Father Who Stopped Oregon School Shooter Opens Up About the Encounter

Kaylub Giamanco, a father of two who confronted and fatally shot a gunman at his daughters’ elementary school last month, is speaking publicly about the frightening experience.

The 36-year-old spoke with CBS News about the Oct. 15 mass shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School. Three students, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher were killed before Giamanco intervened.

“It was like fight or flight, and something clicked, and I just, I analyzed the situation. I knew something was up. All the emotions flood out of me. I just kind of went into a mission mode,” Giamanco told CBS.

He said he entered the school after seeing the 16-year-old gunman force his way inside while carrying a weapon. Giamanco had been driving past the school on his way home for lunch when the shooting happened. He called 911 to alert authorities but decided he could not afford to wait for police to arrive, so he went inside.

Once there, Giamanco looked through a classroom window and saw a teacher struggling with the shooter. He told CBS that the teacher threw her cellphone at the gunman, creating a “split second” opportunity for him to act.

“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 told CBS.

Giamanco said he shot the gunman once, causing him to drop his weapon. The shooter then attempted to regain control and began trying to say something to him, prompting Giamanco to shoot him a second time, he recalled during the interview.

“I didn’t want to hear what he had to say, he had taken lives,” Giamanco told the outlet. “I said ‘F— you.'”

He added: “I don’t know what he was about to say and it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter. I just knew he had taken the lives of innocent little babies, you know, 5, 8 and 11.”

Giamanco’s two daughters, ages 5 and 10, survived the shooting.

Authorities praised Giamanco for his actions, saying the situation could have been even worse if he had not pursued the gunman into the school after calling 911. Audio of his emergency call, released recently, showed that he made the decision to enter the building himself after hearing the first shots fired.

Giamanco had also called his wife and mother shortly after killing the shooter, as previously reported by CBS News.

“He said, ‘Mom, I just shot and killed somebody.’ I said, ‘Kaylub, tell me about it.’ He said, ‘A man went into my daughters’ school and shot kids,’ and he said, ‘and I looked at him point-blank, and I shot and killed him, Mom,’ ” Giamanco’s mother told the outlet last month.

“I told him he was a hero, he did what he had to do, and that he did the right thing, and that I was proud of him and that he was a hero and he saved a lot of lives,” she added.

Giamanco also told CBS this week that he has been struggling with the emotional impact of the shooting and has yet to return to his job as a carpenter. He said the sounds of the incident continue to affect him, including the “children’s screams and what it sounds like for them to plead for their life.”

“I know exactly what that audio is in my brain,” Giamanco said. “That’s where, again, when I’m alone at nighttime and ready to go to bed, I don’t always go to bed. Sometimes I get trapped in my brain.”

Source: Various