Oregon Father Says He Cannot Stop Replaying School Attack

Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter, was driving home for lunch with his wife when he passed Silver Rail Elementary School early this month and saw a man with a long gun fire at a pickup truck and move toward the building. Giamanco took a handgun from his vehicle, called emergency services, and entered the school as the attacker shot through the locked glass doors. He crawled through a shattered window to a classroom where a teacher was struggling with the gunman, opened the door, and fired. He fired again when the attacker reached for his weapon, then set his own gun down and raised his hands as an officer arrived.

The attack left three students and a teacher dead. The students were boys aged five, eight and 11, and six people were shot in a classroom, according to police. The teacher killed was Megan Lambert, 25. Another child and a teacher were wounded. The injured teacher, Becky Drury, 54, said in a statement shared with US media that the gunman shot her as she tried to shut her classroom door.

Police identified the attacker as Griffin J John II, a former pupil who had attended special education classes at the school. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the teacher who confronted him threw her phone at him, tackled him, and fought to take his shotgun, and that she 'almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed.' Giamanco credited that teacher with giving him the chance to intervene without losing his own life. 'I would love to give her a hug because that's a real true hero,' he said.

Giamanco told Oregon Public Broadcasting that he thinks about the parents of the children who died. 'I want to apologise for not saving their babies,' he said. 'The gratitude for saving people's children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn't save.' He said he wants to meet those families and 'cry with them and hold them.' Rhoam Summer, aged five, was the youngest victim. His father said the family is 'broken and lost.' Lambert's family said she was working in her 'dream job' and 'always fought for the underdog and those with special needs.' The other two boys have not been publicly named at their families' request.

Giamanco described the morning as ordinary: breakfast, packed lunches, extra time getting his daughters ready because it was school picture day. He had taken lunch to work but decided to eat at home instead, which brought him past the school as the attack began. He said he felt like the 'last line of defence' between the children and the gunman. Afterward, he called his wife to say he would not be home for lunch and that she should come to the school, then called his mother.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek praised his intervention and its cost. 'Your actions carry a heavy emotional burden, and I just want you to know that my thoughts are with you as well,' she said. Giamanco said he now lies awake after his family goes to bed. 'I relive, I see faces, I hear voices, I hear screams.'

Police have not released a motive for the attack, which remains under investigation.