ALLEN, Texas — Irvin Walker II felt the shooting before he saw it.
He had just dropped off his girlfriend at the Allen outlet mall and was driving through the parking lot, looking for a spot.
"That's where the tragedy started," Walker said Tuesday at a news conference at Medical City McKinney, where he's still recovering.
Walker was shot several times while in his car and was among the first people wounded in the Allen mass shooting on May 6.
Walker on Tuesday described a feeling of shock, as he recalled how he was shot.
"I didn't see the shooter," he said, "I just felt the shots."
Unable to drive, Walker got out of his car, started praying and began looking for help. At first, he was running. Then he walked. And then he encountered a security guard, who helped him sit down, as he was "bleeding profusely."
The security guard who came to Walker's aid was Christian LaCour, who later died in the shooting.
Walker was taken to Medical City McKinney about three miles from the outlet mall. He was the first patient to arrive, Dr. Elizabeth Kim said Tuesday. Walker had bullet fragment wounds around his head, his neck, his chest and his arm.
But Kim remembered what else she saw when she first met Walker: His smile, even in an emergency room.
"It really was one of the bright parts of that day," Kim told Walker at the news conference Tuesday. "You were calm and you were an inspiration for me."
Walker didn't need immediate surgery, so doctors gave him a CT scan to determine how deep his bullet wounds were. Kim said doctors were "extremely worried" about two of his wounds: A bullet fragment that went to the closest layer near the heart and bullet fragments in his shoulder, below the clavicle, that could have damaged blood vessels to his arm.
Fortunately, his wounds weren't fatal.
Walker still had to have multiple surgeries at Medical City, and the soft tissue damage from the bullets was "extreme," Kim said. Doctors have had to clean and close those wounds.
"He still has a long road to go," Kim said.
Walker remains hospitalized at Medical City, and he's been seen by rehabilitation doctors and therapists to begin working on improving the mobility in his wounded arm.
But Walker said he's "just grateful to be here."
"As soon as I entered this hospital, the medical professionals expressed the highest level of love for me," Walker said. "I had the mindset that, 'You know what, when I come here, the energy I'm going to give out, I expect back.' I continue glorifying my Lord, thanking people in advance for using their expertise to repair my body, my spirit, my hope. That mindset, I think, got me through."