Kaylub Gianmarco refused to wait for police.
The Bend, Oregon, father was driving home for lunch on Oct. 15 when he spotted a gunman outside Silver Trail Elementary, where his daughter attends school. Gianmarco grabbed his phone and dialed 911, warning the dispatcher that someone armed was threatening the building. “I have a gun and I swill shoot them right now,” he said in the frantic call, audio of which authorities released Tuesday.
The operator begged him to stand down. “Don’t do anything, let me get an officer there,” the dispatcher pleaded. Gianmarco would not be deterred. “I’m about to go kill this kid,” he fired back. Moments into the call, he reported that the shooter was forcing his way inside. When asked if shots were being fired, Gianmarco answered yes. The line went dead.
Gianmarco opened fire and killed the attacker, identified as Griffin J. John II, 16, who had carried out the shooting with his mother’s shotgun. The teen gunman had blasted through locked doors to reach a special needs classroom, where he killed three children and a teacher. One other student was critically wounded and another teacher was injured in the massacre.
The minute-long recording captures Gianmarco’s transformation from concerned parent to active shooter responder in real time. He was not on campus duty and had no law enforcement background — simply a father who happened to be passing his daughter’s school at the worst possible moment.
The dispatcher’s increasingly urgent pleas underscore the chaos of those three minutes. Standard protocol demands that civilians shelter in place and await armed officers. Gianmarco broke from that script entirely, choosing direct confrontation over self-preservation or passive observation.
The Bend community has since grappled with the aftermath of a school shooting that unfolded with devastating speed. The gunman’s ability to breach locked doors and target a vulnerable classroom population has intensified scrutiny of campus security measures. The special needs classroom setting has drawn particular attention, given the victims’ limited mobility and the teacher’s protective role.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that Gianmarco has spoken publicly about the weight of his actions, describing himself as “just a carpenter from Bend” thrust into an impossible split-second decision. The emotional toll on him and his family remains largely private, though his 911 words — “I swill shoot them right now” — have become a raw shorthand for civilian intervention in an era of routine school lockdown drills.
Law enforcement has not indicated whether Gianmarco faces any legal review for his actions. The Deschutes County District Attorney’s office typically examines all fatal shootings involving civilians, though the circumstances here — an active shooter at an elementary school — present an unusual case.
The three child victims and their teacher have been mourned in vigils across Bend, a city of roughly 100,000 that had not previously experienced mass violence of this scale. The critically wounded student and injured teacher survived, though their conditions and identities have not been publicly disclosed.
The 911 audio release marks the first detailed public account of the shooting’s opening moments, supplementing security footage and witness statements gathered in the weeks since. Investigators have not released a motive for Griffin’s attack, nor explained how he obtained access to his mother’s firearm.
Gianmarco’s call stands as one of the most direct civilian-police exchanges during an active shooter event ever made public — a father stating his lethal intent, a professional begging restraint, and silence where protocol failed.