Hero who stopped Bend school shooter haunted by encounter: 'I didn't save everybody'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Oct. 23, 2026, 2:34 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 23, 2026, 3:13 PM EDTBy David K. Li
A string of innocuous choices made by an Oregon father brought him to the elementary school where he killed a mass shooter in an act he believed would be his last.
Police have credited the quick thinking and decisive actionof Bend carpenter Kaylub Giamanco for confronting 16-year-old Griffin J. John II and stopping the teen shooter's carnage on Oct. 15.
The gunman had already killed a teacher and three young children at Silver Rail Elementary School and could have continued his attack had Giamanco, 36, not randomly ended up at the crime scene.
In an emotional and harrowing interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting published on Friday, Giamanco recalled that fateful day.
"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. "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."
Giamanco's presence in the neighborhood near Silver Rail came after a series of seemingly benign decisions the carpenter made that Thursday about lunch.
Giamanco packed a midday snack but changed his mind about eating it, instead opting to drive home to have leftover tacos with his wife, he said.
And on his way home, Giamanco had briefly considered going to a masonry shop to buy some bolts he needed, but again opted to go home for the tacos.
Those choices led him to Brentwood Avenue near his children's school just before 1 p.m., where he spotted a "man in black" with a long gun opening fire on a motorist and a woman mowing the school lawn, he recalled.
Giamanco, who kept a .40 caliber handgun in his truck console, saw the killer toss his weapon over the school fence before climbing it himself.
The father understood what was happening and "that's when panic filled into my brain, and that's when I opened my center console."
Giamanco, who has two girls, 5 and 10, attending Silver Rail, called 911 but couldn't answer all of the dispatcher's questions.
"I said, 'I'm sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die,'" said Giamanco.
As Giamanco got closer to the school building, he kept a low profile and from his knees could hear the bloodshed.
"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,'" he said.
Giamanco crawled in through a shot-out window, reached the special education classroom and reracked his firearm in preparation for a deadly confrontation.
He came upon the gunman and a teacher fighting for the killer's gun.
"I knew that he did not know that I was there," Giamanco said. "And I fired."
The teacher fled, possibly believing Giamanco was a second attacker, he said. But the shooter was still alive and reaching for his gun.
"He 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."
Police arrived shortly after and Giamanco pleaded with them to let him call his loved ones.
"I called my wife to tell her that I'm not coming home for tacos," he said.
Then he called 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.'"
Law enforcement officials have universally praised Giamanco for acting fast. Within hours of the shooting, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said of Giamanco and the teacher who fought with the killer: "I don't think we can underestimate or under-appreciate that courage."
Giamanco said he's been struggling to sleep since the mass shooting and can't get that terrible day out of his head.
"I relive, I see faces, I hear voices, I hear screams," he said.
The carpenter has not yet met the parents of the three children killed. Giamanco said he wants to tell them he's sorry for not doing more.
"I want to apologize for not saving their babies," Giamanco said, his voice choking with emotion. "The gratitude for saving people's children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn't save."
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Not sure how to take this guy. Hopefully he's just overwhelmed by the event. Extremely grateful for what he did, as absolutely awesome brave move. I'm wrong for having a weird vibe about his words, but just sorta do. it's what one does, and shouldn't be in need of fame for doing what sometimes, needs done. Hopefully my vibe is wrong...
This man is a carpenter by trade, not trained law enforcement. I suspect that his PTSD is entirely normal after being placed in a situation where his own and other people's lives depend on his ability to act as judge, jury and executioner. I hope he gets the support and counseling he needs to move on from the nightmares.
I truly hope you are correct, as I believe I had stated. If my kids were in that school i'm not sure i would have, could have, found time to climb over this "wall" he mentions. Just my candid observance, where I prefer your version be the most accurate.
Wasn't there also a very famous guy in the Bible, who was also a carpenter?
It takes a special type of individual to act like this. Then you can break that group down into those that can live with what they did,
those that will learn and live with it
and those that don't.
If he ever gets sick of carpentry or this notoriety, he's a shoe in for Sheriff of Descutes County OR, in 2030
Totally agree.
Over a decade ago, my younger daughter was concerned about personal safety in her neighborhood and asked me to work with her on the basics of loading and shooting a pistol.
My first question was are you certain that you have the judgement and commitment to kill someone in a dangerous situation? Second question - are you prepared for the judgement, backlash and possible threats from the criminal's family and supporters and even the general public?
She decided that it would probably be better to allow herself and her daughter to be murdered rather than live with the consequences of defending herself and my granddaughter.
I have very little experience with a pistol and would have referred her to a trainer if she had persisted down that route.
This a brave man and he did what he could do. This is the very definition of a good guy with a gun.