Last week, tragedy struck the community of Bend, OR after a 16-year-old shooter opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School.
The gunman, John J. Griffin II, targeted a special needs classroom where he was once a student.
Three young children and a teacher were killed. Another child and teacher were also taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
As terrible as this incident was, it could have been even worse if not for Kaylub Giamanco — a father who took out the shooter before he could harm anyone else.
Miraculously, Giamanco happened to be driving by Silver Rail Elementary School, which his own two daughters attend, right when the shooting began.
In an exclusive interview with
Oregon Public Broadcasting, he spoke about how a series of small decisions led to him being at the school at the right moment to witness the shooter entering the premises:
Kaylub Giamanco woke up and got his kids ready for school that Thursday like it was any other day. The family made breakfast and packed lunches. He and his wife spent a little extra time dressing up their two girls because Oct. 15 was picture day at Silver Rail Elementary.
Giamanco dropped the girls off as usual, then the 36-year-old carpenter headed to a job site northeast of Bend. He had brought a packed lunch in his truck, but when afternoon came around, he decided to go home instead to eat leftover tacos with his wife. He thought about running some errands on the way, but decided against it. He was four blocks from their house when he turned on Brentwood Avenue, the road running along the south side of Silver Rail.
In an exclusive interview with OPB, Giamanco described the series of seemingly insignificant decisions that brought him to that intersection at 12:58 p.m. that day — the same time a 16-year-old carrying a shotgun approached his children’s school. It was the packed lunch he didn’t eat, the masonry shop where he didn’t stop, the bolts he needed but didn’t buy, and the gun he says had just been “collecting dust” in his truck console.
Passing by the school that day, Giamanco spotted someone carrying a gun, followed him into the school, and then shot and killed the teen who fired shotgun rounds into a special education classroom. The shooter killed three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher. Two other people were seriously injured. Police credit Giamanco with saving many lives at the school of more than 400 children.
But before all that, there were years helping a single mother as the oldest of seven children, there was the motorbike accident when he saved his brother’s life with a makeshift tourniquet, and the informal military training he’d gotten from Iraq War veterans. A lifetime that shaped Giamanco, he believes, and prepared him for what he would do next.
“I’ve always wanted to change the world, but I’ve felt small. I’m just a carpenter from Bend, Oregon. I was a nobody other than to my friends and family,” he said. “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.”
Right after he turned on Brentwood Avenue Oct. 15, Giamanco noticed a “man in black” holding a long gun. This must be a prank, or a BB gun, he remembered thinking. Then he saw the shooter fire twice at a red pickup truck and turn toward the school grounds to fire once more at a woman mowing the school’s lawn.
When he saw the shooter throw the gun over the school fence before climbing it, “that’s when panic fled into my brain, and that’s when I opened my center console.”
In the interview with OPB, Giamanco detailed how he called 911 but, instead of waiting for law enforcement to respond, made the brave decision to charge into the school and confront the shooter himself.
He told the 911 operator,
“I’m sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die.”
After entering the school, Giamanco says he saw a teacher struggling with the shooter inside the classroom.
He acted quickly, entered the classroom, and fired shots at the shooter.
Watch Kaylub Giamanco share his full account of the incident in this clip:
NEW: Kaylub Giamanco, the HERO father who TOOK OUT the Bend, Oregon elementary school shooter last week, tells the story for the first time
"I started hearing children PLEADING for their lives. And then I started hearing gunfire and I just started army crawling faster and…
pic.twitter.com/46pl0r8Lu7
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor)
October 23, 2026
NEW: Kaylub Giamanco, the HERO father who TOOK OUT the Bend, Oregon elementary school shooter last week, tells the story for the first time
“I started hearing children PLEADING for their lives. And then I started hearing gunfire and I just started army crawling faster and faster. And I told myself, this is probably the last thing that I’m ever going to do.”
“I have to go in. People are going to die.”
“I crawled through the bottom window that was shot out and continued onto the rug inside where there’s a little breezeway with stairs.”
“And then the special needs classroom was to my left. At that point, I was on the ground on my hands and knees. I re-racked my weapon to make sure that a live round came so that I knew that I was ready to go.”
“And then I peeked through the window. And at this point I found my opportunity. And I’d seen a teacher on the left struggling with the gunman on the right with the rifle.”
“And I knew that they were on both sides of me, and I knew that he did not know that I was there. And so at that point I swung the door out and open and I stepped in and I fired.”
This man deserves the Presidential Medal of FREEDOM!
Kaylub Giamanco is an absolute hero.
This good guy with a gun saved countless lives that fateful day. The case is a perfect example as to how the Second Amendment saves lives.
However, Giamanco says he struggles with the knowledge that he couldn’t save them all.
From
NBC News:
Police arrived shortly after and Giamanco pleaded with them to let him call his loved ones.
“I called my wife to tell her that I’m not coming home for tacos,” he said.
Then he called his mother.
“She was just like, ‘Okay, baby, calm down. You did the right thing. You’re a hero. You saved lives.’ And I was just like, “I didn’t save everybody. I didn’t get them all.’”
Law enforcement officials have universally praised Giamanco for acting fast. Within hours of the shooting, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said of Giamanco and the teacher who fought with the killer: “I don’t think we can underestimate or under-appreciate that courage.”
Giamanco said he’s been struggling to sleep since the mass shooting and can’t get that terrible day out of his head.
“I relive, I see faces, I hear voices, I hear screams,” he said.
The carpenter has not yet met the parents of the three children killed. Giamanco said he wants to tell them he’s sorry for not doing more.
“I want to apologize for not saving their babies,” Giamanco said, his voice choking with emotion. “The gratitude for saving people’s children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn’t save.”
Kaylub Giamanco’s mother also spoke to Central Oregon Daily News about the phone call she received from her son moments after he took out the shooter.
Watch this:
If that were my son, I sure would be proud.
President Trump has also expressed praise for Kaylub Giamanco, calling him a “great hero.”
We covered that previously here:
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[ H/T WLT Report ]
