People crowd around a makeshift memorial near the site of a mass shooting over the weekend at a shopping complex, Monday, Aug. 5, 2019, in El Paso, Texas.

  • El Paso shooting survivor Christopher Grant said in an interview that he spotted the gunman "popping people off" in the parking lot, so he started throwing bottles at him to get his attention in an effort to deter him.
  • A 21-year-old gunman shot and killed at least 22 people in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, the first of two deadly shootings that took over 30 lives over the weekend.
  • Grant said he found his own hero, Customs and Border Protection Officer Donna Sifford, who helped him find the necessary medical attention he needed to survive his gunshot wound.
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What was meant to be a short shopping errand at Walmart with his mother quickly turned into a situation of life or death for El Paso shooting survivor Christopher Grant.

A 21-year-old gunman shot and killed at least 22 people in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, the first of two deadly shootings that took more than 30 lives over the weekend.

In an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo Grant said he spotted the gunman "popping people off" in the parking lot. He was in the produce department near the door so, in an effort to deter him, he started throwing bottles at him to get his attention.

"I ducked, and he just ... started firing off rounds at me," he said. "I was like, 'Oh my god, this guy is shooting at me.'"

One of the bullets landed, and Grant described the pain as if "somebody put a hand grenade in your back and pulled the pin".

Read more: 22 people killed, 24 injured in a mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, Texas officials say

Grant recounted various details of the incident, saying there were people praying in Spanish and begging the gunman not to shoot them.

He said he found his own hero, Customs and Border Protection Officer Donna Sifford, who got him to an ambulance to get the medical attention he needed.

"She was like my guardian angel," he told CNN, holding back tears. "I'll forever be indebted to her because I honestly think she saved my life."

Despite narrowly being able to come out of the shooting with his life, Grant said, "I don't think I deserved to live like some of those children deserved to die."

"It's not fair," he told CNN. "One little girl saw her parents get killed right in front of her."

Cuomo praised Grant's actions to divert the shooter as heroic, but he doesn't view himself as a hero.

"I did what any good man would have done," Grant said. "That's all."

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