Bend carpenter who stopped Silver Rail shooter faces public spotlight

Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter from Bend, killed the silver rail elementary school shooter on Oct. 15. The incident left three children, aged 5, 8, and 11, and a 25-year-old teacher dead. Two other people were seriously injured.

Giamanco was driving home for lunch when he turned onto Brentwood Avenue at 12:58 p.m. He saw a man in black carrying a long gun near the school. The man fired at a red pickup truck and a woman mowing the lawn. Giamanco opened his truck's center console and retrieved a .40 caliber handgun that had been sitting in the vehicle for some time.

He called 911 while driving into the parking lot. When the dispatcher asked questions, Giamanco told him, “I’m sorry. I have to go in. People are going to die.” He hopped over the fence and followed the shooter across a wallball court. He heard the attacker fire two shots into the glass doors of the school's side entrance.

Giamanco moved on his hands and knees along the windows to stay out of sight. He heard children pleading for their lives. He crawled through a broken bottom window into the building. He moved to a special education classroom on his left and re-racked his weapon. Through the window, he saw a teacher struggling with the shooter. He swung the door open, stepped inside, and fired.

The teacher and the shooter fell to the floor. The teacher ran out of the room, apparently fearing Giamanco was a second attacker. Giamanco shot the 16-year-old shooter two more times to ensure he could not move. Police found Giamanco holding up his hands with his gun on the ground. He later told his wife he was not coming home for tacos.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz praised the courage of Giamanco and the teacher. Krantz said, “I don’t think we can underestimate or underappreciate that courage.” President Donald Trump called Giamanco “a great hero that went in and did the business.” Experts noted that armed civilians stopping mass shooters is rare, with only a few dozen such cases in the U.S. since 2000.

Giamanco grew up in Bend as the oldest of seven children. His mother raised them after his father left when Giamanco was 15. He studied geography at Central Oregon Community College before becoming a carpenter. He learned informal military drill and weapons training from Iraq War veterans while building a restaurant in Redmond. He said that training likely saved his life.

Since the shooting, Giamanco has been inundated with reporters and political groups. Deschutes County reported that applications for concealed handgun licenses are rising. Giamanco, an independent voter, said he does not want the incident to become a political issue. He said, “I teach my children that we love, we accept everybody.”

He lies awake at night reliving the sounds of gunfire and screams. He thinks about the teenager he shot and wonders if more love and better parenting could have prevented the tragedy. He has not yet spoken to the families of the victims. He said, “I want to apologize for not saving their babies.”

Giamanco plans to teach his daughters to use guns safely. He is organizing a motocross race where proceeds will go to schools for safety improvements, such as bulletproof glass and better locks. He said he feels he was meant to be at the school that day. He does not know if he will return to carpentry full-time.