Oregon father reflects on stopping Silver Rail Elementary School shooter – Full Interview
Editor's Note: Oregon Public Broadcasting shared its interview with Kaylub Giamanco with Local News 8 affiliate KTVZ News following a request from Kaylub to limit interviews. We respect Kaylub's request and thank Oregon Public Broadcasting for their content.
BEND, Ore. (KIFI/OPB) — The Oregon father who intervened when a 16-year-old gunman opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend spoke with Oregon Public Broadcasting, reflecting on his actions that police say saved lives.
For Kaylub Giamanco, the day began like any other Thursday. He spent the morning getting his children dressed and ready for school picture day, dropping them off, and heading off to work.
Later that afternoon, he was heading home for lunch with his wife when he happened to pass by the school where his children attend.
"I turned onto Brentwood. I was approximately 100 yards behind a red Toyota pickup truck. And I had seen a man in black, and I had seen a rifle, and then I saw him fire two times towards the Toyota pickup truck," said Giamanco in the exclusive interview.
Seeing the gunman throw his rifle over a fence, panic set in. Giamanco grabbed his gun from the center console, loaded a magazine, racked the action, and headed toward the school parking lot.
He quickly called 911 while watching the gunman walk across the school grounds, feeling a flood of panic for the children inside.
"I said I'm sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die," Giamanco told the dispatcher.
Facing the Shooter
Jumping a fence, Giamanco says he used the wall ball court for cover and raced toward the building as the gunman fired two shots into the double doors. Reaching the school, Giamanco quickly dropped and army-crawled past the windows.
"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 gonna do,'" said Giamanco.
Kneeling on the ground, he re-racked his weapon, peeked through a window, and saw a teacher struggling with the gunman. Seeing an opening, he swung the door open, stepped in, and fired.
"She [the teacher] gave me the opportunity to make my shot without losing my life," said Giamanco. "I saw a clear shot to where I did not have to take her life. Without her and that little spur-of-the-moment delay, I very much feel like I would have been facing the shooter head-on."
Both the gunman and the teacher dropped to the ground. Terrified that Giamanco was a second shooter, the teacher ran.
"I looked down at the gunman and he was scrambling for his weapon, and 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," said Giamanco.
The Aftermath and Grief
Shortly after, the first heavily geared police officer arrived at the scene. Giamanco dropped his weapon to the ground, put his hands up, and called out to the officer for help.
As police and first responders rushed to secure the building, Giamanco quickly called his wife, then his mother.
"I was like, 'Mom, I just had to take the life of what I think might be a child because he went into my daughter's school with a gun.' And she was just like, 'OK baby, calm down, you did the right thing, you're a hero, you saved lives.' And then I just kind of broke down at that point," Giamanco recalled.
Despite being recognized for saving lives, Giamanco told OPB he is haunted by the lives he was unable to save.
"The gratitude for saving people's children is awesome, but there's ones that I didn't save, and that's probably the hardest thing for me right now," said Giamanco. "There's a little bit of fear of seeing these families because I do feel like I failed them."
