The shotgun used Thursday by the alleged Silver Rail Elementary School attacker was given to him by his mother as a birthday present.
Four people were killed in the attack and on the day it occurred, October 15, Breitbart News noted that the alleged attacker used a shotgun his mom had purchased. There was, however, at the time, no information on how the shotgun was in the 16-year-old attacker’s possession.
But on October 19 CBS News reported the shotgun was a birthday gift to the boy: “The Maverick 88 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun was purchased legally in August 2026 by Shauntai Nickerson, the mother of [the alleged attacker], and given to him for recreational use.”
The 16-year-old attacked a special needs classroom, killing a five-year-old, an eight-year-old, and an 11-year-old, all of whom were students. He also killed a 25-year-old teacher.
The attacker was then killed by a father, Kaylub Giamanco, who has two daughters in Silver Rail as students.
The New York Post identified him as Giamanco, “a 36-year-old carpenter and father” who carries concealed and heard gunshots as he drove by the school during his lunch break. Giamanco pursued the 16-year-old inside the school and fatally shot him in the special needs classroom.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
