(CNN) -- Jon Meis' reported habit of carrying pepper spray may have saved students' lives after a man opened fire at a Seattle college. 

The shooter had just wounded three people Thursday, one of whom died. He was reloading his shotgun when Meis, a volunteer security guard, saw an opening. 

He doused the gunman with the spray and tackled him to the ground. 

Other students at Seattle Pacific University piled on and took the weapon away from suspected shooter Aaron Ybarra, 26, police said. 

Officers are convinced the bloodshed at the Christian school would have been worse had Meis and the others not intervened. 

A man who said he was close friends with Meis' older brother and sister-and-law described him as "amazingly resourceful." 

"I wasn't surprised to see he was the hero -- his resourcefulness, love for others and knowledge of the greater good are what defines him, in my mind," Andrew Van Ness told CNN in an e-mail. 

Van Ness said Meis enjoyed playing a campus "humans versus zombies" game organized by the school's Student Union Board, finishing in the top 10 both times the game was held. 

On Thursday, Meis appeared shaken, at moments on the verge of tears, when ambulances arrived to tend to the wounded. Medics put him on a stretcher and took him to a hospital to check him over. 

Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg didn't identify Meis by name but said a man believed to be the student hero was thoroughly evaluated and released. He had no injuries, she said. 
How did he injure them?
opened fire