An Oregon high school football and track coach is being hailed as a hero after surveillance footage was released showing him disarming a student carrying a loaded shotgun in May, CNN reported.
After successfully ridding the teen of his firearm, coach Keanon Lowe can then be seen embracing the student, contradicting earlier reports that he'd tackled the gunman to disarm him.
Lowe, who also works as a campus security guard, was called to the school's fine arts building to get a student from a classroom.
At this point, Granados-Diaz had his shotgun hidden away inside his coat.
"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," he told KOIN 6.
"In a fraction of a second, I analyzed everything really fast. 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."
The football coach said he lunged at the teen and managed to wrestle the gun away from him as students inside the classroom screamed and scattered.
He wrapped his arms around the tearful Granados-Diaz and pulled him in for a hug.
"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.
"Obviously, he broke down and I just wanted to let him know that I was there for him," Lowe said. "I told him I was there to save him. I was there for a reason and that this is a life worth living."
According to the district attorney's office, the teen had made suicidal statements to another student, and never pointed the gun at anyone but himself that day.
Granados-Diaz did attempt to pull the trigger but the shotgun, which was loaded with one round, didn't fire. It was at this point that Lowe took the gun away from him.
Initial reports claimed Lowe had forcibly tackled the teen to the ground in order to take the gun out of his hands.
But this emotional footage proves that Lowe was significantly more delicate in his approach, even ending the risky encounter with a hug.
Watch the full video below.
Last week he was sentenced to three years of probation and will also receive mental health and substance abuse treatment.
