During a Fourth of July party this summer, an Arizona man was shot in the head while stopping a shooter who was looking to kill more people. Now speaking about the incident, the man says that he was lucky.
Raul Mendez shared with Fox News that the shooting happened while his back was turned to the shooter.
"I heard the first gunshot and that's what made me, kind of turn my head... But by the time I even was able to look and see what was going on, a bullet already had struck the side of my face," Mendez recalled.
Mendez was at the party on the evening of July 3 with his two daughters, his wife, who was seven months pregnant at the time, and other friends and families.
While about 30 had gathered for the party, a neighbor later joined, identified as Jason Hunt, 46, by police as the primary suspect who opened fire.
Two were killed in the shooting, Mendez's friends, 41-year-old Ochoa Navarro and 38-year-old Carl Dinora, while four others were left with severe injuries.
Mendez shared with Fox News that he was shot in front of his wife, who rushed to him thinking he had died because of the blood on his face.
However, he had not died, and while Hunt continued to fire, two other women began fighting back, yelling for Mendez because they knew he concealed and carried.
"By the glory of God or the adrenaline and just everything, just the will to live and the will to protect my family, I was able to hear those pleas, those yells for help. I heard my name. And I was able to get up," he said.
Mendez shared that he pulled his firearm out and was able to open fire at Hunt, hitting him in the chest four times and stopping his rampage.
The shot to his face left Mendez in the hospital for a week and resulted in him losing his left eye, tearing an eardrum, losing his sense of smell, and fracturing his jaw.
But, he says, "luckily," he was able to turn at the right angle so that the shot was fatal.
Now, Mendez is using his time to speak up for the Second Amendment, sharing that he wouldn't be here without it.
"This world is unpredictable. And honestly, at the end of the day, the people that want to ban guns, they're only banning it from good people, not criminals," Mendez shared. "Because again, there is no gun laws for criminals."
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