The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Gunset Training Group or its affiliates.
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I was a rookie street cop working day shift when Columbine happened. Thinking back on my career, Columbine was one of the events that shaped what I wanted to do during that career. I became heavily involved in teaching Officers how to respond to active killer events. Initially, I just trained Officers from my agency. Later on, I was a asked to be a part of a group of mostly SWAT guys who were asked to come up with a new program for the State of Ohio that focused on single officer response to active killer events. I’ve taught that program for the last 14 years around SW Ohio in police academies and for different agencies. Active killer response tactics have evolved since Columbine. You cannot be an effective instructor teaching this topic if you do not know the topic inside and out. Consequently, I have spent way too many hours over the years studying active killer events. The harsh reality is this – there is NOTHING that the government, or society in general, can do to completely stop these events from happening. NOTHING. But what we can do is learn from these events and change what we can to mitigate the damage an active killer can cause. In this article, I want to talk about some specific things that the legally armed citizen did (or did not do) that I think are worth having a discussion over.
So let’s talk about what we know so far about this incident. At the time I started this article, this press conference provides the best information I have been able to locate. Fast forward to the 4 minute mark to get to the section where the Chief walks everyone through the timeline of events.
From what the Chief describes, there were two vehicles belonging to important players in this incident that were traveling westbound (right to left in the picture). The driver of the first vehicle (who I do not think has been identified that I will call driver #1) saw the killer come out of the undeveloped area at the bottom of the picture (near the orange star). The killer had a long gun. The killer threw the long gun over a fence at the school property and climbed over the fence after it. Driver #1 verbally challenged the killer, at which point the killer started shooting at driver #1. Driver #1 drove out of the line of fire and called 911. The driver of the second vehicle has been identified as Kaylub Giamamco. Kaylub saw what had happened, saw the killer head to the school and decided to try to stop the killer. Kaylub drove past the killer and turned into the parking lot, parked his vehicle (near yellow triangle) and exited his vehicle with his legally carried .40 caliber pistol to go after the shooter, who had already entered the school (blue square).
While Kaylub was trying to catch up to the killer, the killer went to a pair of locked double doors and used his Maverick 88 shotgun to shoot out the glass of the doors. The killer climbed through the opening in the door and immediately entered the first classroom to the left – a special needs classroom – and started shooting people. Kaylub entered the school the same way the killer did and found the killer in the special needs classroom. One of the teachers in the classroom was fighting with the killer and trying to disarm him. Apparently the teacher (who has not been named) had thrown her cell phone at the killer and then tried to tackle him to disarm him. Kaylub shot the killer multiple times, killing him. It turns out that Kaylub lives nearby and was driving to lunch when he saw these events unfold. Kaylub also had two daughters inside the school at the time of this incident.
When the Bend PD units arrived and found out that Kaylub had stopped the shooter, they secured the scene and started treating what injured people they could. Unfortunately, three children and a teacher were already dead. Another child and another teacher were treated and taken to the hospital.
According to the Chief, the killer only had one weapon – a Maverick 88 12 ga. shotgun (made by Mossberg) and used a variety of birdshot, buckshot and slugs. The killer fired over a dozen rounds total and had 44 extra shotgun shells on him.
To give you an idea of the time frame all of this happened inside, driver #1 first verbally confronted the killer at 12:58. Bend PD was dispatched to the school at 1:00 and arrived at 1:02. So from start to finish, the violence took place within about a four minute window.
So what can we learn from this incident? Or maybe I should say, are there aspects of this incident that we should start thinking about if we have not already? And for now, when I say “we” I am referring to three groups of people – the John Q Citizen type like driver #1, the legally armed citizen like Kaylub and the armed (presumably) off duty law enforcement officer. I’ll talk about what the .gov and .edu organizations can learn from this incident in the next article.
NOTE: Remember, I am not an attorney so this is not legal advice. Different states do things differently so please check with an attorney from whatever state you live in for actual legal advice on self-defense laws.
Let’s start with the decision to use deadly force. To be clear – I think this use of deadly force is as justified as it gets. But at some point, Kaylub’s use of deadly force will have to be legally justified. So let’s talk about what I found within Oregon law and how that encompasses any deadly force justification. Oregon actually codifies their self-defense law in a way that I wish Ohio would replicate (see pic above). Take a look at the three subsections above. Which section of the law do you think justifies the use of deadly force in this case?
Let’s go back to what we know – driver #1 saw the killer throw his shotgun over this fence by the school (see pic above). He stopped and verbally challenged the killer and the killer started shooting at him with said shotgun. A shotgun is by Oregon definition, a deadly weapon or dangerous weapon.
At this point, I would say the killer’s conduct fell under subsections (1) and/or (3). As soon as the killer tried to shoot driver #1, he committed the crime of attempted assault in the 1st degree. From what I can see, attempted assault in the 1st degree is a class B felony which meets (1). And he most certainly tried to use “unlawful deadly physical force” against someone which meets (3).
So at this point, I think either driver #1 or Kaylub (since Oregon law allows for the defense of a third person) would have been justified in responding with deadly force. If Kaylub was close enough or if driver #1 was able to, could they have just driven their car through the fence and run the future killer down? Would that have been legal? If you were in their shoes would that thought have occurred to you?
Or, if you are in Kaylub’s shoes and you saw the killer shoot at the truck in front of you and then saw him start walking towards the school across this playground area. What do you do? Are you legally justified in crashing your car through the fence and running him down with the car? Have you ever thought about using your car as a weapon? If not, you probably should. Just ask this Deacon. Can you grab your pistol and start shooting at the killer as he crosses the playground area? Do you practice shooting at distance? 50 yards? 75 yards? 100 yards? The distance between this road and the school was approximately 80 yards (see pic below). If you do start shooting at him and because of the distance involved you miss the killer, where is that bullet going to go? What’s your backstop? These are the types of decisions you may one day have to make.
As we know, Kaylub didn’t do any of those things. Please don’t think I’m criticizing Kaylub’s actions. I’m not. I can only hope to do as well as Kaylub did, should I ever find myself in a similar situation. I have no idea whether Kaylub has ever thought about any of the things I’ve mentioned. But anyone who has the mindset that compels them to defend people against attacks like this needs to start thinking about responses that don’t just include using a pistol. You may be somewhere where you can’t legally carry a pistol with you. Or using your car may be the better, easier and safer option.
So what did Kaylub do? Kaylub drove to this school entrance, turned into the parking lot, drove up towards the school, jumped out of his car and went after the killer. And from what Kaylub’s mother has told us, when Kaylub got to the doors he found the glass shot out. So he crawled through the opening, entered the school and immediately found the bravest person in this whole ordeal – an unarmed teacher – in a fight for her life with the killer. At that point there were kids and adults in that room who had been shot with a shotgun at close range. Having seen enough shooting victims over the years I can only imagine the horror that Kaylub saw when he entered that classroom. And yet Kaylub still had the wherewithal to shoot the killer from a position where he would not hit the teacher (or anyone else) with any of his shots.
After Kaylub shot the killer, he was in more danger than he ever was before. The killer wasn’t looking for Kaylub. But guess who is coming into that building looking for a killer? The cops. A lot of cops. Cops who may or may not have all the information they need to know that Kaylub is a good guy. And Bend PD appears to be squared away. They were on scene and inside within TWO minutes of being dispatched. I sincerely hope they release the body camera from the first officer in someday so I can see how the Officer and Kaylub handled that. Have you thought about what you should do after stopping an active killer? I teach my students that if, at all possible, they do not want to have a pistol in hand when the cops show up. Holster it, put it on the ground and move away from it. Anything that will keep you from being shot and killed because the cops thought you were the killer. It happens. And if you still have it in your hand and they give orders before shooting, please follow those orders as soon as possible.
If I have any “criticism” about what Kaylub did that day, it is that he called his mom and told her all about what happened. And from what his mom told the news media, Kaylub is upset about what happened and is, unjustifiably if you ask me, really upset that he could not save more people. I would caution you NOT to call your mom or dad and vent to them about what happened. Why? Well, because you do not have privileged communication with your mom or dad. In this case it is almost certainly not an issue, but in another deadly force case that is not as clear cut it could be an issue. Wait, privileged communication, what?
Simply put, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, whatever Kaylub told his mother that day is fair game in a criminal proceeding. Meaning – his mother can be forced to testify against him if the circumstances warranted it. Like I said, in this case? Probably not a big deal. But you should know about privileged communications and who you can have those confidential privileged conversations with beforehand. Spouses, lawyers and doctors are the three generally recognized across the country. Other relationships (like clergy) may apply, but look into it ahead of time. I would recommend doing what Eli Dicken did and use a lawyer to handle communications with the media.
I hope someone has gotten Kaylub in touch with a doctor who specializes in this kind of trauma, I would hate to see his act of bravery destroy him. If you find yourself in a situation like this and struggle with what you saw or were forced to do, please find a good Psychiatrist that can help you with the aftermath. We (law enforcement) have seen what happens too often when our brothers and sisters in blue don’t get the help that they need.
To wrap things up, if you haven’t thought about some of the things I’ve discussed in this article I encourage you to do so now. This article has gone on long enough, I’ll work on Part 2 over the next few days.
Author’s note – I do hope the brave teacher gives her side of the story one day. I wonder if she recognized the killer was reloading and chose that time to act like Greg Ellifritz talks about here.
