broadly, is a bipartisan issue. But this is a specific rising tide that we're seeing right now. Are there ways that Elon Musk influences our everyday lives, of which we might not be aware? I think one thing to highlight is the information economy that we all live in. This past April, I reported on a rival of musks, Sam Altman in the New Yorker. And it's striking to look at how differently information related to my reporting that was tough on musk, flowed through the internet versus information that was tough on arrival of his. In the case of my reporting on musk, a key post on X about it that I made got something like 8 million views. The Open AI Sam Altman reporting by comparison, the key post I had made about that on his platform, it wound up getting something like 40 million views. You know, when I reported on musk, he called me against the people and a puppet of the establishment. And then, you know, when I was reporting on someone he didn't like, he was posting that content nonstop and amplifying it in not always transparent ways. So we just all need to be aware that we are living in information systems that are frequently being manipulated to suit the whims and business objectives of very powerful individuals that don't have a lot of accountability around them. Ronan Farrow, reporter for the New Yorker, one of the producers of the new documentary musk. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. (upbeat music) - Tight Senate races in Texas, Iowa, and Kansas are getting a lot of attention during this year's midterm elections. Minnesota also has a close race, though you may not have heard as much about it. - Peter Cox from Minnesota Public Radio joins us. Peter, thanks for being with us. - Morning, Scott. - Please tell us his running and why this race has maybe been a little overlooked nationally. - So Peggy Flanagan, a progressive Democrat who's been Lieutenant Governor and Minnesota for the last eight years, is up against Republican Michelle Tafoya, who spent years as a sideline reporter for Monday night football and Sunday night football. And they're battling for a seat that's been held by Democrats since 2009. Recent polls have shown the two neck and neck, though Flanagan had a 4% edge in the most recent one. But normally such a tight margin would mean political parties would be pouring money into this race. But that's not what's happening here. This election, Republicans are facing challenges in what would be reliably red states. So they've been putting their money into showing up those races instead. And that seems to be a big reason why Minnesota's race has been much quieter. Even though it's one of several that could determine which party controls the US Senate. - President Trump indicated this week he might make a trip to Minnesota. How big a factor has President Trump been in this race? - Yeah, like many of these midterm races we're seeing nationwide, President Trump is a major factor. Tofoya, who has never held public office before, said when she announced her candidacy, she'd be honored to have his endorsement. But in recent months, she's tried to distance herself from Trump. And that became tougher this week when Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Ohio. And he railed against members of Minnesota Somali community who he said were looting Minnesota welfare programs. He then implored people to get out and vote for Tofoya. During the debate yesterday, Tofoya was asked whether she'd campaign with Trump if he comes to Minnesota. And she didn't answer the question. Peggy Flanagan has consistently said Tofoya would be a lapdog for Trump and was quick to point out how Tofoya only recently has tried to distance herself from the President in this campaign. - Minnesotans are smarter than this new version of Michelle Tofoya who has shown up in the final weeks of this campaign. Give me a break. - Governor Tim Maltz's administration has gotten a lot of heech over the fraud that you mentioned. Has this extended to Lieutenant Governor Flanagan who, after all, is a second in command? - Yes, about 70 people have been convicted of building millions of dollars from state programs in the last few years. And questions have been raised about why the Walls administration didn't respond more quickly during the debate. Tofoya was quick to point the finger at Flanagan. - This historic fraud happened in her watch. And suddenly, she's looking out for Medicaid and SNAP, sell it to someone else, Peggy. - Now Flanagan says the issue was not under her purview as Lieutenant Governor. - The Trump administration cited this fraud as one reason for the increased immigration crackdowns in Minnesota last winter. Is that enforcement surge playing a role in this race? - Well, the month-long surge has been eclipsed recently by other issues like the economy and cost of living, but it's definitely still resonating. And Flanagan has commended the large-scale protest against ICE in Minnesota and has called for the agency to be dismantled. Now, Tofoya has criticized the rollout of the enforcement surge and called the fatal shootings of Americans ran a good and Alex Freddie by immigration agents devastating. But he also criticized the protest and said local leaders encouraged them. - Peter, any signs this race might get a last minute influx of outside spending as we've seen elsewhere. - Well, the president talking about this race this week, saying he might visit, could put it more front and center for some, but we haven't seen any big changes in political spending here in the last few days. About two weeks ago, US Senate Majority Leader John Thune came to stump for Tofoya at a farm in Southern Minnesota. And when he was asked whether the political action committee he helps run the Senate Leadership Fund would give Tofoya a funding boost, he was non-committal. And we still haven't seen much national money flowing into support, either Canada. We're little more than two weeks out from the election, so the runway for that kind of investment in this race is getting pretty short. - Peter Cox, I've been a soda public radio thanks so much for being with us. - You're welcome. - And that's up first for Saturday, October 17th, 2026. I'm Scott Simon. - And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Our producer is Elena Twork. She has helped from Chris Harlan Dunoway, Gabe O'Connor, and Dave Mistich. - Our editor is Diana Douglas and she worked with Melissa Gray, Gigi Duband, Jacob Fenston, and Padma Ramma. - In the control room are our director, Michael Radcliffe, and our technical director, David Greenberg. They're so ably assisted by Zoe Vankenhoven, Simon Lasslow-Janson, and Jason. - Our deputy managing editor is Catherine Leadlaw, our executive producer is Evie Stone and our senior supervising editor, Shannon Rhodes. They give up first its main character energy. - Tomorrow on the Sunday story is the first election in Israel since the tragedy of October 7th and the government's war in Gaza. What are voters weighing? - Thank you for listening, and for supporting your local NPR station. And if you need to find yours and there's no time that we're spent, just stand at a train station holding a single red rose. (laughing) - Or go to stations.npr.org. But yes, if you hold the single red rose, Scott Simon will appear. - I'll do what I can. (laughing) (gentle music)