Hero dad who stopped Oregon school shooter shares his story

Kaylub Giamanco, the man praised as a hero for fatally shooting a gunman at a school in Bend, Oregon, last week, is speaking out for the first time about the moments leading up to the shooting and how he is grappling with the aftermath.

The 36-year-old carpenter, whose two daughters attend Silver Rail Elementary School, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that it was happenstance that he was passing by the school at that moment. He said he had decided to go home for lunch that day instead of eating the food he had packed.

As he drove by the elementary school, he saw a "man in black" holding a long gun and shooting at a vehicle. At first, he thought it was a prank, but then the shooter threw 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 and said, 'No. No. No. No,'" Giamanco said in the interview. In the console of his truck was a .40-caliber handgun he rarely used.

He said he grabbed the weapon's magazine from another compartment, drove into the school parking lot and saw the shooter walk across school grounds.

"I just was in full panic, like, 'No, there's children, there's babies in there,'" he recalled. "I told my Siri to call 911." He said the dispatcher had questions for him, but he didn't stay on the call.

"I said, 'I'm sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die,'" Giamanco said.

He described trying to stay out of sight as he followed the gunman.

"I heard him fire two shots into the doors," Giamanco said. "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 and I told myself this is probably the last thing that I'm ever going to do."

Giamanco said he crawled in through a broken window, staying on his knees until he reached the special education classroom. He said he saw a teacher struggling with the shooter. He said he swung the door open and fired. 

"He (the shooter) 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."

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek was among those who praised Giamanco's bravery, saying he "heroically intervened to stop further loss of life." Police Chief Mike Krantz also credited the teacher who tackled the shooter and fought to take his gun, which "almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed."

Police later identified the shooter as 16-year-old Griffin J. John II. The attack killed three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher. A 7-year-old girl and a 54-year-old teacher were wounded. 

"I didn't save everybody. I didn't get them all."

After police and first responders arrived at the school, Giamanco went back to his truck, emptied his weapon and called his wife and then his mother.

"She was just like, 'OK, 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,'" he recalled of the conversation with his mom.

His mother, Kenda Freeman, who lives in California, told CBS News Sacramento that her son "has a genuine heart and he loves his community and his family and his children."

A week later, Giamanco told Oregon Public Broadcasting that when he goes to bed at night, he replays that day in his head and wonders if he could have stopped the shooter sooner.

"I relive, I see faces, I hear voices, I hear screams," he said.

"It was split-second decisions while gunfire was going off, while children were losing their lives."

He grew emotional when talking about the families who lost children.

"I want to apologize for not saving their babies," he said. "The gratitude for saving people's children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn't save."

In the days after the shooting, Giamanco sought to avoid the limelight, putting out a brief statement expressing gratitude to first responders and the community. However, he told Oregon Public Broadcasting he's now decided to share his story.

"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."

He said he hopes to help raise funds for local schools to improve their safety.