'Mission mode': Father driving home for lunch witnesses school breach and springs into action
BEND, Ore. — November 11, 2026.
In a gripping and emotional first national television broadcast interview, Kaylub Giamanco, the 36-year-old carpenter and father who fatally shot an active gunman inside Silver Rail Elementary School, has broken his silence on the October 15 tragedy that claimed four lives and forever altered his quiet Oregon community.
Speaking to correspondent Tony Dokoupil on CBS Mornings, Giamanco detailed the terrifying minutes that transformed a routine midday drive into a life-or-death confrontation. He was heading home for lunch when he saw 16-year-old Griffin J. John II armed with a shotgun, firing at a passing commercial pickup truck before forcefully smashing his way through the elementary school’s front glass entryway.
“My brain just immediately flipped into fight or flight, into mission mode,” Giamanco said. A licensed concealed-carry permit holder, Giamanco immediately pulled over, grabbed his sidearm from his vehicle console, and dialed 911. Tense emergency recordings released by the Deschutes County 911 Service District captured Giamanco barking to dispatchers: “Someone’s at the school with a gun! I have a gun, and I will shoot them right now if I have to!”
Refusing to wait outside while gunfire erupted within the building, Giamanco breached the perimeter alone, dropping onto his stomach to army-crawl down the tile hallways as smoke and the echo of blasts filled the air.
Unarmed teacher's cellphone tackle created the split second that saved dozens
As Giamanco approached an open classroom doorway, he witnessed an act of extraordinary valor that he credits with preventing a far greater slaughter. Inside a third-grade room where students were sheltering beneath desks, an unarmed female teacher hurled her heavy cellphone directly at the gunman's face before throwing herself forward to physically tackle the teenager.
“She lunged at him with everything she had,” Giamanco recounted with tears welling in his eyes. “She threw her phone, she hit him, and she wrestled him to the ground. That courage... that gave me the split second I needed. Without her, I don't know if I could have stepped through that doorway without taking a round.”
Tragically, three young elementary students and a faculty member were fatally wounded in the attack before the intervention. Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels and the Bend Police Department completed an exhaustive formal review of the incident, confirming that Giamanco's armed intervention was an entirely justified, heroic defense of human life that averted catastrophic loss of life.
“There is zero question that Mr. Giamanco’s decisive actions, combined with the unimaginable bravery of the teaching staff, saved dozens of children’s lives that afternoon,” Chief of Police Mike Krantz stated in a formal departmental review.
The fatal confrontation: Refusing to hear words from a shooter who killed babies
Stepping around the corner into the classroom, Giamanco raised his firearm and engaged the attacker, striking the gunman. Even after the initial shot, the 16-year-old intruder continued to writhe on the floor, attempting to manipulate his weapon and reach for ammunition.
When the wounded teenager looked up and tried to speak, Giamanco delivered a fierce, blunt response: “F--- you.”
Explaining his words to CBS News, Giamanco made no apologies for his righteous fury in that moment: “I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. I didn’t care what his motive was, or what his excuse was. He had just taken the lives of innocent little babies. You don’t get to have a conversation after doing that.”
Despite being hailed as a hero across the nation, Giamanco rejected the label, emphasizing the profound trauma carried by the surviving families and the teachers who shielded children with their bodies. “I'm just a dad who happened to be in the right place with the right tool. The real heroes are the teachers who stood between a shotgun and those kids.”
