Chris Mintz, the 30-year-old who saved several of his fellow students from a gunman who was on the loose in the Umpqua Community College in Oregon, has opened up about his experiences on the day of the shooting on his Facebook page.
Mintz narrated that Oct. 1 was a "normal day" for him and the people on campus. He was in his writing class, laughing along with his teacher and fellow students when a disturbance began from another classroom.
"My teacher walked up to the door that connected our classroom and asked if everyone was ok, no one could tell what the yelling was," Mintz wrote. The teacher knocked on the door until they heard "gunshots that sounded like firecrackers going off."
From then on, Mintz took on an indirect leadership role amidst the horror and chaos that took place, CNN reported. "A counselor kept screaming that someone needed to tell the people in the library, and I told her I'd do it," he wrote.
Mintz ran from classroom to classroom and from building to building to warn the students and teachers that a gunman was at large on campus. He ended up in the school's Snyder Hall, where the gunman was.
Mintz said that the gunman was "nonchalant thtough it all, like he was playing a video game and showed no emotion." Upon seeing Mintz, the gunman aimed at him and repeatedly opened fire. He was shot a total of five times in his left leg and finger, right leg, abdomen and shoulder blade. "When I moved, pain shot through me like a bomb going off," he said.
Mintz revealed that he is recovering well and thanked everyone for their thoughts and prayers. He then explained that he posted his statement on Facebook because "I'm not doing this for publicity and I don't want any media outlet to alter it in anyway."
Ten people were killed while several others were left injured when gunman Christopher Harper Mercer barged in on the campus and began a shooting spree. He then committed suicide as the police inched closer to him.
