Kaylub Giamanco was heading home from lunch Thursday when the sound of gunfire cut through the afternoon in Bend. The 36-year-old carpenter saw a teenage boy with a long gun moving toward Silver Rail Elementary. He had a concealed-carry permit. He turned around, went in, and confronted the attacker.
The shooting left a teacher and three children dead. The kids were 5, 8, and 11. A 7-year-old student and another teacher were critically hurt. The 16-year-old suspect, John J. Griffin II, was killed in the exchange. Authorities later said a community member stopped the attack. That man was Giamanco.
His brother Kyle told reporters that Kaylub is not handling it well. He feels guilty he could not save more of the kids. Kyle called the actions heroic. Kaylub does not want to talk about it right now. He has two daughters who go to the same school.
The first 911 call came in at about 12:59 p.m. A driver reported someone shooting at his truck outside the building, then heading onto the grounds. More calls followed as the teen got inside by firing through locked doors. Police reached the school roughly three minutes after that first call.
Justin Penfield, whose kindergartner goes there, saw a man next to a pickup full of bullet holes after the evacuation. The man said he had yelled at the suspect, taken fire, driven off, and dialed 911. Parents waited for hours at a nearby church for reunification. One mom, Jenn Johnston, got a lockdown alert and then a text from her fifth-grader: “Mom there was a school shooting we’re ok tho.” When she finally saw her boy he ran to her crying.
Investigators said the long gun had been bought by the suspect’s mother around his birthday in August. No motive has been made public. Silver Rail serves kindergarten through fifth grade at 61530 SE Stone Creek Lane in Bend, Deschutes County.
Names of the dead and the two still fighting for their lives have not been released.
Leave a Reply