President Donald J. Trump strongly praised the heroic individual who took out the shooter during a deadly rampage at an Oregon elementary school.
Kaylub Giamanco, a 36-year-old carpenter, was driving home from lunch when the shooting was going down at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend where a teenaged former student opened fire in a classroom, killing three young children and an adult teacher.
Running into the building where his own two daughters were students, Giamanco shot and killed the shooter, preventing the carnage from being much worse. A true American hero.
When asked about the shooting by a reporter outside the White House on Friday, the president hailed Giamanco as a “great hero” who prevented the slaughter from being far worse.
🚨 JUST NOW: President Trump HEAPS PRAISE on Oregon elementary school shooting HERO Kaylub Giamanco, a good father with a gun who killed the suspect in mere moments
“There was a GREAT HERO. As bad as it was, we had a great hero who TOOK CARE OF BUSINESS. Thank GOD we had him…thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it.” 👏🏻
“And thank God we had him, otherwise it would have been much worse,” he added. “It’s a terrible thing but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it.”
Giamanco is a 36-year-old carpenter whose two daughters attend Silver Rail Elementary. His brother says he was just driving home for lunch when he heard the gunshots
He saw the gunman go in, grabbed his concealed weapon, and followed him INSIDE.
Man, that’s what a real hero sounds like.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 16, 2026
“There was a great hero and it could have been – as bad as it was – we had a great hero that went in and did the business,” Trump said. “He took care of business.”
“And thank God we had him, otherwise it would have been much worse,” he added. “It’s a terrible thing but thank goodness for a man that had a gun and knew how to use it.”
Kyle Giamanco, the hero’s brother, told NBC News that Kaylub Giamanco had a concealed carry permit and “and decided to go in after” the school shooter.
JUST IN: The man who stopped the school shooting in Bend, Oregon, has been identified as 36-year-old Kalub Giamanco.
Giamanco, a carpenter, was reportedly driving home for lunch when he heard gunshots.
After hearing the gunshots, Giamanco, who has a concealed carry permit, followed the suspect into the school.
He then shot and killed 16-year-old John J Griffin moments after the teen opened fire into a special education classroom.
Giamanco, who has two children of his own who attend the school, is family friends with one of the victims, a 7-year-old who uses a wheelchair and was shot in the face.
The 7-year-old survived and is in the hospital.
Three children at Silver Rail Elementary School were killed. Their ages are 5, 8, and 11.
According to Giamanco’s brother, Giamanco doesn’t feel like a hero because he feels guilty for not being able to save more children.
You are a hero, Kalub.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 16, 2026
“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, a childhood friend of the Giamanco brothers told the outlet.
Another hero who saved lives during the horrific incident was a Silver Rail teacher who threw her cellphone at heavily armed Griffin J. John II and tackled him, trying to wrestle away his firearm and keeping the gunman occupied as Giamanco arrived and eliminated the threat with several shots from his 40-caliber handgun.
At a Friday news conference, Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said that the teacher’s “incredible” intervention “almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed.”
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