The father who shot and killed the gunman during last month’s deadly attack at an Oregon elementary school has described the final words he directed at the assailant as he brought the rampage to an end.
Kaylub Giamanco, 36, was driving past Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend on October 15 when he spotted 16-year-old Griffin J John II. Giamanco’s daughters, ages 5 and 10, attend the school, and he was on his way home for lunch.
‘It was like fight or flight,’ Giamanco told CBS Mornings on Tuesday. ‘Something clicked and I analyzed the situation. I knew something was up and all the emotions fled out of me.’
The carpenter said he immediately shifted into what he called ‘mission mode’ before confronting the teenager.
John had killed three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, along with 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert during the attack.
Even after being shot once, Giamanco said, John continued ‘struggling with his weapon’ and appeared to be ‘trying to regain control.’
The teenager also appeared to try to ‘say something,’ Giamanco recalled, but the father responded with two forceful words.
‘F*** you,’ Giamanco remembered telling John.
Kaylub Giamanco, 36, described the moments before shooting 16-year-old Silver Rail Elementary gunman Griffin J John II on October 15
John continued ‘struggling with his weapon’ and appeared to be ‘trying to regain control’ after being shot once, Giamanco said
The shooting at Silver Rail Elementary left five people dead, including the teenage gunman, and two others injured
Giamanco said whatever John was about to say ‘didn’t matter’ to him in that moment.
‘I just knew that he had just taken lives of innocent little babies, 5, 8 and 11,’ Giamanco told the program.
The father called 911 before entering the school, abandoning his plans to have lunch with his wife, Kelsey.
He said he ‘crawled’ into the building and looked through a window into the special-needs classroom, where John was carrying out the attack.
Inside, Giamanco saw John ‘struggling’ with teacher Cassidy Schutz. The confrontation gave him a ‘split second of having two people side-by-side.’
‘I knew that he wasn’t paying attention to me, so it gave me the opportunity to swing the door open and step in and complete my mission, so to speak,’ Giamanco said.
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz previously said Schutz threw her phone at John before tackling him and fighting to take the firearm away. Giamanco then entered and shot the attacker.
Schutz, 28, was not injured. Krantz said her ‘incredible’ actions ‘almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed.’
Cassidy Schutz, a 28-year-old teacher at the school, grappled with the teenager before Giamanco shot him
Afterward, Giamanco made eye contact with the ‘terrified’ teacher, who initially mistook him for another active shooter in the chaos.
MORE ON THIS: Stacy Keach Dies at 85 After Nearly Six Decades in Hollywood
‘She sprang right out of the building,’ Giamanco said. He added that she continued running after he placed his gun on the ground and moved to check on her.
‘That’s not the greatest feeling when you’re trying to go in and help but I understood,’ he said.
Giamanco said the full weight of what had happened did not hit him until police arrived and he was able to call his wife and mother.
‘I had like, chest palpitations,’ Giamanco said. ‘It was scary.’
He described feeling conflicted: his daughters were safe, but other families ‘didn’t get to hold their children that night.’
Giamanco said he was still helping his own children understand what had happened.
‘Our 10-year-old is very intellectual, so we do have little conversations,’ he said. ‘It’s essentially like, “Hey, you know, I just did what I felt was right.”‘
Giamanco emphasized that he ‘did not want to go take a life that day,’ but wanted his children to know he had acted to protect them.
Megan Lambert, 25, of Bend, was also killed in the shooting carried out by John last month
Rhoam Summer, 5, was the youngest victim identified after the deadly shooting. He is pictured with his mother
Even so, Giamanco said memories of the attack sometimes ‘get trapped’ in his mind at night.
‘The problem for me is just closing my eyes and hearing children’s screams and what it sounds like for them to plead for their life,’ he told the outlet.
Giamanco has not yet returned to his work as a carpenter and said he was considering a career change after intervening in the shooting.
‘I feel a need to maybe start a nonprofit for mental health and for school security for children,’ he said.
Rhoam Summer, who had begun kindergarten only the previous month, was the youngest of the three children killed at the school.
The teacher killed in the attack was identified as Megan Lambert, 25, of Bend. Her family said teaching at the school had been her dream job.
Two boys, ages 8 and 11, were also killed by John. Police have not released their names at the request of their families.
Educational assistant Rebecca Drury, 54, and 7-year-old Saylor Graham-Poarch were taken to hospital with injuries.
Saylor, who uses a wheelchair, was shot in the face during the attack.
Police said John used a pump-action ‘long gun,’ similar to a rifle or shotgun, that had been purchased by his mother.