KATU(PORTLAND, Oregon) — Stunning surveillance footage captured the moment a high school coach in Oregon disarmed a student with a shotgun and then held him in his arms.
Keanon Lowe, a football and track and field coach at Parkrose High School, can be seen walking through the hallways and entering a classroom on May 17.
When he next emerges, he is holding a shotgun and backing away from student Angel Granados-Diaz before another teacher comes up and takes the weapon away.
Then, in an extraordinary moment, Lowe embraces Granados-Diaz and the two hug for at least a minute.
At one point, it appears that Granados-Diaz tries to break free, but Lowe continues to hold on to him.
Police eventually arrive and take Granados-Diaz into custody.
Lowe was hailed a hero following the incident at the Portland high school.
“This was a best-case scenario,” Portland Police Sergeant Brad Yakots said at the time. “The staff members from all accounts did an excellent job.”
Initial reports said that Lowe wrestled the student to the ground, but the video, which was released by Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office on Friday, shows the emotional moment the two shared.
Granados-Diaz, now 19, was suffering from a mental health crisis at the time, according to ABC Portland affiliate KATU. He pleaded guilty 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 and was sentenced to three years of probation, KATU reported.
Lowe, a former Oregon Ducks football player, told “Good Morning America” that when the student entered the classroom with the weapon, he was close enough that he lunged for the gun and grabbed it with both hands.
“I kind of assessed that situation and my instincts kicked in. I lunged for the gun and we both had the gun,” Lowe told “GMA” earlier this year. “We had four hands on the gun and students are running out of the back of the classroom.”
He said he barely had time to think about his own safety and his main concern was to keep the students save.
“I’m just trying to make sure that the end of the gun isn’t pointing towards where the students are running and also not pointed at myself,” he said. “I ended up getting the gun from him, with my right hand, and holding him off with my left hand and calling for a teacher to grab the gun from me.”
“To be around the kids and to be there for the community and in that moment, I was called upon and I just reacted and like I said, instincts kicked in and I was able to, you know, make something good that could have been very, very tragic,” he added.
When it comes to being labeled a hero, Lowe said “it feels great” but he was simply doing what he hopes any adult would have done.
“I feel like I was put in that room for a reason. You know, the shooter didn’t — he didn’t know that I was in that room when he opened the door and I think there are things in my life that have prepared me for that very moment,” Lowe said. “I thank God that no one got hurt and I thank God I was in that room.”
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