Mother died as she threw herself on top of baby son
A MOTHER died while shielding her twomonth-old baby son from the Texas supermarket gunman, her sister revealed last night.
Jordan Anchondo, 25, was in Walmart while shopping for back-to-school supplies when the killer opened fire.
Her sister, Leta Jamrowski, 19, found out later that her sibling was one of 20 victims murdered in the crowded El Paso store.
She spoke of her devastation last night as she paced a waiting room at an El Paso hospital where her two-monthold nephew was being treated for broken bones after his mother threw herself on top of him.
‘From the baby’s injuries, they said that more than likely my sister was trying to shield him,’ she said.
‘So when she got shot she was holding him and she fell on him so that’s why he broke some of his bones.
‘So he pretty much lived because she gave her life.’ Miss Anchondo was the mother of three children. Last night there was no news of the whereabouts her partner, Andre Anchondo, who was also at the supermarket.
‘They said that if he were alive, more than likely he would have gotten in contact by now,’ Miss Jamrowski said.
Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic presidential candidate and an El Paso native, held a news conference on a street corner opposite the hospital as the sun set, recounting his visit with wounded victims, including a woman who had a bullet pass through her lungs.
‘I told them that I am so amazed at how strong they are,’ the former US congressman said.
Ryan Mielke, a spokesman for University Medical Centre of El Paso, said 13 victims were brought to the hospital with injuries, including one who died.
Two of the wounded were children. Some 11 other victims, ranging in age from 35 to 82, were being treated at another hospital.