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Volume XLVIII • Number 42
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • October 23, 2019
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Disarmed with a Hug
Parkrose Coach Keanon Lowe
Surveillance video from Parkrose High School shows Parkrose coach and security guard Keanon Lowe holding a student in an
embrace after disarming him of a shotgun during an incident last May. Lowe handed the gun to another teacher who is seen
taking it away from the scene. The video was released last week by the Multnomah County District Attorney.
New video shows humanity of hero coach
b everly C orbell
T he P orTland o bserver
Last May, when Parkrose High Coach
Keanon Lowe disarmed a student with a
shotgun, initial reports rightfully show-
ered him with praise for stopping the
19-year-old and averting a school scoot-
ing, but now the full picture of Lowe’s
heroic actions have come to light in a
dramatic way. The release of school sur-
by
veillance video for the first time shows
that Lowe, a member of Portland’s Af-
rican American community, didn’t phys-
ically bring the student to the ground to
avert a disaster, he peacefully was able
to take the gun from him and then give
him a hug.
The video, first obtained by KOIN-
TV shows the dramatic embrace. It was
released just a week after Angel Grana-
dos-Diaz was handed three years of pro-
bation for bringing the gun to the school,
a sentence to include mental health and
substance abuse treatment.
Lowe is now getting a second dose of
deserved national attention for his com-
passionate response, including top week-
end coverage on ABC’s Good Morning
America and a long piece on the ESPN
website.
While the Parkrose School District
Superintendent objected to the video’s
public release citing student rights under
federal law, the Multnomah County Dis-
trict Attorney’s office overruled him by
releasing the video to local media.
In an interview with ESPN, Lowe de-
scribed his thoughts in the moment after
disarming the student. He said he looked
into his eyes and saw humanity, not a
picture of evil.
“It wasn’t in me to beat him up or hold
him down or hurt him, even though it
was seconds after this crazy thing hap-
pened,” Lowe said. “I felt his vibe, I felt
how scared he was. I felt it all. I’ll never
forget the conversation I had with him.
I told him I cared about him, that peo-
ple cared about him. He was really sur-
prised. He said, ’You do?’ I said, ‘Yep,
I just met you and I care about you. It’s
going to be okay.’”
Multnomah Deputy District Attor-
ney Parakram Singh said it was deter-
mined later that Granados-Diaz had only
C onTinued on P age 10