By
Kerry Breen
News Editor
Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News' TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.
November 10, 2026 / 10:46 AM EST / CBS News
The father who shot and killed a gunman at his daughters' Oregon school opened up about his experience in his first network television interview on "CBS Mornings," recounting the moment he fought with the shooter and how his heroic actions have affected him since.
Kaylub Giamanco, 36, was driving by Silver Rail Elementary School on Oct. 15 on his way home for lunch when he saw the shooter, later identified as 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, fire at a passing pickup truck with a shotgun. The shooter then forced his way into the school, where Giamanco's two daughters are students.
"It was like fight or flight, and something clicked, and I just, I analyzed the situation. I knew something was up. All the emotions flood out of me. I just kind of went into a mission mode," Giamanco said.
Giamanco called 911 and said he was following the shooter into the building. He said he then crawled into the building and peeked into the classroom window, where he saw the gunman struggling with a teacher. She was unarmed, but had thrown her cellphone at the shooter and tackled him, according to police. Giamanco said that the teacher's intervention gave him "the split second of having two people side-by-side."
"I knew that he wasn't paying attention to me, so it gave me the opportunity to swing the door open and step in and complete my mission, so to speak," Giamanco said.
Giamanco said that after he shot the gunman the first time, the shooter was still alive, "struggling with his weapon" and "trying to regain control." The shooter was also trying to say something, Giamanco said, but he didn't listen.
"I didn't want to hear what he had to say. He had taken lives," Giamanco said. "I said 'F--- you.'"
"I don't know what he was about to say and it didn't matter," Giamanco added. "It didn't matter. I just knew he had taken the lives of innocent little babies, you know, 5, 8 and 11."
A teacher was also among those killed. Another teacher and a 7-year-old were injured in the shooting.
Giamanco said he dropped his gun once he confirmed the shooter was dead. He went to check on the other teacher, who "ran away from" him, he said. He said it wasn't "the greatest feeling," but that he understood she believed he might be another active shooter.
Then police arrived on the scene. Giamanco said he raised his hands and asked for help, then asked if he could pick up his weapon and go to his car to call his loved ones.
"During the situation I was not scared. Like I say, it was the fight mode that clicked in, and I completed my mission," Giamanco said. "It wasn't until I called my wife and my mother that everything kind of flooded in on me."
"Mixed feelings"
Kelsey Giamanco said she knew something was wrong even before her husband called her. She had been expecting him for lunch, so she had been following his location on her phone and noticed him stopped at the school. Kelsey Giamanco said she is usually the parent called for early pick-ups, so she didn't know what was going on. Once her husband called her and told her what had happened, she immediately drove to the school to meet him.
Kaylub Giamanco said that as the "gravity of the situation" hit him, he felt fear and had chest palpitations. Then, when he reunited with his children, there were "mixed feelings."
"I was really sad other people didn't get to hold their children that night ... but it felt good to just squeeze them and know that they were going to still be here and they could grow up to be, you know, beautiful young women," Giamanco said.
Talking to their children, who are 5 and 10, about what happened has been tricky, he said. He tries to reassure them that he is there to protect them.
"Our 10-year-old is very intellectual, so we have little conversations there, essentially just like, 'I just did what I felt was right,'" Giamanco said.
He is also still grappling with the event. Giamanco said he tries to distract himself and ride his motorcycle or dirt bikes as much as possible. But when he closes his eyes, he hears "children's screams and what it sounds like for them to plead for their life."
"I know exactly what that audio is in my brain," Giamanco said. "That's where, again, when I'm alone at nighttime and ready to go to bed, I don't always go to bed. Sometimes I get trapped in my brain."
Giamanco has not returned to his job as a carpenter. He said he is thinking about changing his career and might start a nonprofit for mental health and school security.
As he plans his future in the aftermath of the shooting, a famous quote from "Spider-Man" brings him some solace, he said.
"For me, when you are given these powers and you don't use them and someone gets hurt, then it is your fault. So I feel, to me, that means, if I have these abilities in life to be a protector, if I'm not using them and people do get hurt, that is my fault at the end of the day," Giamanco said. "It is kind of the same thing as 'With great powers come great responsibilities.' So I genuinely feel like I have something to do now."
This story published first on CBS News at 10:46 a.m. on Nov. 10, 2026.
In:
Hero dad who shot Oregon school gunman describes going into "mission mode" during shooting
(08:26)
Source: CBS News · Kerry Breen
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