Following the horrific shootings this weekend in El Paso and Dayton, stories of heroic acts have begun to emerge, some carried out by strangers, others by family members who sacrificed their own lives to save their loved ones.
In El Paso, a young mother and father died after shielding their two-month-old son from the gunman who opened fire at a Walmart, which resulted in the death of 20 people. Jordan and Andre Anchondo, who were enjoying a day out shopping for school supplies, leave behind three children, ages five, two, and two months old.
The couple had dropped off their daughter, who is five, at cheerleading practice before heading to Walmart for school supplies. Jordan, 25, held onto her baby and shielded him from a hail of gunfire, while her husband leaned in to protect them both. Fortunately, the baby survived the attack although several of his bones were broken as his mother fell on him.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the three orphaned children. "You watch these things and see these things and you never think this is going to happen to your family. How do parents go school shopping and then die shielding their baby from bullets?” asked Liz Terry, an aunt of Jordan.
The gunman, who allegedly wrote a racist screed before going on the rampage, was reportedly targeting Hispanics in his attack on a crowded Walmart near the US-Mexico border. The shooting left 20 people dead and another 26 people injured. The shooter was eventually forced to surrender by police who then arrested him.
The suspect, who has been identified as Patrick Crusius, a resident of Allen, in the Dallas area, about 650 miles east of El Paso, has been charged with capital murder, meaning he could face the death penalty.
Just a few hours after the El Paso shooting, another gunman opened fire in a crowded bar in Dayton, Ohio, murdering nine people including his younger sister and her boyfriend, and injuring 27. The attack is suspected to also be racially motivated as six of the nine victims were African-Americans.
This weekend’s shootings were the twenty-first and twenty-second mass killings of 2019 in the US. So far this year, 125 people have died in domestic terrorist attacks.