Oregon shooting hero was MMA fighter, credit given to combat sports

For the 294th time in 274 days we have suffered a mass shooting. The latest, at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, ended with ten deaths and nine wounded. It was the 40th time this year, and the 141st time since the Sandy Hook massacre that a gunman had opened fire in a school.

The attacker was shot dead by law enforcement.

However, earlier in the cowardly rampage, Army veteran and MMA fighter Chris Mintz tried to stop him. His family identified Mintz as having served his country for ten years, with at least one combat deployment, who also wrestled while in the Army.

The hero, 30, took seven bullets and broke both legs trying to stop the gunman and protect his classmates.

He ran to the library and pulled the alarms and he was telling people to run, grabbing people, telling them, ‘You just have to go,’ said witness Hannah Miles to ABC News.

He actually ran back towards the building where the shooting was and he ran back into the building, and I don’t know what happened to him.”

Pastor Dennis Kreiss provided further detail, in an interview with People magazine.

“He told all the students in his class to get to a safer place,” said Kreiss. “He went outside of the classroom and stood by the door to make sure the shooter didn’t come in. When the shooter came out of the classroom he confronted him and said, ‘You aren’t getting by me’ and at that point the shooter shot him five times and the shooter moved on and apparently didn’t go in that classroom. I applaud the guy’s heroism. He may have saved the people in the classroom. Many people are depraved in our society and he was ready to lay down his life for his friends.”

Mintz underwent successful surgery, and is expected to have an extended recovery period.

He was on the wrestling team and and he’s done cage-fighting so it does not surprise me that he would act heroically, his aunt Sheila Brown told NBC News.

Mintz, who grew up in North Carolina, hasn’t fought in the last three years, but he’s continued following the sport, posting frequently about it on his Facebook page.

Mintz’s friend, former girlfriend, and the mother of his six-year-old son Jamie Skinner beautifully defined who he is.

Heroism is only defined by coming to the aid of another human,” she said. “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.”

The dead attacker in the Oregon incident had recently blogged about the notice received by mass shooters.

A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone,” he wrote. “His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.

31 days later he went out and killed. Let’s not share his despicable face or say his despicable name.

Let focus instead on Chris Mintz, hero.

And let’s HELP CHRIS MINTZ WALK AGAIN.

And in a parallel incident, on a train in France last month, a heavily armed attack was stopped by three heroic young Americans. One of them, an airman, cited his background in BJJ as saving his life; he put the terrorist to sleep with a rear naked choke.