“Former University of Oregon football star Keanon Lowe said he had just entered a classroom at the Portland high school where he works as a coach and security guard when a student armed with a black shotgun appeared in the doorway.”

“Lowe had just seconds Friday to react. He lunged at the gunman and wrestled with him for the weapon as other students ran screaming out a back door.”

“I’ve been getting a lot of love from around the country, because this is such a story that usually ends in a tragedy, and from God’s will this ended up well,” Lowe said. “I don’t know if hero is the right word, but the universe works in mysterious ways, and I was meant to be in that classroom. I was meant to stop a tragedy.”

Read more from the Associated Press.