The weeping mother of the crazed teen gunman who carried out a mass shooting at an Oregon elementary school insisted her son was “a good boy” and that she would have tried to prevent the massacre if she could.

Shauntai May Nickerson, the mother of 16-year-old John J. Griffin II, waved off reporters on the porch of her apartment complex as she smoked a cigarette and cried, the New York Times reported.

Follow for live updates on the mass shooting at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon

The mother said that Griffin — who killed three students and one teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School on Thursday — was “a good boy, he really was.”

A person places flowers at a makeshift memorial on the other side of Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Ore., on Friday. AP Photo/Haven Daley

Community members grieve during a candlelight vigil at Drake Park in Bend, Ore., on Oct. 15, 2026. Getty Images

“I’m sorry,” Nickerson said, the outlet reported. “I miss him.”

Griffin was armed with a pump-action shotgun, allegedly bought by his mom, when he opened fire in Silver Rail Elementary’s special education classroom.

A hero girl dad, Kaylub Giamanco, followed the teen into the school building and fatally shot him, according to police and his relatives.

Here’s the latest on the elementary school shooting in Oregon:

• Hero gunman who ran into Oregon elementary school to end teen’s mass shooting was ‘student’s dad’: dispatch audio
• Driver who tried to stop Oregon school shooter shows bullet hole-riddled truck: ‘Holy s–t’
• Oregon elementary school teen gunman fired his mom’s shotgun at truck before rampage that left 3 kids, teacher dead: report

Nickerson declined to say how her son could have gotten hold of the deadly firearm.

“If I could have prevented this, I would have,” she said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.