Army vet was shot 7 times trying to save students from anti-Christ killer
Army vet Chris Mintz was shot seven times as he tried to save other students during the massacre in Oregon – yet he managed a smile in his hospital bed.
He “tried to protect some people,” his aunt Sheila Brown told NBC News. “We were told he did heroic things to protect some people.”
Mintz, 30, underwent surgery after being shot in the back, abdomen and hands, and also had two broken legs, she said.
“We’re not sure how his legs got broken,” she told the network. “He was on the wrestling team and he’s done cage-fighting so it does not surprise me that he would act heroically.”
Mintz, who is originally from Randleman, NC, served about 10 years in the Army and had just started college, Brown said.
“It was a great, great shock … We’ve all been sitting on pins and needles and praying very hard,” Brown said, adding that Mintz was “an extremely good guy.”
Chris Harper-Mercer, 26, was identified as the maniac who killed nine people and injured seven others Thursday at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg after demanding to know their religions.
He was shot dead by Douglas County sheriff’s deputies, Sheriff John Hanlin said.
Mintz’s cousin, Derek Bourgeois, told The Daily Mail that Mintz charged at the shooter.
“There was no way he was going to stand around and watch something this horrific happen,” Bourgeois said, adding that Mintz is expected to recover.
Bourgeois told the paper that he and Mintz had joined the Army together after high school.
Mintz’s aunt Wanda Mintz told Fox 8 that he could have easily died.
“I really think that if he wasn’t such a strong, young guy, he may have died,” she said.
His family said Mintz was in Oregon mainly to raise his son.
“My brother talked to Chris on the phone while Chris was walking into school to tell him to remind his grandson that Grandpa said, ‘Happy birthday,’” said Wanda Mintz.
His family remains optimistic about his chances for a full recovery.
“His vital signs are OK. He’s going to have to learn to walk again, but he walked away with his life and that’s more than so many other people did,” his cousin Ariana Earnhardt told Fox 8.
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