‘Heroic’ Army Vet Shot 7 Times Trying to Block Oregon Shooter

An army veteran was shot seven times while trying to save other students during Thursday’s shooting rampage at an Oregon community college that left 10 dead and injured seven others, his family said.

“We were told he did heroic things to protect some people,” his aunt Sheila Brown told NBC news. She said he was shot seven time in the back, his hands and his abdomen. He also broke both his legs.

“We’re not sure how his legs got broken,” she said. “He was on the wrestling team and and he’s done cage-fighting so it does not surprise me that he would act heroically.”

Mintz, from Randleman, N.C., served in the Army for a decade and had just begun college. The New York Post reports that he moved to the area to raise his son, who turned 6 the day of the attack.

His cousin Derek Bourgeois said he was not surprised that Mintz charged at the shooter to try and protect other students, telling the Daily Beast that reports of Mintz’s actions sound “like something he would do.”

Family members believe he could make a full recovery. “From what I’m hearing, he’s fine,” Bourgeois said, “but he’s going to have to learn to walk again.” Another cousin, Ariana Earnhardt, told Fox 8 that “his vital signs are OK.”

[NBC News]