Father Saves School After Shooter Kills 4
Oregon dad stops school shooter, saves lives but mourns those he couldn’t save.
2 min read
Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter and father of two, made the ultimate sacrifice to protect children at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on October 15. The incident, which left four dead and two seriously injured, has left Giamanco haunted by the lives he could not save.
Heroic Action Amid Chaos
Giamanco, who had returned home for lunch, witnessed a 16-year-old gunman firing at a red pickup truck and then moving toward a woman mowing the lawn. He quickly retrieved his handgun, called 911, and pursued the attacker. Describing the chaos, Giamanco recalled, “I just was in full panic, like, ‘No, there’s children, there’s babies in there.’”
After hearing the gunman fire two shots into the school’s glass entrance doors, Giamanco moved along the building’s exterior, staying low to avoid being seen. “That’s when I started hearing children pleading for their lives and then I started hearing gunfire and I just started army crawling faster and faster,” he said.
Inside the School
Giamanco crawled through the shattered glass at the entrance and approached a special education classroom. Looking through a window, he saw a teacher struggling with the gunman. With the attacker’s attention on the teacher, Giamanco opened the classroom door and fired. Both the teacher and the gunman fell to the floor. The teacher then fled, and Giamanco shot the gunman twice more to ensure he could not move.
When the first officer arrived, Giamanco put down his handgun, raised his hands, and asked for help. He later returned to his truck, unloaded his weapon, and called his wife and then his mother. His mother told him he had done the right thing and saved lives, but he was already thinking about those he had not saved.
Reflection and Advocacy
“I didn’t save everybody. I didn’t get them all,” Giamanco recalled telling his mother. He praised the teacher who grappled with the gunman, giving him the opportunity to intervene without directly facing the attacker. He hopes to meet her and the families of the victims, expressing his desire to apologize for not saving their children.
Giamanco has struggled to sleep since the shooting, reliving the screams and images from inside the school. He hopes to use the attention to improve school security, including organizing a motocross race to raise money for stronger locks, bullet-resistant glass, and other security measures. He also supports having school resource officers at every school.
A Voice for Change
“I’ve always wanted to change the world, but I’ve felt small,” Giamanco 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.”
Source: Daily Wire
