Not all heroes wear capes. High school football coach Keanon Lowe proved this back in May when it was reported that he diffused and brought down a would-be shooter who had every intent on shooting up the school and committing suicide with a shotgun.
An Oregon prosecutor has released intense video of the high school football coach and security guard who disarmed and hugged a gun-wielding student earlier this year.
When the incident first occurred on May 17 at Parkrose High School in Portland, the police did not release the footage. But now, the District Attorney’s Office released the video on Friday, days after the student, Angel Granados-Diaz was sentenced to three years’ probation and is receiving treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse.
Lowe said at the time that he had just walked into a classroom when he spotted the student in the doorway with a black shotgun.
“I saw the look on his face, the look in his eyes, I looked at the gun, I realized it was a real gun and then my instincts took over,” Lowe said.
When other students fled rightfully, Lowe got close to Granados-Diaz and began hugging him. Even though in the video you can tell that the would-be gunman tried to push off the coach. Lowe still continued to hug him. The coach said he managed to pass the gun off to another teacher even as he held Granados-Diaz down in a bear hug until police arrived.
No one was injured in the incident, and prosecutors said the investigation revealed that Granados-Diaz intended to harm only himself during the incident.
“It was emotional for him, it was emotional for me. In that time, I felt compassion for him. A lot of times, especially when you’re young, you don’t… realize what you’re doing until it’s over,” Lowe said of the student. “I told him I was there to save him, I was there for a reason and this was a life worth living.”
Prosecutors say Angel Granados-Diaz, now 19, brought the loaded shotgun to school during what authorities have described as a mental health crisis.
He planned to commit suicide at school so that his mother would not discover his body, his defense attorney, Adam Thayne, told a judge last week, according to Oregon Live. He went to school with a shotgun holding just one round, marked with the words, “The last red pill 5-17-19 just for me.”
He pleaded guilty Oct. 10 to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm in a public building and one count of unlawful possession of a loaded firearm in public.
He was sentenced to three years’ probation and is receiving treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse counseling.
“This is a story that usually ends in tragedy,” said Lowe, who played football at the University of Oregon and worked as an assistant coach in the NFL. “From God’s will, this ended up well. We were in the headlines, but it wasn’t a tragedy. I am thankful for that.”
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