The husband of a student at Oikos University is calling his wife a hero for her actions during Monday's shooting, which he believes likely saved her life and those of her classmates.

Taschi Wangchuk, 38, who is from Tibet, said his wife, Dechen Yangzon, 28, was one of about eight students in a nursing class at the school when the shooting began.

He said his wife told him that the gunman had walked into a reception area at the school and shot the receptionist, then headed toward classrooms.

Acting on instinct, Wangchuk said, she had turned off the lights and locked the classroom door.

The gunman came to the door and banged on it, then shot at it but didn't manage to get into the room, Wangchuk said.

Wangchuk told reporters outside the university this afternoon that he was able to enter the campus to speak with his wife, and described seeing bloodstains in the building.