MOM DIED SHIELDING BABY AT WALMART
'Hel lived because she gave her life' : sister
A young mother was killed shielding her baby boy as bullets flew during the El Paso massacre, her family said on Sunday as the identities of other victims began to emerge.
Mom-of-three Jordan Anchondo, 25 — one of 20 people killed when racist gunman Patrick Crusius, 21, opened fire in a crowded Walmart — died as she desperately held on to her 2-month-old, according to her sister.
“From the baby’s injuries, they said that more than likely, my sister was trying to shield him,” said grieving sister Leta Jamrowski, 19. “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.”
The infant, who was not identified, was not hit by any bullets, but suffered several broken bones.
Anchondo husband, Andre Anchondo, had been missing since the shooting — and on Sunday evening, his brother confirmed that he, too, had been killed.
“It’s official . . . he’s gone,” Tito Anchondo wrote on Facebook at around 6:30 p.m.
Jamrowski, his sister-in-law, spoke while pacing inside a waiting room at the University Medical Center of El Paso, where her baby nephew was being treated.
The family’s heartbreaking story came as the identities of more victims emerged.
A married couple in their 60s, in El Paso shopping for the day, were among the Mexican nationals killed. The deaths of Sarah Esther Reglado, 66, and Cerros Hernández, 68, were confirmed by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard on Sunday afternoon.
Also among the dead were 15year-old Javier Rodriguez and schoolteacher Elsa Mendoza Marquez, 57, from Juarez.
Arturo Benavides, 67, had been shopping on Saturday with his wife and was unable to escape the gunfire, relatives told KTSM, El Paso’s NBC aff iliate.
His family initially searched the reunification center and posted appeals to social media before confirming on Sunday that he was one of the dead.
“Thank you everyone, we just got news that he passed away,” his family said, according to the local news station.
Also identified as dead by Ebrard were: Adolfo Cerros Hernández, Jorge Calvillo García and Gloria Irma Márquez.
Officials completed retrieving bodies from the Walmart on Sunday, according to El Paso law-enforcement officials.
One Mexican national still being treated in a hospital was 10year-old Erika de Alba Mariscal, who was hit in the leg, the foreign secretary announced on Twitter.
Ebrard declared Sunday a “mourning day for Mexico and the United States.”
The University Medical Center of El Paso said 13 people were brought to the hospital with injuries, including one who died.
Two of the injured were kids who were transferred to El Paso Children’s Hospital.
Meanwhile, a US Army private was being hailed as a hero for rescuing several children during the shooting spree.
Glendon Oakley, 22, of Killeen, Texas, was shopping at the Cielo Vista Mall next to the Walmart on Saturday when a child ran by raising the alarm about the shooter.
“I walked out and I go to Foot Locker and all I hear is ‘bang, bang,’ ” Oakley told KTSM.
The automated logistics specialist had recently obtained his license to carry a concealed pistol and instinctively pulled out his Glock.
Making his way out to the parking lot, Oakley saw “a whole bunch” of children without their parents — and sprang into action.
“So I pick up as many as possible and carry them with me and another guy does as well,” he said. “I wasn’t focused on myself, and I wasn’t focused on my surroundings . . . I was just focused on those kids.”
All told, he brough about 13 children to safety. With Wires