Newly released 911 audio captures the moment an Oregon father charged into his daughters’ elementary school, confronting a gunman and telling a dispatcher, “I have a gun, and I will shoot them right now.”
Kaylub Giamanco’s call reflects the chaos unfolding outside Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend on Oct. 15. The armed father ultimately intervened in the attack, which left three children and a teacher dead.
“Oh my god. Hello 911. Someone’s at the school. My daughter’s school with a gun,” Giamanco says in the recording, released by the Deschutes 911 Service District.
Kaylub Giamanco returns to his Bend, Oregon, home on Oct. 17, 2026. Giamanco confronted the gunman at Silver Rail Elementary School. (Kevin Perkins for News Outlet)
The dispatcher repeatedly tells Giamanco to wait for law enforcement.
“OK, tell me exactly what happened. Don’t do anything. Let me get an officer there, OK?” the dispatcher says. “OK, I understand. Stay on the line with me.”
Police tape surrounds Silver Rail Elementary School after the Oct. 15, 2026, shooting in Bend, Oregon. (Joe Kline/AP Photo)
The recording continues with voices trying to determine the attacker’s location and whether shots are still being fired.
“They’re on the south side, entering the building, right now,” Giamanco says before warning that people are being shot.
Police tape marks the scene outside Silver Rail Elementary School after the Oct. 15, 2026, shooting. (Joe Kline/AP Photo)
“Sir, I need you to tell me what’s going on. We have help en route,” the dispatcher tells him.
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Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter whose two daughters attended the school, later told Oregon Public Broadcasting that he was unsure whether he would survive entering the building.
School buses wait outside Silver Rail Elementary School after the Oct. 15, 2026, shooting. (Joe Kline/AP Photo)
“That’s when I started hearing children pleading for their lives, and then I started hearing gunfire. And I just started army crawling faster and faster, and I told myself this is probably the last thing that I’m ever going to do,” he told the outlet.
Giamanco entered the school carrying a .40-caliber pistol he legally stored in his vehicle, according to Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz, who described the confrontation at an Oct. 16 news conference.
The chief said a teacher first threw her cellphone at the gunman and then tackled him. Giamanco subsequently shot the attacker multiple times.
Police said three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, along with 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert, were killed. Another child and a second teacher were wounded.
Although Giamanco has been widely praised for stopping the gunman, he has also spoken about the grief of those he was unable to save.
“I want to apologize for not saving their babies,” he told OPB. “The gratitude for saving people’s children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn’t save.”
Lambert’s family expressed its gratitude for Giamanco’s intervention in a statement read at the October news conference.
“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,” the family said.
“You selflessly put yourself at risk for others.”
