An emotional interview featured the firsthand account of the heroic father who stopped the tragedy at an Oregon elementary school from becoming far worse.
“I’m sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die.”
On the morning of October 15, Kaylub Giamanco and his wife readied their two daughters for school at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, where picture day was scheduled to take place. Hours later, as he explained in an exclusive interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting, a change of plans regarding lunch placed him in the right place to “do something more than just fix houses.”
“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 told OPB News regional managing editor Emily Cureton Cook.
As had been reported, Giamanco was identified as the man who neutralized the 16-year-old killer who entered the school targeting the special education classroom where he’d been a student, fatally shooting three children and a teacher in addition to injuring two others.
Detailing the moments after witnessing the first shots fired at a pickup truck outside the school before the killer headed toward the building, the father of two — who was only there because he decided to go home to have lunch with his wife instead of eating his packed meal — recalled, “I just was in full panic, like, ‘No, there’s children, there’s babies in there.’ I told my Siri to call 911.”
Having loaded his handgun and pulled into the school parking lot, he explained that, though the dispatcher wanted him to stay on the line to answer questions, he reportedly said, “I’m sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die.”
Bend, Oregon man who shot and killed a shooter at his daughters’ school speaks out, praises female teacher for fighting the shooter, allowing him to have a clear shot.
Kaylub Giamanco says he is haunted by the sound of children pleading for their lives.
He also praised the teacher for grabbing the gunman’s weapon, allowing him to take a shot at the shooter.
“I want to recognize [the teacher]. She gave me the opportunity to make my shot without losing my life…”
“I swung the door open, and I stepped in, and I fired, and they dropped to the ground… I looked down at the gunman, and he was scrambling for his weapon. And I looked at him, and I shot him 2 more times…”
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 23, 2026
Moving on his hands and knees on the outside, the father explained that after the killer entered the building, “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 gonna do.”
Looking through a window when he reached the special education classroom, he saw the heroic teacher who physically confronted the killer, struggling to prevent further tragedy, and explained, “I knew that [the killer] did not know that I was there.”
Having already checked to make sure his gun was “ready to go,” Giamanco said he opened the door to the room, entered, “And I fired,” an act some say is deserving of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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!
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 23, 2026
Both the killer and teacher dropped to the ground, with the latter fleeing while the former “was scrambling for his weapon.”
“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,” recalled Giamanco, who, when police arrived, had placed his gun on the ground and held up his hands before he was able to return to his truck and call his wife “to tell her that I’m not coming home for tacos.”
After explaining what happened and telling her to come to the school, he then called his mom. “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.’”
The self-identified independent said he doesn’t “want to make this a political situation” and detailed the challenges he’s faced on top of a deluge of prying media figures and political advocacy groups: “I relive, I see faces, I hear voices, I hear screams.”
Along with wanting to hug the teacher who gave him the chance to act without losing his own life, “because that’s a real true hero,” Giamanco expressed his hope to see something positive come from the tragedy. “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.”
“Sometimes there’s a child out there that didn’t have the love that they deserved. But I do want to believe that if he had more love in his life and better parenting, that this could have been prevented,” he explained.
Meanwhile, he continues to feel regret for the families of the victims.
“I want to apologize for not saving their babies,” he told OPB. “The gratitude for saving people’s children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn’t save.”
“I want to be a hero in this world. It feels like I was meant to be here and do this,” said Giamanco.
At the time of this post, a crowdfunding effort started by a longtime family friend to support the Giamancos has raised over $430,000 of a $450,000 goal. The funds are intended to help as the father takes time away from work and the children take time away from school “to begin healing together.”
Along with any lost income and additional needs, the fundraiser aims to support “Trauma-informed therapy and mental health care” for the family.
