Kaylub Giamanco, 36, Told a 911 Dispatcher His Daughters Were at Silver Rail Elementary Before He Ran In and Stopped the 16-Year-Old Gunman

Deschutes County on Tuesday, Nov. 3, released the 78-second recording of the 911 call Kaylub Giamanco made as he approached Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Oct. 15. A teenager with a shotgun was already inside. Giamanco’s two daughters were students there.

The partly garbled audio, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported, largely matches the account the 36-year-old father gave the station weeks earlier. On the recording, he tells a dispatcher that someone is at his daughters’ school with a gun, that he is armed, and that he is going in. Moments later, he entered the building and fatally shot the 16-year-old gunman.

What the Recording Captures

According to OPB, Giamanco told the dispatcher he had been driving home when he called and did not know the shooter. He shouted the school’s name, said the gunman was inside and still firing, and said he was entering the building. When the dispatcher asked a follow-up question about the shooter’s description, his end of the line went silent.

Several other 911 calls about the shooting can be heard in the background, OPB reported. In his earlier interview, Giamanco recalled telling the dispatcher that he had to go in because people were going to die. That exact line is not audible on the released recording.

Central Oregon Daily, which obtained the audio through a public records request, published a transcript in which Giamanco repeatedly gives the school’s name and tells the dispatcher it is his daughter’s school. The station also reported that a staff member, certified learning specialist Cassidy Schutz, had been struggling with the suspect and threw her cellphone at him.

The Four Lives Lost at Silver Rail

Four people were killed in the Oct. 15 attack, ABC News reported: teacher Megan Lambert, 25, whose family said she was working her dream job, and three boys, ages 5, 8 and 11. The families of two of the boys asked that their names not be released.

Two more were hurt. A 7-year-old girl was critically injured and later listed in serious but stable condition, and Becky Drury, 54, suffered serious injuries that were not life-threatening, according to ABC. The network reported that the 16-year-old had fired at a truck in front of the school before he was shot by a community member.

Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz told reporters the day after that the shooter had scaled a fence around the school moments before the attack, OPB reported.

A Carpenter on His Way Home

Giamanco has described himself plainly in the weeks since. OPB’s October interview carried his own description of himself as a carpenter from Bend, and focused on how he is grappling with the aftermath of what he did.

Newser, summarizing reporting from OPB, the Associated Press and The Washington Post, noted that his daughters are 5 and 10. On the call, his first concern was the school where they were sitting in class.

That detail is what makes the recording hard to listen to for other parents. He was not a police officer or a security guard. He was a father who heard that his children’s school was under attack and turned toward it.

Why the Audio Matters to Bend Families

Recordings like this one are public records, and newsrooms request them to test official accounts against what happened in real time. OPB found the call largely supports the version of events Giamanco gave before anyone outside the dispatch center had heard it.

It also adds detail for parents who have spent three weeks trying to understand those minutes. Parent Diaries has followed how Silver Rail parents built a fund for the children who survived, with every child eligible until age 25, and how Bend-La Pine Schools asked families to rank options for their children’s return while the building stayed closed.

For the families of the children who were in the school that day, the 78 seconds of audio are not the center of the story. The center is the four people who did not come home and the two who were hurt. What the call does show is the moment a father, on his way home, heard that his daughters’ school was under attack and did not keep driving.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Roc0ast3r – CC0/Wikimedia Commons