ROSEBURG, Ore. — Chris Mintz has served in the Army, practiced mixed martial arts fighting and dedicated himself to raising an autistic child.

Chances are all those experiences played a role in preparing him for the ordeal he faced on Thursday when he was shot numerous times while trying to save others during the murderous rampage at Umpqua Community College. His legs were broken as well, but he is expected to live, according to family members and friends.

Friends and family said his bravery was reflected in the way he took care of them. Blake Meacham, 20, a first-year student at the college, said, “It didn’t surprise me to hear he would do anything. He’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t necessarily think about it and would just do what he had to do to buy time.”

Image Chris Mintz, who was hospitalized after being shot in a classroom at Umpqua Community College there.

Mr. Mintz, 30, a stocky former soldier, told relatives and friends that he was shot several times through the classroom door as he tried to hold it shut. After the gunman broke through, Mr. Mintz told him that it was the sixth birthday of his son, Tyrik, but he was shot again.

“He was trying to hold the door and block the gunman,” Derek Bourgeois, a relative and high school classmate of Mr. Mintz’s, said in a telephone interview. Mr. Bourgeois said he spoke briefly with Mr. Mintz on Thursday night after calling his hospital room.

Mr. Mintz attended Randleman High School in North Carolina, where he was a lineman on the football team and graduated in 2003. He served in the Army from 2004 to 2007, according to his service record, and trained at Fort Benning, Ga. He was stationed in Fort Lewis, Wash., and decided to stay on the West Coast after leaving the military.

Jamie Skinner met him about a decade ago when Mr. Mintz was in the Army. After he left, she said, he moved to Roseburg, where they lived together. The two had a son, Tyrik, in 2009, and a year later, in October 2010, she said their child received a diagnosis of autism. Tyrik still wears diapers and is unable to speak.