Surveillance video captures the dramatic moment a high school coach disarmed a student with a gun
Earlier this year, a high school coach in Oregon was celebrated as a hero for stopping an armed student before he could hurt anyone. Now, new surveillance footage reveals the coach brought the student into an embrace after disarming him.
In May, 18-year-old Angel Granados-Diaz brought a gun to Parkrose High School, but before he could do anything, football and track coach Keanon Lowe stopped him. Reports at the time said Lowe tackled the student, but the new footage paints a different picture.
The video — obtained Friday by CBS Portland affiliate KOIN — shows Lowe grab the gun from Granados-Diaz and hand it to another teacher. After Granados-Diaz was disarmed, Lowe pulled him in for a long hug.
"The door opens — I'm within arm's length of the door, about 3 feet away from the door, and there's a kid with a gun, a shotgun," Lowe told KOIN. "In a fraction of a second, I analyzed everything really fast," he said. "I saw the look in his face, look in his eyes, looked at the gun, realized it was a real gun and then my instincts just took over."
"I lunged for the gun, put two hands on the gun," he continued. "He had his two hands on the gun and obviously the kids are running out of the classroom and screaming."
As students ran from the classroom and police begin to arrive, Lowe stayed with the teen.
"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," he said.
The firearm was recovered at the scene by police. No one was injured in the incident and police said there were no more suspects.
Granados-Diaz pleaded guilty to gun charges on Oct. 10. Officials said he never pointed the gun at anyone other than himself.
A Multnomah County court handed down a 36-month probation sentence under a pretrial agreement for one count of unlawful possession of a firearm in a public building and one count of unlawful possession of a loaded firearm in public.
As part of his probation, he will receive mental health and substance abuse treatment.
The outcome was "the best-case scenario, absolutely," Police spokesman Sgt. Brad Yakots said at the time. "The staff member did an excellent job by all accounts, our officers arrived within minutes and went right in."
