Late last November, Hans Schmidt, a 26-year-old former military combat medic who is married with two small children, was preaching the gospel in the public square in Glendale, Arizona, when a car pulled up near him and shot him in the head. He told ABC15 News in a new report:
“I remember falling to my knee. And then after that, I was like, ‘Oh, something’s not right. I grabbed all my gear, put it back in the car. I drove my car back to church.”
Upon arrival, he went to tell his wife what happened, but no words would come out. His wife Zulya shared:
“He just, like, comes to the car and, like, I remember just seeing, like blood. And I’m like, ‘What happened? What happened?'”
Sensing something was deeply wrong, but unsure of the exact nature of his injuries- not even knowing that he was shot in the head at this point. Zulya and her brother decided to take Schmit to the hospital. He started seizing while in the vehicle and arrived at the hospital unresponsive. He was placed on life support and in a medically induced coma, with everyone believing he was going to pass away.
Prayers came from saints across the world, and a month later, he spoke for the first time. A month after that, in late January, he walked out of the hospital with bullet fragments still lodged in his brain after the neurosurgeon decided that surgery was too risky to remove them all.
“I should not be alive, realistically, I should be dead. And because (of) His grace and love, I’m still here.”
Though he’s still in recovery, Schmidt says he’s eager to get back to work, and doctors say he’ll be able to lead a mostly normal life. The long-term and short-term effects of the brain damage he suffered are unclear and have not been shared publicly.
Even knowing that the person who fired the gun is still out there, Hans is back at the corner of 51st and Peoria avenues, ready to share his new testimony.
“I don’t think that holding a grudge against him is going to change anything,” Hans said. “I think it’s important to forgive people. And I forgive him.”
