Parkrose coach lowe disarm shooter
Courtesy Multnomah County District Attorney and Twitter

In May a student at Parkrose High School in Portland, Oregon walked into a classroom wearing a black trench coat and carrying a shotgun. But before he could open fire, he was disarmed by the school’s track coach who also doubled as a security guard.

Parents and students reported Coach Keanon Lowe, one of Oregon’s most prominent high school and college football players of the past decade, took the armed male student to the ground.

Lowe, also Parkrose’s head track and field coach, works as a security guard at the school, several people said.

“I’m just happy everyone was OK,” Lowe said as he walked out of the school’s fine arts building into a school parking lot shortly after police had cleared the school and talked to witnesses. “I’m happy I was able to be there for the kids and for the community.”

Now the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office has released security video of Lowe disarming the would-be shooter.

The student with the gun reportedly wanted to commit suicide.

The video shows Lowe walk into a hallway in the school, holding the gun in one hand and keeping his other arm wrapped around Granados-Diaz. He hands the weapon off to another male, then wraps both arms around Granados-Diaz in a bear hug. He appears to comfort the teen, who eventually touches Lowe’s face, then embraces the coach as Lowe hugs him and pats him on the back.

Granados-Diaz hadn’t wanted to kill himself at home, where his mother would find his body, so he went to the school to do it, authorities said. His lawyer said the teen had been in a school bathroom and thought about ending his life there but decided to go into the classroom instead so someone would call 911 immediately after he fired.

Classmates and friends said Granados-Diaz, who was a Parkrose High senior, had been sad and lonely after a breakup with his girlfriend.

As the Oregonian reports . . .

Granados-Diaz pleaded guilty to felony possession of a firearm in a public building and misdemeanor possession of a loaded firearm in public. On Thursday, he was sentenced to three years of probation and any mental health treatment that he needs.

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84 COMMENTS

  1. It’s a shotgun, nothing to see here folks, move along. Everybody knows only AR’s are used in school shootings. Sarcasm aside, well done Coach Lowe, you did more than certain deputies in Florida did.

    • “before he could open fire…”

      ****
      Interesting choice of words in the article. I read about this on FoxNews just before coming over to TTAG this morning, and Fox’s sources explicitly claimed that the young man had intentions of killing only himself due to despondency over a breakup with his girlfriend. Now we’re suddenly saying on TTAG that he was just another maniacal shooter about to kill a bunch of other students? I think we need some better clarification in the reporting.

  2. Probably an Illegal Alien. The DACA kind. You know, another ‘Son of Shitbama’.

    Time to thin the heard?

    • The hate runs deep around here. To bad this site is the public face of gun owners. There is not enough damage control in the universe to undo the above comment.

      • The other sad thing is, it’s probably a mom demand action plant meant to post some stupid crap so they can screen cap it and be angry on twitter.

      • So now demanding that there be consequences for people who invade the country is “hate”? Fuck off. I’m a legal immigrant and I got my citizenship the hard way. These scumbags shouldn’t get to cut in line just because their particular hellhole happens to be a short swim across the border.

        • The only people to blame are our politicians who haven’t done anything in the legislature to address these immigration issues. Many of the people coming here are, indeed, good people and are not “scumbags”. Some are not good, but branding them all scum is no better than anti gun people calling all second amendment activists racist. If I was starving in a 3rd world country, and could get into the U.S. because of a loophole in policy, I would do it too.

        • Nepa that neither makes it Right nor do we have to accept it and not talk about it. Illegals are a CANCER on this country, its already showing in the crimes they commit and the massive drugs being carted on their backs.

        • Once again, not all immigrants commit crime. The real cancer is leftism. If we could get some decent work visa programs and immigration reform we’d all be better off. However, leftists are passing laws to give immigrants better entitlements than working citizens have. I simply can’t blame people for wanting to come here. Don’t you want to stay? Compared to the rest of the world, it’s pretty sweet here, right? Additionally, this whole conversation is about assuming someone, who has a Spanish last name, is likely illegal. Some people don’t see prejudice in that, I guess.

        • NEPAdam is correct. The DACA-hater comments have no place in this article or conversation.

          Then again, it’s a good thing when trolls, SJWs, and Nazis open their mouths to reveal who they are and allow the rest of us to identify them as such. The “true” TTAG members here know who we are and support each other.

          Thixotropic has every right to say whatever she wants. Too bad for her, we know she’s a 17-yr-old who can’t get a boyfriend and spends her time bashing others online from the safety of her keyboard, so we ignore her. Girls hate that.

        • Sorry boys, if you break the law you’re scum. The way I see it, sneaking across the border to cheat the immigration system is no less despicable than somebody who sticks up a 7/11. There is nothing wrong with limited merit based immigration. The reality, however, is that if 99.9% of modern “refugees” showed up at Ellis Island in 1900, they would be shipped right back where they came from. Expressing frustration with an unlimited influx of criminal migrants entering the country is not racist. “Illegal” is not a race. The reality is that by pushing their pro-criminal agenda, the Democratic party is largely responsible for any derisive remarks here. When you can’t tell which people are here legally and which snuck across the border and got sheltered by one party seeking to demographically replace the native population, a little frustration is inevitable. You want that frustration to go away? Talk to the DNC and get them to stop sheltering criminals.

        • “leftists are passing laws to give immigrants better entitlements than working citizens have“

          I am very interested in this, do you have a particular bit of legislation or proposed bill that you could cite?

      • If you think “the hate runs deep around here”, you’ve clearly been sheltered your whole life and are quite new to the internet. You need to step of the safe spaces of YouTube and google and hop over to some real unmoderated sites around the web, and there you’ll see some real hate. And no offense to TTAG, but it’s not the “public face of gun owners”. It’s a popular gun blog, but the vast majority of people have never even heard of it.

      • Thixotropic – property of certain gels that become more fluid when sheered or shaken.

        — Sounds to me like a troll trying to start something.

        • Wow that is really interesting!

          If I recall correctly, there is a Catholic holy relic that is supposed to be the blood of a saint that is solid until shaken, whereupon it liquefies.

    • We really do need to send all the DACA back to their hellholes. They should try to fix their own countries instead of ruining ours like theirs.

      • So you think immigrants shouldn’t come here, but just fix the hell hole they’re from?

        Sergei, do you hear that, this guy wants you to return to your hell hole and fix your home country.

        I think that’s what they call compassionate conservatism, right?

        Personally, I don’t agree with that sentiment, I think hybrid vigor is an important part of the success of our country and I encourage many different folks to come help build America.

        • No one said anything about GWB era political rhetoric. I’m simply saying we don’t need these uneducated savages making life more difficult for us with their refusal to assimilate to our ways, culture, and language.

          Maybe you’re too politically correct to realize this, but taking in broken people from broken countries only serves to make us worse off and show the others that it’s ok to come here, laugh at our laws, and act entitled to our well fare because people like you are too afraid to say enough is enough.

          The grave you’re digging will be your own.

        • Unlike the DACA scumbags I didn’t break the law to get here. But keep on conflating obvious illegality and ethnic cleansing with people who spend years in a legal process.

        • On a side note Miner… I notice that you encourage “everyone” to come here. How about the millions of people displaced by civil war in Ukraine? How many of THEM got to hop the border? Fun fact, the EU took in more “refugees” from Africa in an average month than it did since the start of the Ukrainian civil war.

        • I worked with a man from Ukraine about ten years ago. His home was in Crimea. He stated he was from Ukraine, but he was Russian. Evidently a large portion of the population feels the same way. That is, in large part, why the E.U. didn’t need to take immigrants from there.

        • It’s a bit more complicated than that. Crimea is majority ethnic Russian (although “ethnic Russian” is a very broad term), so is Donbass, but there are still millions of ethnic Ukrainians displaced by the war. The native population of the region is in excess of six million people. That’s almost the entire country of Israel or 1/3 of Syria. According to the Ukrainian government, the civil war in Donbass displaced 1.6 million people. That’s more than a quarter of the total pre-war population of Crimea and Donbass. According to the EU’s own internal documents, they accepted less than 100 thousand refugees from Ukraine. (The majority of whom went to Poland other neighboring countries.)

          But hey, apparently people like Miner are ok with people “fleeing” from their countries because they are mis-managed shit holes, but not so much from people fleeing an actual civil war. My aunt is an actual refugee. She left Crimea when the Russians moved in and her and both my cousins now live off of what help my family can send them. Apparently, the rabid left isn’t so much interested in helping actual refugees, probably because they have the wrong skin color.

        • Sergei, you said:

          “On a side note Miner… I notice that you encourage “everyone” to come here.”

          I think you may be an error, you show the word “anyone” in quotes, would you please cite where I said that in my post.

          Also, you say you’re in favor of “limited merit based immigration”, what merit did you show in order to justify your injury into the US?

      • Lets just end welfare and all of the other public social services. Those who want to build a better life through hard work and dedication and good ideas will stay and prosper. Those who came to suck off the public tit will deport themselves. Some of our native losers might join them.

        As for the mention of hybrids, a hybrid is the off spring of two different species by definition. Those same stronger, faster hybrids in nature are also usually sterile and short lived. Within a species, even between subspecies or taxons there is no such thing as a hybrid because it is still in the same species. Humans are all one species. We get the benefits of genetic diversity but not the features of hybridism.

        • Many people and families need a little help from time to time. Welfare, disability/workers comp/food stamps are meant to give a leg up and help those that have had some bad luck or made bad choices. It was always designed to be temporary, but any bureaucracy is designed to stay stable.
          We need to have standards that force schooling or other positive attributes. We as taxpayers should lobby for these programs to be temporary.

        • Ending welfare sounds like a great way to impact poor people of every race.

          But really, who would suffer the most from the elimination of welfare? And who would profit most?

          Well, the wealthy would save the most money, and Lord knows rich folk need to keep as much money as they can, times are really hard for them right now…

          On the other hand, most welfare is being used by poor white folks, and everybody knows poor folks have too much money already, right?

          “The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) provides statistics on non-elderly Medicaid recipients using data from the Census Bureau. It found that blacks were more proportionate in their usage of Medicaid, making up 18 percent of non-elderly recipients in 2016. Whites made up the largest share – 43 percent of all recipients – while Hispanics accounted for 30 percent.”

  3. And since this potential murderer was apprehended his abililty to legally buy a gat is gone…see- the system works😄 Muy bueno!

        • The news reports on other outlets reported this as a planned suicide. Only TTAG is reporting that it was a “prevented school shooting”. Odd, since I would think TTAG would lean toward providing clean and reliable info. Appears not, in this case.

  4. wasn’t it congressman green who said shotguns can’t be used in school shootings because they only hold 3 rounds ? he’s the same guy who was worried too many US troops in Guam could capsize the island, thank you California for your wonderful elected officials

    • He was a (D) Congress critter from Georgia.
      That admiral that kept a straight face during that exchange should get some kind of an award.

      • Congress Critter Hank Johnson is still in contention for dumbest member of Congress along with Sheila Jackson Lee.

        • Really.
          When the person speaking pronounces the word “the” as “duh”, you KNOW some galactically STUPID sh!t will soon follow. Be sure to keep the citizens of Guam well distributed across the island, don’t want it to capsize.

  6. Jesus some of you are focused on the wrong parts of this story…That kid needed help that he will now thankfully get and that coach is a damn hero even if the only life that was ever truly at risk was the kids own

    • Judging from some of the appalling comments above, not just focused on the wrong part of this story, but actually fixated on some other invented story they are making up in their twisted, gross little minds. Jeepers. I have real sympathy for this kid and real admiration for the coach. This story – the real story – could have ended so badly in so many different ways. It didn’t, because some people, at least, understand that compassion matters.

      • The kid needs to harden up and think himself lucky a breakup at that time of his life only costs some emotional angst. Later in life it will also cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars as well.

  8. I haven’t seen this in the Drive by media. I guess since he was disarmed and no one was murdered they don’t care to show this. Way to go Coach. And to the cowardly police officer in Florida: THIS is what you could have done.

    • Both CNN and ABC have this video on their web page, I haven’t checked Fox, maybe they did miss it.

      I can see were conservative media doesn’t want to discuss it, a school shooting stopped without a gun goes against their narrative.

      But a physically trained and alert coach was able to effectively and quickly disarm this subject.

      Now there’s an idea, let’s train our teachers and disarmament techniques, like LEOs in other countries.

      • Only because this particular subject was suicidal, not homicidal. (I can’t imagine what training would prepare you for facing a shotgun wielding murderer bare handed.) For some reason he thought it was better to make a theater out of it and traumatize all his classmates, instead of hanging himself quietly in his room. I suspect he never intended to actually go through with his suicide and it was all just a gesture and a cry for help.

  9. 1) Thanks to the coach for taking responsibility and doing the right thing.
    2) How did this kid come into possession of the shotgun in the first place?
    3) Where are this kids parents?
    4) How did he manage to get that far on school property?
    5) This is yet another shining example of how the left has it so very wrong when they think they can ban/confiscate AR’s and AK’s and fix all the worlds ills.

    • Park, I don’t think they’re trying to fix all the worlds ills, I think you’re just trying to fix one aspect of the world that has them especially concerned.

      Rather than ridiculing or condemning them for their perspective, we should persuade to the wisdom of our viewpoint.

      • I keep hearing that. People have been trying to do just that since well before I was born. I not only don’t see any evidence of it working, I see all kinds of evidence that wisdom of any kind of blown off, ignored, and itself ridiculed. If that method worked, we would not be here right now talking about this.

        Atleast that school has a coach with guts and some sense of responsibility. It’s more than many schools have.

  10. That coach is a hero and definitely should be praised and promoted for his handling of this psychologically and emotionally damaged young man. Now he will get mental counseling and treatment that he needs.

  12. “Video Shows Oregon High School Coach Disarm Would-Be Shooter Before He Could Open Fire”

    Stop it already. He was not a would be shooter. He was not there to hurt other people. It was a suicide attempt, not a school shooting.

    TTAG should get these things right. For crying out loud, even CNN got it right:

    This football coach disarmed a student with a gun. Then he hugged him
    https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/19/us/portland-coach-hugging-armed-student/index.html

    To be fair to all, early reports from the school were wrong.

    The hug thing is kind of surprising, but guess that’s what the kid needed.

  13. He definitely didn’t want to die. They would have definitely called 911 no matter where on campus he shot himself. Hope he gets the help he needs.

  15. Kid has problems. Good on the coach. Hope the kid gets help and becomes productive.
    Shame on the felony though. Will mess him up forever.

  16. Boys and Girls (and those not too sure), pay attention to the comment from Miner49er regarding training school authorities in unarmed combat/disarmament. His implication is that no one needs a firearm for defense of self or others. This narrative is very attractive to people (anti-gunners and unicorns) for whom the Second Amendment is a quaint historical artifact, having no importance today.

    For most people, if a thing can be demonstrated as successful on a video, it is and will be successful in life at large. Therefore, all the DGUs are unimportant at best, and travesties of the gun culture at worst.

    A second benefit of the video (and the entire episode) is that if you remove guns, people cannot commit suicide. There it is, in living color. The underlying theory is that no one actually wants to commit suicide, but are merely disturbed people crying out for help (and a hug). Thus, if such people cannot get a firearm, they cannot commit suicide…and eventually, they will simply cry out for that hug.

    • Interesting, you sure do read a lot into a few lines.

      No, reducing easy access to guns will not stop suicides.

      It will just make it more difficult for people to act on a spur of the moment depression and act irrationally with tragic consequences.

      • It sure does work in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other places that have much higher suicide rates than the USA and other western countries. It may sound racist, but could it be a cultural thing?

      • “It will just make it more difficult for people to act on a spur of the moment depression and act irrationally with tragic consequences.”

        Because jumping off the roof, in front of a truck or hanging oneself on the vacuum cleaner cord is so damn difficult!

    • True words, Sam I Am, you are correct.
      The left pushes the idea that DGU are not needed, because other “non violent” methods should be and can be used.
      They do use these occasions to dismiss the idea of having the best weapon available to save lives.
      Granted it can and did happen in this case, and I am glad it did.
      But when I was reading MIner 49er’s diatribe I was picturing my kids 7th grade English teacher
      5’5″ 130 lbs or so. lady.

      What kind of special ninja skills is she going to need, that will have her disarm the shooter who breaches the classroom door.

        • “One has to ponder if you’re Vlad or Pg(2) in a new dress.”

          “What, this old thing? Why, I only wear it when I don’t care what I look like!”

  17. I’m fine with not wanting to off yourself where family will find your body but when your next response is “gee, I’ll do it in front of a bunch of classmates, THAT’LL show that girl not to date me!” you’re a complete asshole. Go off into the woods and do it after calling 911 and telling them where to find your body.

  18. This exemplifies something I’ve said to friends for years regarding the concept of sacred professions…jobs people do that are true callings that change lives for the better. I regard nursing, teaching, and ministering (not an exclusive listing) as falling under this umbrella, and coaching is a mix of the above. A coach is someone who knows how to work with people on many levels, and in this case the coach knew what this kid needed and how to deal with the situation…not to mention the personal courage to actually do it. There aren’t enough kudos in the world for him. Now maybe the boy can get the counseling he needs to learn to deal with things that don’t involve killing (or attention whoring, depending on his seriousness) himself after the judicial system decides how best to handle it.

  19. “So now demanding that there be consequences for people who invade the country is “hate”?”

    No. It quite clearly is not hate. It’s voicing a respect for law and order and *demanding* other people obey the law(s).

    However, assuming that this kid is an illegal or DACA recipient without supporting evidence silly and voicing that opinion publicly unproductive at best. Adding in “shitbama” could be said to insert racial overtones to the whole thing in an even less productive manner. Regardless of any racial issues, the entire comment is unnecessarily inflammatory.

    To me the real issue here is Sally McWhiteSlacks in the background who’s so scared of an inanimate object that you can tell at 0:40 he’s actually considering abandoning what might be a loaded weapon where someone else can get a hold of it. That’s the level of people we have running around schools these days in positions of “authority”.

    Coach did good.

    • Apologies. Not sure how this ended up here when it was meant to be a reply above. My bad for screwing with the continuity of the board.

  20. God bless that teacher, and may the student involved finding, healing, hope and comfort.

    This is a wonderful story. I’m glad it did not turn out much worse.

  21. The video does not show the coach disarm the potential shooter. When they first enter the picture, the coach is already holding the shotgun, which he then passes to the other man and continues hugging the wayward student. From this video, I cannot tell how he disarmed the student. And nobody mentions that in hundreds of comments so far!

  22. I don’t think he really wanted to die sorry I honestly feel he needed help . If you really wanted die most don’t give a shit and just do it.

    • Most suicide attempts are indeed a cry for help, the individual feels they’re at the end of their rope and can’t handle the situation any longer.

      It is my understanding that most successful suicides have been preceded by multiple attempts, but no one heard their initial cries so they continued their efforts to gain peace.

  24. What the hell kind of a school is that? Which one of them was the would be shooter? One of them should have been on the tile floor spitting up blood. They looked like they were in a love fest. WTF?

  25. If he wanted to commit suicide, he would have done it.

    He wanted attention. He’ll get it in Prison, or maybe come to the realization that being a pussy gets you the wrong kind of attention.

  26. THREE YEARS PROBATION. He will be back in the news again, ending on one of path or the other.

    BUT the anti-gun politicians and gun grabbers want to disarm US for shit like this! Catch and release criminals while making law abiding gun owners suffer under more bans, restrictions and threats of incarceration. Makes perfect “common sense” as THEY say.

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