AN ARMY VETERAN tried to stop the gunman from entering a classroom during the deadly rampage at a community college in Oregon and was shot at least five times, according to the man’s aunt.
After Chris Mintz fell to the floor, wounded, he looked up at the shooter, said it was his son’s birthday and asked the gunman to stop, Wanda Mintz told The Associated Press.
Nine people died in the shooting yesterday at Umpqua Community College , with seven others wounded.
“He’s lucky to be alive, and we’re grateful he’s alive,” she said of her 30-year-old nephew, a student at the college.
Mintz was recuperating at a hospital in Roseburg.
In an interview with ABC News, he said:
I just hope that everyone else is OK. I’m just worried about everyone else.
Speaking by phone from her home in Randelman, North Carolina, Wanda Mintz got a description of what happened from her nephew’s girlfriend.
She said Chris Mintz went through seven hours of surgery and is expected to survive.
“Chris is a tough guy,” she said.
She said Chris Mintz was in class at Umpqua Community College when he heard gunshots.
He told other students to remain calm and he threw himself against the classroom door as the shooter came across the hallway.
His aunt said the gunman shot her nephew three times at the door. After Chris Mintz fell, he told the armed man:
‘It’s my son’s birthday today. Don’t do this.’
The gunman then shot him at least twice more and proceeded into the classroom. He was hit in both legs, his stomach, the back and in the hand, but the bullets did not hit any of his vital organs, she said.
He has two rods in his legs, she said, and is going to be in a wheelchair for the foreseeable future.
“It’s going to be a long, long recovery,” said Wanda Mintz.
Chris Mintz left the military a few years ago and was a part-time student at Umpqua.
Federal agency says investigators have recovered six weapons at an Oregon community college and seven at the apartment of the gunman Christopher Harper-Mercer
ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge Celinez Nunez said at a news conference Friday that all of the weapons were purchased legally, seven of them by the shooter or his family members in the last three years.
She says investigators also found a flak jacket next to a rifle at the school, which contained steel plates.
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