RANDLEMAN, N.C. — The North Carolina native who saved lives during the shootings in Oregon is out of the hospital Thursday.
Chris Mintz was shot five times while trying to stop the shooter at Umpqua Community College's fatal shooting last week.
Mintz graduated from Randleman High School in Randolph County.
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Chris Mintz didn’t plan to be a hero, but no one in his family is surprised that many people are calling him exactly that.
“I'm thankful that my nephew did what he did and I'm very proud of him,” Yana Mintz said from her home in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
While most students were running away from the shooter, Chris warned others to leave and then ran toward him.
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“It's second nature to Chris - it's actually second nature to all of us Mintzes - we do what is right....it's how we were raised,” Yana Mintz said.
Chris was raised in Randleman, North Carolina, near Greensboro, where the family’s roots run deep. Chris played on the high school football team before he went into the Army. He moved to Oregon to be with his son, who was on his mind when he confronted the shooter.
“(Chris) gets shot three times, hits the floor, looks up at the gunman and tells him 'it's my son's birthday today,'” Wanda Mintz said. She is another of Chris’s aunts and said that he took several more bullets before the gunman moved on.
On Friday, Chris was in a hospital bed and still thinking about others first.
“I just hope everyone else is OK,” he told ABC News.
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