BEND, Ore. — Kaylub Giamanco was driving home from lunch when he heard gunshots and saw a gunman entering the Oregon elementary school his two young daughters attend.
The 36-year-old carpenter followed the gunman into the school and fatally shot him, an act that officials and families said was heroic and saved lives, but he feels guilty that he couldn’t save more children, his brother, Kyle Giamanco, told NBC News.
“Kaylub has always been a hero from the time we were 6 years old. He’s always been the type to spring into action when needed,” Dylan Costa, who has been friends with the Giamanco brothers since childhood, said.
Officials have not publicly named the community member who killed the shooter, but said the person’s actions prevented further loss at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend. Three children and a teacher were killed, and another child and teacher were wounded.
Kyle Giamanco said his brother told him he was headed home after grabbing a bite to eat when he saw the gunman entering the school.
He said his brother has a concealed-weapon permit “and decided to go in after” the shooter.
The gunman fired a shotgun through the glass panes of double doors to gain access to the school, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said Friday. He then entered a classroom immediately to the left and opened fire, Krantz said. The gunman fired as many as 15 rounds overall, but investigators are still working to determine how many he fired in the classroom, he said.
A teacher threw her cellphone at the gunman, and she then tackled him and tried to wrestle the gun away, which also helped save lives, he said.
“She almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed,” Krantz said.
The armed bystander heard the shooting and entered the school with a .40 caliber handgun through the forced-open doors, the chief said.
Inside, the bystander “saw a teacher involved in a physical altercation with the suspect,” Krantz said, and the man “fired his weapon, striking the suspect multiple times.”
When officers entered the school, they found the gunman dead, wearing a backpack, and a Maverick 88 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun nearby, Krantz said.
The gunman had around 44 remaining shotgun shells on him or in the backpack, and used birdshot, buckshot and slugs, he said.
Two senior law enforcement officials said the gun used in the shooting was purchased by the suspect’s mother around the time of his birthday in August. Krantz said how he got the weapon was under investigation.
The three children killed were all boys, aged 5, 8 and 11, police said. Teacher Megan Lambert, 25, was also killed.
A 7-year-old girl was wounded and was in serious but stable condition Friday, and another teacher, Becky Drury, had serious injuries that are not life-threatening, police said.
The 5-year-old was identified by his family and police Friday as Rhoam Summer. The families of the other children killed have asked that their names not be released, Krantz said.
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Lambert’s family on Friday thanked the man who pursued the shooter.
“We want the bystander who intervened to know we know he is going through a rough time, but we are grateful and we think he is a hero,” they said in a statement read at a news conference. “You selflessly put yourself at risk for others.”
The shooting happened in a special needs classroom, according to Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook, who said the gunman had been a special needs student at the school.
Costa, the childhood friend, said he was not surprised that Kaylub Giamanco jumped into action. He said that about four months ago, Kaylub saved another brother’s life after a motorcycle accident almost severed the brother’s leg.
Kaylub applied a tourniquet “to save him [from] bleeding out” until an ambulance arrived, Costa said in a Facebook message.
Costa owns an auto glass company and was across the street from the school replacing a window when he heard gunfire.
“I had headphones in, and I thought I heard a gunshot, so I took my headphones out. I kind of looked around. I didn’t hear anything, and I heard a few more, and that’s when the screaming started happening,” he said. “A woman came screaming out, saying that there was children dead.”
Costa said he knows that Kaylub’s children attend the school, so he called Kyle, who later told him that Kaylub had stopped the shooter.
“I believe God put the right man in the right spot at the right time. I don’t know anyone else that would have sprung into action like he did to save so many lives from a massacre,” he said.
Police said that the gunfire began at around 12:58 p.m. PT Thursday when a man in a red pickup was fired upon by the suspect and called 911.
That call and the dozens of others reporting that a gunman had entered the school enabled police to arrive on scene just three minutes after the first call, police said.
Justin Penfield, whose son is in kindergarten, said that when he got to the school the class was already outside. As he walked back to his car with his son, Penfield said he saw a man standing next to a pickup truck with “seven or eight gunshot holes in his truck.”
Penfield said the man told him that he was driving back from lunch when he saw someone throw what appeared to be a shotgun over the fence and then jump into the school’s playground.
The man said he yelled to ask the guy what he was doing, and the person opened fire on his truck, Penfield said, recounting his conversation with the man.
Marilyn Haubach, whose 10-year-old son attends Silver Rail Elementary, said she got call that the school was on lockdown, and then a text. Other parents said the same.
Haubach lives close to the school and said, “I was hearing all these sirens and they weren’t going away.” When she learned more about what happened, “it just floored me,” she said.
She was grateful to the armed bystander, who she said was a hero whose actions protected the children in the school, including her son.
“I will, forever in my heart, owe him everything, because he ensured that my son got to come home with me last night,” she said. “Thank you.”
Liz Kreutz and Leah Nagy reported from Bend, Minyvonne Burke from Pittsburgh and Phil Helsel from Los Angeles.
CORRECTION (Oct. 17, 2026, 8:20 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article included a name for the shooter based on information NBC News received from three senior law enforcement officials. The Bend, Oregon, police chief gave a different name for the shooter.
