Almost 10 months after being shot in the head while evangelising on a street corner, Hans Schmidt is sharing his miraculous story. The 27-year-old street preacher and father of two young children told a reporter he’s “still here” because of God’s grace and love.
This week, Hans and his wife, Zulya, spoke to ABC15 about what happened on November 15 last year, in Glendale, Arizona, USA. As he often did, Hans was preaching outside, not far from Victory Chapel First Phoenix, where he serves as an outreach director.
Suddenly his words ceased. “I remember falling to my knee,” Schmidt said. “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.”
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From ‘no hope’ to absolute miracle
Zulya Schmidt recalled seeing blood on her husband, who was unable to speak. Hans, who didn’t realise he had been shot, began seizing on the way to the hospital. Once there, he was unresponsive, and a CT scan showed a bullet was lodged in his brain. Doctors placed Hans in a medically induced coma and on life support.
“Even the neurosurgeon was like, ‘Nothing we can do,’” said Zulya. “The detective was like, ‘We’ll know more after the autopsy.’ And…that’s kind of when it became real. There was no hope.”
Zulya admitted she was scared as she begged God to spare her husband’s life. After a month in the hospital, Hans surprised her by speaking again.
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Before Christmas last year, Zulya thanked people for their prayers. In a Facebook post, she wrote that the family’s lives had changed “in the blink of an eye.” She called Hans “a living miracle,” saying she was “amazed” every day by his recovery.
Hans, who went home from the hospital in January, said his story is “absolutely a miracle.” He told ABC15, “I should not be alive, realistically. I should be dead. And because of [God’s] grace and his love, I’m still here.”
The preacher and military veteran continues to do speech and occupational therapy every day. Doctors predict that Schmidt will be able to resume a rather “normal” life, he said, which is another answer to prayer. Trying to remove the rest of the bullet fragments would be too risky, according to surgeons, so those remain in the street preacher’s brain.
Police released surveillance video of the shooting but haven’t yet identified a suspect. Hans said he doesn’t hold a grudge against the unknown shooter, because that wouldn’t change anything. Instead, the evangelist said, “I think it’s important to forgive people. And I forgive him.”
The week after Hans was shot, his pastor told worshipers that their church would “never…stop preaching on the streets.” In November 2023, Gary Marsh said Satan would not get in the way of their outreach efforts. He also warned congregants, “Don’t wait until it takes a crisis to pay attention to what God’s trying to tell us or tell you.”
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