Former NFL coach Keanon Lowe recalls with vivid clarity the moment he came face-to-face with a teen armed with a loaded gun at an Oregon high school and how he calmly averted certain tragedy.
In an all-too-familiar scene in America, the video shows horrified students scrambling for their lives after they eye 19-year-old Angel Granados-Diaz carrying a gun into Parkrose High School in Portland, Ore. The terrifying episode took place in May but details were only just released this past weekend.
Lowe, a former University of Oregon wide receiver and assistant coach with the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, is next shown calmly turning the corner and coming into view, completely unaware that a masked gunman appeared behind him.
Now wearing three hats as the head football and track coach and security guard at Parkrose High, Lowe describes what he saw in the teen’s eyes.
“I saw fear,” Lowe told ABC News. “I saw a scared young man.”
“The look in his eyes. I looked at the gun and I realized it was a real gun and them my instincts just took over.”
Instead of fleeing like the students, or even trying to subdue Granados-Diaz with brutal force, Lowe manages to coax the gun from Granados-Diaz. After handing the gun off to another teacher, Lowe places Granados-Diaz in an embrace.
“I just wanted to let him know that I was there for him. I told him I was there to save him. I was there for a reason and that this is a life worth living.” Lowe said of the incident.
“The universe works in amazing ways. I’m lucky and I’m happy that I was in that classroom for all those kids and I was able to prevent that tragedy,” he said.
Police quickly arrived and took the teen into custody. A Portland judge sentenced him to 36 months of probation, as well as immediate mental health and substance abuse treatment.
Take a look at the interview on the next page:
