Man hailed as hero in UCC shooting tells story in Facebook post

Umpqua Community College shooting victim, Army veteran Chris Mintz is pictured.

In a Facebook post, he said he was recovering well from his injuries.

In a Facebook post Friday, Mintz said that day started so normal.

Harper-Mercer, 26, killed nine people before being shot by police then killing himself in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States in two years. Mintz detailed the start of the shooting, which occurred while he was in his writing class. According to Mintz, a counselor started to scream, looking for someone to go to the library to let others know what was going on. He than headed back towards the gunfire at Snyder Hall, unsure of the gunman’s location.

Chris Mintz has released a public statement detailing how he remembers the fatal school shooting at an Oregon community college earlier this month.

Mintz got out of the hospital last week, but is still recovering from seven gunshots.

“I don’t recall a lot after that”, he wrote. I got to a classroom and looked into the door because it had a glass slate, a guy that was further away and hiding behind cars startled me and yelled, “Don’t man, he’s going to shoot you, man”.

Mintz peered inside and saw a screaming student, covered in blood. I tried to push myself back against the classroom door but I couldn’t move at all. As he was listening to sirens getting closer, he says the shooter opened a nearby classroom door and shot him.

Mintz wrote that the shots knocked him to the ground. Mintz yelled for another student to get the cops and send them over, which is what drew the attention of the shooter to him.

“My legs felt like ice, like they didn’t exist, until I tried to move”.

Chris Mintz emerged as a hero, after witnesses said he came face to face with gunman.

“I’m still confused why he didn’t shoot me again”, Mintz said.

Mintz heard gunfire between the shooter and police. “When I moved pain shot through me like a bomb going off”.

He continued sounding the alarm as he left the library, noticing “people across campus were walking around like nothing was going on”, Mintz says. Scott Olson/Getty Images A security guard patrols outside Snyder Hall, which is surrounded by a black tarp, on the campus of Umpqua Community College on October. 4, 2015 in Roseburg, Oregon. “The only thing I could say was “It’s my son’s birthday”.

The authorities arrived, and when a friend found him lying on the ground, all he could say was, “It’s my son’s birthday” and, “Please call my sons mom and tell her I can’t pick him up from school today”. Then he thought of his 6-year-old son, Tyrik.

Despite his act of heroism, Mintz said he’s been bombarded with “hateful” skeptics who don’t believe his story or that the tragedy really happened. Once the massacre was over, nine people were left dead, but that number could have been higher if it wasn’t for one student and former military veteran. “I just did what I could to help as well as I never claimed to be a hero I’m just a regular guy”.