Kaylub Giamanco, the father who killed the attacker at Silver Rail Elementary School in the US state of Oregon, said in an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) that he wants to meet the victims' families so he can cry with them and hold them. "I want to apologise for not saving their babies", Giamanco said, according to the BBC.
Three pupils and one teacher were killed in the attack. The victims were boys aged five, eight and 11, while the teacher killed was Megan Lambert, a 25-year-old who was working in what her family described as her "dream job". Her family stated that she "always fought for the underdog and those with special needs". The youngest victim was five-year-old Rhoam Summer, whose father said the family was "broken and lost". The other two boys have not been publicly named at the request of their families.
According to police, six people were shot in the classroom. In addition to the teacher killed, one child and one teacher were injured. The injured teacher was identified as 54-year-old Becky Drury, who said in a statement shared with US media that the attacker shot her as she tried to close her classroom door. Police identified the attacker as Griffin J. John II., a former pupil who had attended special education classes at the school. The motive for the attack remains under investigation.
Giamanco told OPB that the day of the attack began with breakfast and preparing packed lunches, and he and his wife spent extra time preparing their daughter because it was school picture day. Giamanco, a carpenter by trade, took his lunch to work but decided to go home to eat with his wife. This decision brought him past the school as the attack began. He initially thought someone with a long gun was playing a joke, and then saw him shooting at a van and heading towards the school. He took a pistol from his vehicle and called emergency services. "I said, 'I'm sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die'", Giamanco said.
He followed the attacker, who was shooting through the school's locked glass doors. Hearing children beg for their lives and more gunfire, he crawled towards the building. "I told myself this is probably the last thing that I'm ever going to do", he recounted. He crawled through a broken window and reached the classroom, where a teacher was in a struggle with the attacker. Giamanco opened the door and fired, and fired again when the attacker reached for his weapon. He then placed his pistol on the ground and raised his hands when a police officer appeared. He described feeling like the "last line of defence" between the children and the attacker and said he "was supposed to be there" that day.
Police reported that the teacher who confronted the attacker threw her phone at him, knocked him down and fought to take his shotgun. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said she "almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed". Giamanco expressed a desire to thank her: "I would love to give her a hug because that's a real true hero", he said, referring to the teacher.
After the attack, Giamanco called his wife to tell her he would not be coming home for lunch and that she needed to come to the school immediately, and then his mother. "Mum, I just had to take the life of what I think is might be a child because he ran into my daughter's school with a gun", he told her. His name became public less than a day after the shooting. His mother, Kenda Freeman, read a family statement saying they were not seeking recognition and were asking for privacy. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek praised his intervention. "Your actions carry a heavy emotional burden, and I just want you to know that my thoughts are with you as well", Kotek said.
Giamanco told OPB that he now lies awake after his family goes to sleep, replaying the attack. "I relive, I see faces, I hear voices, I hear screams", he said.
