Hero who stopped Bend school shooter haunted by encounter: ‘I didn’t save everybody’

A 16-year-old gunman, Griffin J. John II, attacked Silver Rail Elementary School on Oct. 15. He killed a teacher and three young children before Giamanco confronted him. The attack mattered because the gunman might have continued firing if no one had intervened quickly.

Giamanco was driving near the school just before 1 p.m. His two daughters, ages 5 and 10, attended Silver Rail. He saw a man in black firing a long gun at a motorist and a woman mowing the lawn. After the attacker threw the weapon over the fence and climbed after it, Giamanco called 911 and entered with his .40 caliber handgun.

He army-crawled through a shot-out window into the special education classroom. There, he saw the gunman fighting a teacher for the firearm. Giamanco fired once, then twice more when the attacker reached for the weapon. Police arrived shortly afterward, and Giamanco called his wife and mother.

The attack killed four people in total. The victims included one teacher and three young children. Those figures show that the violence reached both school staff and students, making the event especially devastating for the school community.

The article does not name the victims or provide their ages. It reports that Giamanco heard children pleading for their lives while he crawled toward the special education classroom. He later told his mother that he had not saved everyone and felt guilt about the children who died.

Giamanco had two daughters, ages 5 and 10, attending Silver Rail. He had not yet met the parents of the three children killed. He said he wanted to apologize for not doing more, even though police praised his intervention and credited him with stopping the shooter’s carnage.

An active-shooter event is an ongoing attack in which a person uses a firearm against people in a populated location. A mass shooting generally refers to a shooting that injures or kills multiple people. Exact legal definitions can vary, but both terms describe immediate, continuing danger.

Silver Rail was considered such an attack because Griffin J. John II opened fire near the elementary school and then entered the grounds. He had already killed a teacher and three children. Giamanco heard children pleading and gunfire, while the gunman was still fighting over a weapon and reaching for it.

The danger was not limited to the first victims. Police credited Giamanco with stopping the shooter’s carnage and said he could have continued attacking. The article therefore presents the incident as an active, unfolding threat rather than a completed crime scene.

Giamanco’s intervention ended the gunman’s immediate ability to continue attacking. The article says the shooter was still alive after the first shot and was scrambling toward his weapon. Giamanco fired two more times because he feared the attacker could shoot someone else.

The key moment came in the special education classroom. Giamanco crawled through a shot-out window and saw the gunman and a teacher fighting for the firearm. He fired when he believed the gunman did not know he was there. The teacher fled, possibly thinking Giamanco was another attacker.

Police arrived shortly after the shooting. Their arrival secured the scene and allowed Giamanco to call his wife and mother. The article does not state how many people were still inside or give a precise number of additional lives saved, but police credited his quick action with stopping the carnage.

Each person or group played a different role in the emergency. Giamanco became the civilian responder who entered the school and confronted the attacker. The teacher physically resisted the gunman before Giamanco arrived. Their actions directly challenged the shooter during the attack.

Giamanco called 911 but could not answer every question because he was moving toward the school. He told the dispatcher he had to go inside because people were going to die. The teacher fought the gunman for his firearm. Giamanco then fired three shots, and the teacher escaped from the room.

Police arrived soon afterward and took control of the scene. The article does not describe their entry tactics or other detailed actions. Chief Mike Krantz later praised the courage of Giamanco and the teacher. Giamanco then pleaded with officers to let him contact his loved ones.

Psychological trauma is a lasting stress response after an experience that overwhelms a person’s sense of safety. Extreme violence can affect attention, sleep, emotions, and memory. This explanation is general psychological knowledge; the article does not diagnose Giamanco or name a specific condition.

Giamanco described hearing children plead for their lives and gunfire as he crawled into the school. Afterward, he said he struggled to sleep and relived faces, voices, and screams. Such memories can return because the brain continues processing frightening sensory details and remains alert to possible danger.

His reactions show that surviving or confronting violence can carry consequences even when someone is praised for courage. The article gives no treatment plan or timeline for recovery. It does show that Giamanco remained distressed and could not get the day out of his head.

Schools, dispatchers, and police commonly train for active shooters through emergency plans, drills, rapid information sharing, and coordinated response. Staff may practice warning others and moving away from danger. Dispatchers gather location and threat details. Police train to reach and stop the attacker quickly. These are general practices, not procedures described in this article.

At Silver Rail, Giamanco called 911 but could not answer every question because he was moving toward the school. He told the dispatcher that people were going to die. He then entered, confronted the gunman, and fired while the teacher was already fighting for the weapon. Police arrived shortly afterward.

The first minutes can matter because an attacker may still have access to victims and a weapon. In this case, police credited fast, decisive action with stopping the carnage. The article does not describe the school’s training, dispatcher protocol, or police tactics, so those details cannot be attributed to this incident.