Hero dad who took down school shooter speaks out: 'I was supposed to be there'
The father of two who took down a gunman in an Oregon school shooting last week is speaking out for the first time about how he ended the deadly rampage.
Kaylub Giamanco recounted to Oregon Public Broadcasting in an interview published Friday how he crawled through the shattered front doors of Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, swung open the door to a classroom and saw a teacher struggling with the gunman.
Kaylub Giamanco, who fatally shot an attacker who had killed three students and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School, poses for a portrait on Oct. 22, 2026 in Bend, Ore.
Saskia Hatvany/Oregon Public Broadcasting via AP
"I can tell you that I genuinely feel like I was supposed to be there," Giamanco, whose two daughters attend the school, told OPB.
Giamanco, a carpenter and lifelong Bend resident, said he was driving home on Oct. 15 when he saw a person in all black, armed with a gun, jump over the fence at the elementary school.
"That's when panic fled into my brain," he told OPB. "That's when I opened my center console and I just said, 'No, no, no, no, no,' and I grabbed my gun."
Kaylub Giamanco, who fatally shot an attacker who had killed three students and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School, sits for an interview on Oct. 22, 2026 in Bend, Ore.
Saskia Hatvany/Oregon Public Broadcasting via AP
After shooting through the front doors of the school, the gunman entered a special needs classroom and opened fire, police said.
"I started hearing children pleading for their lives, and then I started hearing gunfire," Giamanco told OPB.
Law enforcement at the scene of a reported shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Ore., Oct. 15, 2026.
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The dad said he crawled on his hands and knees toward the classroom.
"I swung the door out and open and I stepped in and I fired," Giamanco told OPB. "He was scrambling for his weapon, and I looked at him and I shot him two more times."
The shooter was killed, police said. Three students and a teacher were fatally shot by the gunman, according to police. Another student and teacher were also injured in the shooting.
Police lauded Giamanco as a hero, saying he "undoubtedly saved people" that day.
Giamanco grew emotional talking about the lives he could not save.
"I want to apologize for not saving their babies," he told OPB. "That's probably the biggest thing for me right now, because the gratitude for saving people's children is awesome. But there was ones that I didn't save."
Kaylub Giamanco, who fatally shot an attacker who had killed three students and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School, reacts as he sits for an interview on Oct. 22, 2026 in Bend, Ore.
Saskia Hatvany/Oregon Public Broadcasting via AP
The family of one of the victims killed in the shooting, 25-year-old Megan Lambert, have said they are grateful for Giamanco and called him a hero, saying in a statement, "You selflessly put yourself at risk for others."
Giamanco commended the teacher who police said tackled the shooter to the floor and tried to take the gun away from him, saying she allowed him the chance to act without getting hurt himself.
"I would love to give her a hug because that's a real true hero," he told OPB.
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