Kaylub Giamanco, the Oregon father who fatally shot a gunman at his daughters' elementary school, said in an interview published Friday that there were children he did not save.1,3,4,7,8
Three students and a teacher were killed on October 15 at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, by a 16-year-old former student, Griffin J. John II, police said. Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter whose two daughters attend the school, shot and killed the gunman after entering the building. Police said the gunman's motive remains under investigation.1,3,4,7,8
Giamanco said he had dropped his daughters off at school that morning and decided to go home for lunch with his wife instead of eating the lunch he had taken to work. As he passed the school, he said, he saw a man in black fire a long gun at a pickup truck and at a person mowing the lawn, then climb a fence. He first thought it might be a prank, but, as he put it, "panic fled into my brain."1,3,4,7,8
He took a.40-caliber handgun from his truck's center console and called 911. "I'm sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die," he said he told the dispatcher. PBS reported that he asked the dispatcher to send help before hanging up, while CBS News said the dispatcher had questions for him but he did not stay on the call.1,3,4,7,8
The gunman fired through the school's locked glass doors. Giamanco followed him and, hearing children pleading for their lives and more gunfire, crawled toward the building. "I told myself this is probably the last thing that I'm ever going to do," he said.1,3,4,7,8
He crawled through a broken window and reached a classroom where a teacher was locked in a struggle with the gunman. He opened the door and fired. "He was scrambling for his weapon," Giamanco said. "I looked at him and I shot him two more times to make sure that he couldn't move, because I was afraid of him shooting anybody else."1,3,4,7,8
He then placed his gun on the ground and raised his hands as an officer appeared, and he described feeling like the "last line of defense" between the children and the gunman. Police have said he was carrying his gun legally, and they have credited him and an unarmed teacher, who threw her phone at the gunman, tackled him and fought to take his shotgun. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said she "almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed."1,4,7,8
The youngest victim, five-year-old Rhoam Summer, was one of three boys killed, and his father said the family was "broken and lost." The other two boys, aged eight and 11, have not been publicly named. Megan Lambert, 25, the teacher who was killed, was working in what her family described as her "dream job." "She always fought for the underdog and those with special needs," they said.1,3,4,7
Police said six people in total were shot in a classroom at the school. Becky Drury, a second teacher in the room, said in a statement Wednesday that she lay on the floor, playing dead, after being struck at close range by a shotgun blast that nearly severed her left hand.1,4
The teacher who grappled with the gunman has not been publicly identified. "I would love to give her a hug because that's a real true hero," Giamanco said.1,4,8
A day after the shootings, President Donald Trump called Giamanco a "great hero" who "took care of business," and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said he "heroically intervened to stop further loss of life."4,7
After officers arrived, Giamanco emptied his weapon and called his wife and then his mother, who told him, "OK, baby, calm down. You did the right thing. You're a hero. You saved lives." He recalled replying, "I didn't save everybody. I didn't get them all." He said he now replays the day at night and wonders whether he could have stopped the gunman sooner. "I relive, I see faces, I hear voices, I hear screams," he said.1,3,7,8
"I want to apologize for not saving their babies," Giamanco said. "The gratitude for saving people's children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn't save." He said he wants to meet the victims' families and "cry with them and hold them."1,3,7,8
Giamanco said he did not want to make the matter political, describing himself as an independent, and that he hopes to help raise funds for local schools to improve safety. "I feel like if I'm going to have a voice, then I'll be damned if I'm not going to use it to change this world, to make it a better place," he said.1,7,8
