A father who intervened during a deadly rampage at an Oregon elementary school said he was haunted by the memory of young students begging for their lives as he crawled toward an active shooter.

Kaylub Giamanco, 36, confronted a 16-year-old gunman who opened fire at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend where three children and a teacher were killed, and two other people were severely injured. Police have said that Giamanco’s actions prevented further loss of life at the 400-student campus, and President Donald Trump praised him as “a great hero that went in and did the business.”

In his first interview since the incident, given to Oregon Public Broadcasting, Giamanco recalled the moment he entered the building after following the armed teenager onto the grounds.

“That’s when I started hearing children pleading for their lives,” Giamanco told OPB. “I started hearing gunfire and I just started army crawling faster and faster, and I told myself this is probably the last thing that I’m ever going to do.”

Giamanco, a local carpenter, was driving home to eat lunch when he spotted a male dressed in black firing a shotgun at a passing pickup truck and toward a worker on the school grounds. After watching the teenager toss the firearm over a perimeter fence and scale it, Giamanco retrieved a .40-caliber handgun from his truck console, loaded a magazine and instructed his phone to dial 911.

He informed emergency operators that he could not stay on the line to answer questions.

“I said, ‘I’m sorry, I have to go in. People are going to die,’” Giamanco told OPB.

Looking inside, he witnessed a teacher wrestling with the teenager. Giamanco opened the door and fired his weapon. The teacher fled the room after both dropped to the floor, but Giamanco discharged two additional rounds when the gunman reached for his weapon again.

“He was scrambling for his weapon,” Giamanco said. “I looked at him and I shot him two more times to make sure that he couldn’t move because I was afraid of him shooting anybody else.”

Giamanco acknowledged the emotional toll of having to fire multiple times at a teenager.

“It was split second decisions while gunfire was going off, while children were losing their lives,” Giamanco told OPB, adding that he frequently thinks about the young gunman. “Sometimes there’s a child out there that didn’t have the love that they deserved. But I do want to believe that if he had more love in his life and better parenting, that this could have been prevented.”

When police arrived on the scene, Giamanco placed his firearm on the floor and stepped out with his hands raised. He then called his family to inform them he was safe before contacting his mother.

“She was just like, ‘Okay, baby, calm down. You did the right thing. You’re a hero. You saved lives.’ And I was just like, ‘I didn’t save everybody. I didn’t get them all,’” Giamanco told OPB.

Despite praise from local law enforcement and the public, Giamanco told the news station that he remains overwhelmed by grief for the victims he could not protect.

“I want to apologize for not saving their babies,” Giamanco told OPB. “The gratitude for saving people’s children is awesome, but there were ones that I didn’t save.”

He added that he has not yet spoken to the teacher who engaged the gunman and does not know her name, though he expressed respect for her actions.

“I would love to give her a hug because that’s a real true hero,” Giamanco said.

Giamanco, whose two daughters attend the school, credited informal training he received years earlier from Iraq War veterans for enabling him to react quickly during the crisis. He said that his family has temporarily relocated from their home, which overlooks the school, and that his daughters would not return to the campus for some time.

Uncertain if he will return to his previous line of work, Giamanco told OPB that he hopes to advocate for enhanced security infrastructure in classrooms.

“I feel like I was put on this earth to do something more than just fix houses,” Giamanco said.

He said he decided to share his story publicly because he felt a responsibility to use his platform for broader change.

“I’ve always wanted to change the world, but I’ve felt small,” Giamanco said. “I’m just a carpenter from Bend, Oregon. I was a nobody other than to my friends and family.

“I feel like if I’m going to have a voice, then I’ll be damned if I’m not going to use it to change this world, to make it a better place.”