Oregon Dad Who Stopped School Shooter Is Haunted by the Children He Couldn’t Save

He ran toward gunfire to protect children—including his own daughters. But after stopping a deadly school shooting, one father says he cannot stop thinking about the lives he couldn’t save.

Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old father of two girls who attend Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, has been praised for confronting a teenage gunman during the October 15 attack.

Giamanco was driving home during his lunch break when he saw 16-year-old Griffin J. John II firing a shotgun outside the school. Realizing children could be in danger, he called 911 before rushing inside with his legally carried handgun.

As he followed the shooter toward a special-education classroom, Giamanco said he heard children pleading for their lives and more gunfire.

“I’m sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die,” he recalled telling the dispatcher.

Giamanco entered through a broken window and encountered the gunman struggling with a teacher who had tried to stop him. After the shooter reached for his weapon, Giamanco fired, killing him and ending the attack.

Police credited both Giamanco and the teacher with helping prevent further loss of life.

But the tragedy had already claimed four victims: three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert. A 7-year-old girl and a 54-year-old teacher were also injured.

In his first interview after the shooting, Giamanco revealed the emotional toll of what happened. Although others have called him a hero, he said his thoughts keep returning to the children who died.

“I want to apologize for not saving their babies,” he said, describing the painful feeling that he had failed the victims’ families.

He has also spoken about reliving the incident, hearing the screams and remembering the faces of those inside the school. His family has temporarily relocated, and he has not yet returned to work.

Giamanco has also praised the teacher who fought the gunman, saying he would like to give her a hug because her actions were heroic.

His account reveals the painful reality behind a moment widely described as courageous: stopping the attacker did not erase the lives already lost or the memories left behind.

Four people died that day. A community is grieving. And a father who rushed toward danger is struggling with a question no one person could easily answer: how do you live with the people you couldn’t save