Hero dad who took down school shooter speaks out: 'I was supposed to be there'

6abc Philadelphia
1.2K followers
The father of two who took down a gunman in an Oregon school shooting last week is speaking out for the first time about how he ended the deadly rampage.
Kaylub Giamanco recounted to Oregon Public Broadcasting in an interview published Friday how he crawled through the shattered front doors of Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, swung open the door to a classroom and saw a teacher struggling with the gunman.
#news #fyp #oregon
AI Generated·May contain errors
Tonight, we're hearing for the first time from the Oregon man
who ended a deadly rampage at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon.
Caleb Giamonco ran into Silver Rail Elementary
on October 15th after seeing someone wearing black
and carrying a long gun head into the school.
Giamonco has two daughters who attend the school.
He says he felt he was the children's last line of defense.
He grabbed a handgun from his truck's center console,
called 911, and went after the gunman.
He said, I'm sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die.
The 16-year-old shooter attacked a special education classroom,
killing three children, ages 5, 8, and 11, and a teacher.
Another student was critically injured, and a teacher was hospitalized.
Giamonco said he laid on his stomach
and used his elbows to crawl across the ground,
eventually entering the school through a window that had been shot out.
Inside, he confronted the shooter,
who was struggling with an unarmed teacher.
He was scrambling for his weapon, and I looked at him,
and I shot him two more times to make sure that he couldn't move
because I was afraid of him shooting anybody else.
Giamonco says he feels he failed the families of those who died.
I want to apologize for not saving their babies.
That's probably the biggest thing for me right now.
Police say Giamonco was legally carrying his gun.
I can't tell you what it feels like to take a life,
but I can tell you that I genuinely feel like I
was supposed to be there.
And if I wasn't there, I just don't know what would have happened.
Police credit both Giamonco and the teacher who confronted the gunman
with saving lives. Jacqueline Lee, ABC News, Los Angeles.
