The Army veteran who confronted the gunman behind the fatal shooting of nine people at an Oregon college recounted his perspective of the Oct. 1 attack in a Facebook post Friday.
After running to warn other students of the active shooter situation, Umpqua Community College student Chris Mintz was shot five times by gunman Christopher Harper-Mercer.
Mintz wrote that as he lay on the ground in pain, all he could tell a friend was, "Please call my son's mom and tell her I can't pick him up from school today," and that it was his son's birthday, something he had also told Harper-Mercer.
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The moment he knew he'd be okay was when the first EMT, a friend of the veteran's, showed up and greeted him. Mintz wrote that he is recovering well, and stressed that he wrote more about his experience with the goal of helping his community heal.
"I have to thank all the people who responded and everyone in the hospitals," Mintz wrote. "THEY are the real heros [sic], they saved us."
Read Mintz's harrowing account here.
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