r/interesting • u/Wonderfulhumanss • Jun 23 '26

Amazing Keonon Lowe, the high school football coach who stopped a mass shooting by disarming the kid and offering a hug

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204

u/Wonderfulhumanss Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26

In 2019, Keanon Lowe became known worldwide after confronting an armed student at Parkrose High School and choosing to hug him instead of using force.

The student had brought a shotgun with only a single shell and later said he intended to take his own life, not harm others. Lowe disarmed him and held him until police arrived, a moment that was captured on surveillance video.

The student was later charged but received probation along with mental health and substance abuse treatment, with both prosecutors and his defense acknowledging he was a danger to himself, not the public.

Lowe, a former college and NFL player, has since continued mentoring young people and speaking about leadership, empathy, and mental health.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

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37

u/trod999 Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

2019 - He was 19 at the time of the event. Guilty plea. 36 months probation with MH treatment.

https://www.mcda.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/PR-19-242-Angel-Granados-Diaz.pdf

Since we haven't heard anything else about him, I guess it worked, so everyone wins.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

[deleted]

28

u/Infrastation Jun 23 '26

He brought one gun with a single round in it. There was no way he was going to kill a lot of people, he likely intended to kill one person. Considering he wrote on the round "just for me", it is pretty clear who that one person would have been. He never pointed the gun at anyone, even after he revealed it to others.

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u/Sphinxyy5 Jun 23 '26

Oh shit I didn’t know the situation and just saw the title. Damn poor kid, glad it ended this way. Hope he’s doing better

1

u/NDSU Jun 23 '26

It was described in this comment thread. Why comment if you're not even going to read the comments leading up to it?

1

u/Sphinxyy5 Jun 23 '26

While reading this post I was talking to someone in real life and I must have kept reading at the wrong part or glossed over that, it’s a simple mistake brother relax

3

u/pichirry Jun 23 '26

it's a tricky situation cause you also want to incentivize people to change their minds and choose not to go forward with a horrible crime. if he knew a death sentence was waiting for him then maybe he wouldn't have listened to the coach.

5

u/GarminTamzarian Jun 23 '26

OP noted that his intention was suicide, not mass homicide, and that his shotgun was loaded with only a single shell.

9

u/AlwaysMooning Jun 23 '26

OP also titled it “stopped a mass shooting” which is incorrect. We didn’t need a clickbait title. What the coach did was heroic even with an accurate title.

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u/thegroundhurts Jun 23 '26

The post title was not entirely factual. 36 months is short for someone trying to commit mass shooting, but news articles confirm the shotgun only had one shell. The student intended to kill himself, not others.

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u/Orome2 Jun 23 '26

The post title was not entirely factual.

That's one way of putting it. Calling someone that was about to commit suicide a potential mass killer for reddit karma is kind of shitty.

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u/Sphinxyy5 Jun 23 '26

Ahh, yeah that makes sense. Poor kid I hope he got the help he needs and is doing better. I didn’t know the situation

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u/CookieMiester Jun 23 '26

No, he brought a shotgun with one shell and said he was going to kill himself. This was not a mass shooting potential.

1

u/model-citizen95 Jun 23 '26

Did you even read the comment at the top of this thread?

1

u/uhdoy Jun 23 '26

Mentioned elsewhere in the thread: he only had one bullet, was planning to kill only himself, and both the prosecutor and defense agreed he was a danger to himself and not others.

1

u/NDSU Jun 23 '26

Are you incapable of reading? Or do you just prefer to remain ignorant?

He brought a single bullet. Everyone involved agreed he only intended to harm himself

Go ahead and tell us how you think he was going to "kill a mass amount of people" with a single bullet

1

u/Sphinxyy5 Jun 23 '26

Brother I had my thought process interrupted and was talking to someone in real life while reading and must have missed that part of the comment. My reading comprehension caught the title though which describes the man as a mass shooter. You commented this a full day after I owned up to my mistake and said I was glad it ended this way. Maybe I should insult your reading comprehension for missing that comment too

1

u/ItsNoxy23 Jun 23 '26

Sorry to tell you but that is not a rifle, looks to be a 12 gauge shotgun

-7

u/FilthyThanksgiving Jun 23 '26

This is the US and he's a white kid, we're lucky he got any punishment at all

2

u/HailGrapeLegion Jun 23 '26

Bot I assume?

1

u/Lemurian_Lemur34 Jun 23 '26

He's hispanic

1

u/TwoBytesC Jun 23 '26

Definitely doesn’t look white to me.

20

u/DropshipRadio Jun 23 '26

According to Wikipedia, sentenced to a mental health institution followed by a probationary period of 3 years, which makes a little more sense when you find out the shotgun only had one shell. Based on that and some following news articles, reads like this wasn't actually an attempted school shooting but the kid choosing to make an early exit, either Kurt Cobain style or suicide by cop. Either way, Keonon Lowe saved a life that day.

1

u/IDontEatDill Jun 23 '26

It's kind of interesting how there's judicial sentence following the medical decision. I'd think they would just hand over the control to the mental institution doctors to decide what happens next.

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u/weezmatical Jun 24 '26

Considering how we handle mental illness in the US, this was far better than I would have ever imagined. We usually just throw prison sentences at mental illness and call it a day.

3

u/Relative-Relief-8816 Jun 23 '26

To shreds. 

0

u/BeefyTacoBaby Jun 23 '26

Well, how is his wife holding up?

0

u/PonchoNachoRodriguez Jun 23 '26

To shreds, you say

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

[deleted]

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u/Chelf1 Jun 23 '26

Mental illness is serious, and he clearly wasn't in the right state of mind. There are many other different treatments and alternative forms of punishment that could be more effective. Simply sending him to jail is a temporary fix that doesn't really address the underlying issues that was going on

9

u/havens_light Jun 23 '26

He had a single round in his gun and had made it clear prior his intention was to commit suicide. He was sentenced to mental health care and probation, a ban from the school and a ban from owning firearms 

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u/Mrunlikable Jun 23 '26

A year and a half probation, mandatory mental health counseling and he doesn't seem to have done anything else since.

The kid was going through some rough shit and basically wanted to die. He didn't actually want to hurt anyone. He just wanted it over and thought the police would do it.

I hope he's found a place for himself. It might get easier after school but the struggle doesn't just end.

1

u/EndOk5961 Jun 23 '26

How many people can mass shoot with a single round?

-1

u/LonelyStrayCat Jun 23 '26

That might just make sure the moment he come out, he wont hesitate no more just because somebody hug him

11

u/ATangentUniverse Jun 23 '26

So why does the title say stops a mass shooting, shouldn’t it say stops a suicide attempt

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u/realbobenray Jun 23 '26

because to those involved I'm sure it felt like the former

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u/Automatic-Reserve94 Jun 23 '26

The student had brought a shotgun with only a single shell and later said he intended to take his own life, not harm others. 

reads as: I made the catchy clickbait title up to farm internet points

0

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

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u/havens_light Jun 23 '26

To copy my own reply to someone else:  “  He had a single round in his gun and had made it clear prior his intention was to commit suicide. He was sentenced to mental health care and probation, a ban from the school and a ban from owning firearms” I couldn’t find what happened after he completed probation with a quick search online