Military vet shot seven times as he protected Oregon classmates

By Courtney Sherwood ROSEBURG, Ore. (Reuters) - An Iraq war veteran and mixed martial arts fighter whose son turned 6 years old on Thursday was shot seven times as he blocked the gunman from entering a classroom, possibly saving lives during a mass shooting in southern Oregon. Chris Mintz, 30, was in the hospital on Friday after seven hours of surgery and significant blood loss from his injuries in the tragedy that left 10 dead including the shooter at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, said his former girlfriend Jamie Skinner. Before and after his surgery, Mintz was conscious and told Skinner of the chaotic scene. "Chris was keeping students from leaving the classroom he was in, to keep them safe, based on his training," said Skinner, who spent hours in the hospital. "The assailant was not able to make it into the classroom, because Chris stopped him." She said the couple was together for 10 years and remain close as they raise their son together. Mintz was an infantry soldier in the Army and served in Mosul and elsewhere in Iraq, Skinner said. She and his cousin, Derek Bourgeois in North Carolina, told Reuters that Mintz is a fitness buff who likes to bodybuild and practices recreational mixed martial arts. He works at the YMCA and is studying fitness technology at the community college, hoping to become a personal trainer. Skinner said that after the gunman shot Mintz, "when Chris hit the ground, he told him it was our son's birthday." The gunman, identified as 26-year-old Chris Harper-Mercer, shot him several more times. Harper-Mercer was killed by police in a shoot-out following the execution-style massacre. It was another burst of U.S. gun violence that ranked as the deadliest this year. When emergency workers picked him up, Mintz was thinking of his son, Skinner said, and told the first responders it was his day to pick up his little boy from school. Skinner, who teaches tactical weapons and is a security guard, said Mintz's left and right leg were broken, and he had bullet wounds in his upper back, abdomen, hand and hip. "He's a combat vet. He's trained in crisis-type situation, and his goal was to protect," said Skinner, who spoke to Reuters near her home in Roseburg, where she lives with her son and a small white dog. Mintz lost a lot of blood and now has rods in his legs, she said. He will be in a wheelchair for some time. He is tough and will walk again, said Skinner, who said Mintz has shrapnel still inside his body that the doctors will leave in place for now. Bourgeois, who grew up with Mintz, has set up a GoFundMe site that has already raised $250,000 in seven hours to help pay for his cousin's treatment and recovery. (https://www.gofundme.com/s75ge9y4) He also praised Mintz's character, saying "he's not a quitter." Skinner said she and Mintz met in Fort Lewis, Washington, then moved to his home state of North Carolina for a time and have been living near her family in Oregon for the past six years. On Friday, Mintz was worried about the other people who were hurt and killed and the witnesses who will be traumatized. "Heroism is only defined by coming to the aid of another human. That's what Chris was doing yesterday. He was coming to the aid of another human being. That's what we should all be doing in life," Skinner said. (Additional reporting and writing by Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker)