Man who confronted Oregon elementary school gunman identified by brother

Kaylub Giamanco was driving home when he heard gunshots and saw a gunman entering Silver Rail Elementary School, his brother said.

Oct. 16, 2026

By Liz Kreutz, Minyvonne Burke and Leah Nagy, TODAY

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 ran into the school and killed the teenage suspect.

Kyle Giamanco identified his brother as the bystander who intervened in the Thursday afternoon shooting. He recounted to NBC News on Friday what he was told happened.

Officials have not named the community member who killed the shooter, but said the person’s actions prevented further loss at Silver Rail Elementary School.

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. Police have said that the suspect, identified by three senior law enforcement officials as Griffin J. John II, 16, gained entry to the building by firing through locked doors.

Two of the officials said the gun used in the shooting was purchased by the suspect’s mother around the time of his birthday in August.

Kaylub Giamanco.via Facebook

Kyle Giamanco said his brother has a concealed-weapon permit “and decided to go in after” the shooter. Kyle Giamanco and several parents told NBC News that the shooting happened in a special education room.

A teacher and three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, were killed. Two other people, a 7-year-old and another teacher, were critically injured at the Bend, Oregon, school.

Kyle Giamanco said his brother is a hero, but said Kaylub Giamanco does not want to speak out right now because he feels guilty that he could not save more children.

Dylan Costa, who has been friends with the brothers since childhood, said he was not surprised that Kaylub 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.

“Kaylub has always been a hero from the time we were six years old. He’s always been the type to spring into action when needed,” he said.

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.

Kaylub Giamanco wasn’t the only person to try to stop the gunman. The first 911 call was placed by a person who reported that a gunman had shot at his vehicle. That call and the dozens of others that police said were placed to 911 reporting that a gunman had entered the school enabled police to arrive on scene just three minutes after the first call, according to police.

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.

According to Penfield, the man said he sped off and called 911.

The names of those killed and injured have not been released.

One parent recalled getting an automated phone call from the school about a lockdown, followed by a text message from her son saying that there had been a shooting.

“Mom there was a school shooting we’re ok tho,” the fifth grader wrote.

Jenn Johnston said she and her husband rushed to the school but were rerouted to a nearby church. They waited hours with few updates from police or school officials before she was reunited with her son.

“My son came running to me in tears,” she said.

CORRECTION (Oct. 16, 2026, 5:37 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misnamed the gunman in the Bend, Oregon, school shooting. He is Griffin J. John II not John Griffin II.