An elementary school staffer who helped thwart the gunman in an Oregon school shooting earlier this month spoke out for the first time on Friday.
Cassidy Schutz, a learning specialist at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, was the educator who threw her phone at the shooter and tackled him, before he was fatally shot by a parent who followed the gunman into the school, her school district confirmed.
“It all happened so fast, and I wish with everything in me that we had more time,” Schutz said in a statement released by Bend-La Pine Schools. “The pain of this loss I will carry with me forever.”
Cassidy Schutz, a learning specialist at Silver Rail Elementary School.
Bend-La Pine Schools
Three students and a teacher were fatally shot by the gunman in the Oct. 15 mass shooting, which unfolded inside a special needs classroom, according to police. Another student and teacher were also injured in the shooting. Schutz was unharmed, police previously said.
“My thoughts are with those who were lost, their families, those who were hurt, and those who were there that day. My heart is with you,” Schutz said.
“There are no words for this unimaginable reality we are facing. My focus is on these families, our team, our school, and my own healing,” she added.
Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz had commended the staffer during a briefing the day after the shooting. After throwing her phone at the gunman, the then-unidentified staffer “tackled him and fought to take the firearm from him” in an act that “almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed,” Krantz said.
Kaylub Giamanco, the father of two who fatally shot the 16-year-old gunman, also expressed his gratitude for Schutz. In an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting last week, he said she allowed him the chance to act without getting hurt himself.
“I would love to give her a hug because that’s a real true hero,” he told OPB.