Kaylub Giamanco heard gunshots at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon on Thursday, ran toward the danger, and shot the attacker to stop a massacre. Now his family says he doesn’t want a single word of praise.
Three children and one adult were killed in the shooting. The dead include Rhoam Summer, age 5, teacher Megan Lambert, age 25, an 8-year-old, and an 11-year-old. A 7-year-old named Saylor Graham, who is in a wheelchair, was shot in the face and is in serious but stable condition. Teacher Becky Drury, 54, was shot through her left arm and right hand, with injuries described as not life-threatening.
Giamanco, a father of two children at the school, shot the attacker, identified as Griffin John, multiple times with a handgun to end the killing, according to the New York Post. Family members told NBC News that he wants no recognition because he feels guilty he couldn’t save more. According to his brother, Giamanco cannot get the images of the children who died out of his head. That’s what a real man looks like.
He didn’t go in alone. A teacher, not yet publicly named, tackled Griffin to the floor inside the special education classroom that came under attack. She threw her cell phone at him first, then slammed him to the ground and fought to rip the weapon out of his hands, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Friday. She was still struggling with Griffin when Giamanco entered the room and ended it. Krantz called her actions “heroic” and said, “She was not injured in that incident, but she almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed.”
Griffin fired at least 15 shots using a pump-action shotgun loaded with birdshot, buckshot, and slugs, the Bend Oregon school shooting according to Krantz. Without these two adults stepping up, the death toll almost certainly would have been far worse.
Plenty of people think Giamanco deserves official recognition for what he did. “Calls are ramping up to award Oregon elementary school shooting hero Kaylub Giamanco the PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM after he heard the gun shots, charged in and neutralized the young attacker,” Eric Daugherty posted on X. “THANK GOD for GOOD GUYS WITH GUNS. 4 lives lost, could’ve turned into dozens. He deserves the highest civilian award possible. It doesn’t have to be in public, but he deserves it!”
The man ran toward a shotgun to protect other people’s kids and can’t stop thinking about the ones he couldn’t save. If that’s not the Presidential Medal of Freedom, nothing is. Whether Giamanco wants the spotlight or not, the country already knows what he did.
