{"id":633100,"date":"2026-10-17T04:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T04:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633100\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T04:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T04:16:12","slug":"youngest-victim-in-oregon-school-shooting-loved-climbing-stuffed-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/633100\/","title":{"rendered":"Youngest victim in Oregon school shooting loved climbing, stuffed animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The youngest child killed in a shooting at an Oregon school<\/a> was a fast runner and a fearless climber who also loved reading and his stuffed animals, his aunt said.<\/p>\n

Rhoam Summer, 5, was one of three children killed along with a teacher in the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, a mountain-ringed city of about 100,000 in central Oregon. The other two children killed were ages 8 and 11, and a fourth student and another teacher were wounded, police have said.<\/p>\n

“He never met a stuffie that he didn\u2019t think needed to be rescued and cared for,” said Swan Sheridan, whose sister is Rhoam\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

Sheridan said Rhoam liked for all of his sea creature stuffed animals to be in his favourite colour: rainbow.<\/p>\n

“He had a great fondness for sharks and dinosaurs and creatures that were, in his words, ‘misunderstood,'” she said.<\/p>\n

Sheridan said her nephew would climb and jump off anything and was an “incredibly fast” runner, even from a young age. “He was a little ball of energy from the moment he was born,” she said.<\/p>\n

“He was a very, very happy child,” she said.<\/p>\n

Authorities have not named the other people killed.<\/p>\n

\"Flowers<\/p>\n

Flowers and candles are seen at a makeshift memorial outside Silver Rail Elementary. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Police said the 16-year-old suspect got into the school by shooting through locked doors. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has said a man followed the shooter into the school and helped end the rampage as police began arriving.<\/p>\n

The suspect was stopped by the father of two students<\/a>, the man\u2019s mother said Friday. In a statement read to reporters, Kenda Freeman said her son, Kaylub Giamanco, intervened in the attack and shot the attacker.<\/p>\n

Memorials with flowers, balloons and stuffed animals popped up around the school, and drew community members Friday, including Brooke Olsen. She said she was feeling grateful that her daughter \u2014 a kindergartener \u2014 was safe while also trying to “grieve and process and recover”.<\/p>\n

\"Flowers<\/p>\n

Flowers are placed beside a sign at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Friday, October 16, 2026, a day after a deadly shooting. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

“This is an extremely painful day of grief for everybody in Bend, especially Silver Rail families,” Olsen said.<\/p>\n

A wounded teacher was identified by family as Becky Drury. Her mother-in-law, Yvonne Drury, said on Facebook that she had injuries to her left arm and right hand and was recovering from surgery. Her husband, Will Drury, said in a statement that they\u2019re focusing on her recovery at an “unimaginably difficult time”.<\/p>\n

Blake Brinker said he came to a memorial at the school on Friday to pray.<\/p>\n

“Life is such a delicate thing and I don’t think anything brings that message across more than the loss of young life,” he said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The youngest child killed in a shooting at an Oregon school was a fast runner and a fearless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,42,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-633100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}