Kaylub Giamanco thought he was only heading home for lunch on October 15, 2026, when he drove past Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, and saw a teenage gunman opening fire. What followed was a desperate pursuit that ended with Giamanco shooting and killing the attacker, a 16-year-old former student named Griffin J. John II, who had blasted through locked doors with a shotgun to target a special needs classroom. Giamanco has revealed that the aftermath brings a heavy burden of sorrow for the young lives he could not reach in time.
Three children—ages 5, 8, and 11—along with 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert were killed in the rampage. In an interview published by Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), Giamanco expressed deep anguish over the tragedy, stating that he feels he failed the families of the victims. “I want to apologise for not saving their babies, that’s probably the biggest thing for me right now,” Giamanco told OPB. “The gratitude for saving people’s children is awesome. But there were ones that I didn’t save.”
An Accidental Interception Outside Silver Rail Elementary
The sequence of events on that Thursday began like any other morning. Giamanco and his wife had spent extra time dressing their two daughters because October 15 was picture day at Silver Rail Elementary, as reported by OPB. After dropping the girls off, Giamanco headed to a job site northeast of Bend. Later, on his way home to share lunch with his wife instead of eating the meal he packed, he noticed a person dressed in black firing into a pickup truck and at a person mowing the school’s lawn before scaling the school fence.
The sight of the armed intruder triggered an immediate sense of panic. Giamanco pulled a .40-caliber handgun from his truck’s center console—a weapon he rarely used and which he briefly worried might not be there—and leaped the fence while dialing 911. He told the dispatcher, “I’m sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die.”
Crawling Through Gunfire and Facing the Attacker
Adopting an army crawl across the grounds, Giamanco moved closer as the sounds of children pleading for their lives echoed around him. He told reporters that he whispered to himself that the maneuver was likely the final thing he would ever do. Entering through a window that had been shot out, he located the special education classroom where a teacher was actively wrestling with the gunman.
Giamanco saw both individuals in profile, giving him a clear opening. He pushed the door open, stepped inside, and fired his weapon. The gunman and the teacher both fell to the floor, and the teacher immediately sprinted from the room in fear. Seeing the 16-year-old attacker scrambling for his dropped shotgun, Giamanco fired twice more to ensure that he couldn’t move because he was afraid of him shooting anybody else.
Grappling With the Aftermath and Seeking Broader Safety Changes
The psychological toll remains severe. Giamanco admitted to OPB that he relives the sights and sounds of that day, waking up to the echoes of screams and the faces of the children he could not save.
Amid the national attention, Giamanco has questioned whether he will return to carpentry, expressing a belief that he was put on earth to do more than fix houses. He has advocated for enhanced security measures, suggesting that schools need school resource officers at every site, and that he would like to raise funding to support school safety efforts. Meanwhile, local community members and organizers have discussed potential initiatives, such as a dedicated motocross race to raise funds for school safety improvements, as Giamanco continues to navigate life in the public eye after a day that permanently altered the Bend community.
