Chris Grant was shopping for groceries at the bustling Walmart in East El Paso — preparing for a visit from his children coming from Dallas — when a gunman opened fire.

Grant, 50, saw the shooter allow white and African-American shoppers out of the building while he targeted Hispanic shoppers, Grant's family says. He was able to speak briefly Tuesday.

"We were going to the store to get groceries for my kids," he said. "It just went chaotic as soon as we got there. I heard gunshots."

Grant would have escaped injury in the shooting rampage, but he tried to distract the gunman by throwing soda bottles at him. That's when the shooter turned his gun on Grant and put two bullets near his rib-cage.

"I did what any good man would've done," Grant told CNN on Monday.

The gunman, who is white, surrendered to police nearby. Patrick Crusius faces hate crime charges in connection with the massacre that left 22 dead and more than two dozen injured.

Grant, an El Paso-native, woke up at University Medical Center on Monday, two days after the shooting. He was surrounded by family, including his three children.

"I thought it was still Saturday," he said. "I said what happened to Sunday. I didn't realize that we lost two days or that. I didn't know that the surgery was that long."

A chilling account

Chris Grant's account of Saturday's shooting, told through his family, appears to support the idea that Crusius came to El Paso specifically to shoot Hispanic people. El Paso's population is 83% Hispanic.

"He stated that the shooter was targeting Mexicans and was passing whites, African Americans," said Laura Hromatka, Grant's former wife.

A family member described Grant as being of African American and white heritage.

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Hearing about their loved one

Rylie Grant, 16, and her two siblings were on their way to El Paso when the shooting began.

When they arrived to El Paso International Airport, they were taken to a private room with their aunt. They were told their father had been at the Walmart at the time of the shooting, and they soon learned he was one of the victims.

The children spent most of their time with their aunt and visiting their father in the hospital.

"There was nothing we could do," Rylie Grant said.

The children visited their father while he laid in a hospital bed over the weekend, speaking to him and keeping him company.

“It’s weird seeing him like that, especially when he was asleep," Rylie Grant said. "My dad is a fun guy, and seeing him like that is weird.”

Induced coma

Hromatka said he suffered from internal bleeding from two gunshots. Medical staff had him in an induced coma while they tended to his wounds.

El Paso officials say there are 27 victims still in area hospitals, including a baby with broken bones.

Hromatka said she learned about the shooting while her children were in an airplane headed toward El Paso.

"I was quite shocked," she said.

Christopher Grant is in the hospital’s intensive care unit and is in critical condition. But he was in good spirits Tuesday.

“Pray for the other people,” he said. “They’re the ones who need prayers.”

Joshua Bowling of the Arizona Republic contributed.