Did police name Tyler Gregory Sternbach as the Silver Rail Elementary shooting suspect in Bend, Oregon? No, that's not true: The City of Bend Police Department did not name Tyler Gregory Sternbach as the suspect in the school shooting that killed three children and one teacher on Oct. 15, 2026. The Washington Post subsequently named the suspect as John J. Griffin II, citing sources.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @ManDaveJobGood account on X on Oct. 15, 2026. It read:
BREAKING: police have confirmed the identity of the shooter is Tyler Gregory Sternbach Please spread!
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @ManDaveJobGood on X.)
The City of Bend Police Department has not released the name of the suspected school shooter at the time of publication. In a press conference following the shooting on Oct. 15, 2026, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the suspect was a 16-year-old male. At the 5:55 mark of a video of the press conference on the City of Bend Oregon YouTube account, Chief Krantz only shared the details about the suspect's age, not their name, saying, "We have identified the suspect as a 16-year-old Bend resident."
A search of the @BendCityPolice account on X (archived here) did not find an announcement of Tyler Gregory Sternbach as the suspect in the school shooting at the time of publication.
The Washington Post (archived here) named the suspect as John J. Griffin II on Oct. 16, 2026, after the false name spread on social media:
Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) and did not find any reports that the police had named Tyler Gregory Sternbach as the suspect in the elementary school shooting.
