A carpenter on his lunch break ran into a Bend school after a teen gunman and ended the attack

The story

Three young children and a teacher were killed Thursday afternoon when a 16 year old opened fire inside Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon. The children were 5, 8 and 11 years old. Police say the toll could have been much worse if not for two people who refused to stand back.

The shooter fired through the school's locked doors around 1 p.m. local time and went straight to a classroom for students with special needs. Police say he had once been a special needs student at the same school. He is believed to have used a pump action shotgun.

Inside that room, a teacher threw her phone at him, then tackled him and fought to pull the gun away. Bend's police chief called what she did heroic. She was not hurt.

At the same time, a 36 year old carpenter driving home after lunch saw the teen shooting in the parking lot and breaking into the building. His family has named him as Kaylub Giamanco, a father of two girls at the school. He grabbed the pistol he legally kept in his car, followed the gunfire, found the teacher struggling with the attacker and shot him several times. Officers arrived moments later.

Police have named the suspect as Griffin J. John II of Bend. Investigators are still working out how he got the gun. Flowers keep piling up outside the school, and an online fundraiser for Giamanco had passed $68,000 by Friday afternoon.