Kaylub Gianmaco is the father of two girls at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Ore. and lives just five blocks from the campus on a block of neat, new homes filled with young families.
That proximity was key on Thursday, as Mr. Gianmaco was on his lunch break near the school when he intervened after a 16-year-old gunman blasted through its locked doors with a shotgun, killing a teacher and three children, ages 5, 8 and 11. A 7-year-old and another teacher were critically injured.
Mr. Gianmaco entered the school and shot and killed the suspect, whom two law enforcement officials identified as John J. Griffin II.
On Friday, his mother said that her son, who public records say is 36, was grateful for the outpouring of support and the work of emergency responders, but that he wants to remain private.
“He is not seeking recognition,” Kenda Freeman, his mother, said as she read a statement from her phone. Instead, he “wishes to express his gratitude to the first responders, school personnel and community for the outpouring of love and support.”
At Mr. Gianmaco’s home on Friday, Halloween decorations hung outside the house as friends and family went in and out and neighbors walked by carrying flowers for a makeshift memorial in front of the school. At one point, two men dropped by to pick up a dirt bike from the garage.
“He’s a dad,” said Michael LaMaita, the parent of a preschooler who lives across the stsreet from Mr. Gianmaco. “This is a neighborhood filled with families. People walk their kids to school, or the kids bike. He’s part of that.”
Mr. Gianmaco’s brother, Kyle, told NBC News that his brother had been on his lunch break near the school when he saw the shooting. His white pickup sat where he had left it, on a sidewalk just outside the playground, near a half-fallen fence. The teacher parking lot was still filled with cars, and children’s bikes crowded a rack.
Less than a half mile from the school, the mother of the shooter sat on her apartment deck smoking and weeping Friday morning, a black hoodie pulled over her head.
“I’m so sorry,” she said when reporters approached. ”I’m just so sorry.”
In a brief interview, Ms. Nickerson said she wasn’t sure how her son got the weapon used in the attack. A law enforcement official granted anonymity to discuss details of the case said that investigators believe the teenager used a shotgun that belonged to his mother.
“If I could have prevented this, I would have,” she said, adding “there was no warning sign. Nothing.”
“I think he was a good boy,” she said through tears.
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