Hero army veteran tried to block deadly shooter
Thursday was a very special day for Chris Mintz: Oct. 1 was his son’s sixth birthday. Though the child was too young to see it, the proud dad posted a happy birthday message on Facebook anyway on Wednesday night.
Hours later, as the former Army infantryman and Umpqua Community College student confronted a gunman on the rural Oregon campus, Mintz’s son was at the forefront of his mind, according to accounts provided by Mintz’s family.
Mintz, 30, encountered the gunman as he attempted to block the door of the classroom, his aunt Wanda Mintz told the Washington Post. Her nephew was shot three times, then fell to the ground. In that moment, she said, he tried to reason with the gunman.
“He hit the ground and looked up at him and said, ‘It’s my son’s birthday, don’t do this,’” Wanda Mintz recounted, after speaking to the mother of Mintz’s son. “And the guy shot him at least two more times.”
When Wanda Mintz spoke to her nephew Friday morning he was weak but awake after undergoing surgery for multiple gunshot wounds. “He just tried to do the right thing,” Wanda Mintz said. “That’s just how he is. If he sees someone who needs help, he just helps. He just tried to intervene.”
Roseburg, Ore., has now been added to the grim list of American communities devastated by a mass shooting; the incident left 10 dead, including the shooter, and others injured. And Chris Mintz is now counted among a group of heroes caught in the crossfire while trying to intervene.
Meanwhile, investigators probed more deeply Friday into the identity of the shooter, who they revealed was armed for an extended siege.
What is known so far about the attacker — identified by a U.S. law enforcement official as Chris Harper Mercer — appears mostly as loose strands that suggested an interest in firearms and the infamy gained by mass shooters.
Witnesses also said he seemed to seek specific revenge against Christians, and police examined web posts that hinted of wider antipathy toward organized faith.
An agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said at a news conference Friday that investigators had recovered 13 weapons, including six at the school. Also recovered there was a flak jacket with steel plates and five magazines of ammunition. The rest of the weapons, and more ammunition, were found at Mercer’s home.
But authorities still struggled to build a clearer picture of what drove the California-raised Mercer to stalk rural Umpqua Community College and methodically pick off students and professors Thursday on the fourth day of the fall semester. When it was over, nine people were dead, plus Mercer, and the college joined the mournful roster of America’s mass shooting sites — and the backdrop for the latest debate about gun control.
Thursday night, as police picked through Mercer’s apartment near campus, hundreds of people joined a candlelight vigil. Some sang along to Amazing Grace — the same hymn President Barack Obama offered in June when Charleston, S.C. was the focus of the nation’s grief and questions over another rampage.
This time, Obama said collective grief was “not enough” and made an emotional appeal for a national groundswell toward stricter gun laws.
Witnesses to the Oregon bloodshed described Mercer as questioning people at gunpoint about their religious affiliations, and appearing to single out Christians for killing.
“He said, ‘Good, because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in just about one second,’” said Stacy Boylan, recounting the account of his wounded daughter, Anastasia, who underwent surgery to treat a gunshot to her spine.
“And then he shot and killed them,” he said.
At least 10 others were admitted for treatment at the Mercy Medical Center, said the chief medical officer, Jason Gray. He said three patients were transferred to larger facilities for more intensive care.
Autumn Vicari, whose brother known as J.J. witnessed the shootings, told NBC News about the gruesome selection process Mercer imposed.
According to NBC: “Vicari said at one point the shooter told people to stand up before asking whether they were Christian or not. Vicari’s brother told her that anyone who responded ‘yes’ was shot in the head. If they said ‘other’ or didn’t answer, they were shot elsewhere in the body, usually the leg.”
The violence stopped only after authorities exchanged gunfire with Mercer. At 10:47 a.m., the end was announced over the police scanner: The suspect was down.
Mintz, meanwhile, survived but suffered two broken legs among his wounds and will need extensive physical therapy, according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for him.
Mintz was born and raised in Randleman, N.C., joining the Army after high school. He also has a wrestling and mixed martial arts background. Mintz moved to Oregon six years ago when the North Carolina economy collapsed, Brown said. He had been working in the furniture business and living in a trailer with his young family but wanted something new.
Wanda Mintz, said her nephew’s six-year-old boy is autistic and is too young, anyway, to comprehend what happened to his father.