In a devastating update to this weekend’s El Paso, Texas, shooting, the husband of Jordan Anchondo, who died shielding her 2-month-old son from gunfire, Andre Anchondo, is also confirmed dead. The couple’s three children — ages 5, 2 and 2 months old — lost both of their parents in the tragedy that officials are calling an act of domestic terrorism.
Jordan’s aunt, Elizabeth Terry, confirmed to CNN that both the Anchondos were killed after a gunman opened fire in an El Paso shopping center on Saturday. Andre was previously unaccounted for.
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The parents, who had just celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary, went to the store after dropping off their 5-year-old daughter at cheer practice, Terry said. Jordan, 25, shielded her 2-month-old son as gunfire erupted, while Andre jumped in front of his wife, another relative, Jesse Jamrowski said.
“The baby still had her blood on him. You watch these things and see these things and you never think this is going to happen to your family,” Terry said. “How do parents go school shopping and then die shielding their baby from bullets?”
The Anchondos’ relatives said that around 2 p.m. they started calling each other, saying the couple was not answering their phones. The first call of an active shooter went out at 10:39 a.m., according to El Paso Chief Greg Allen.
The baby was “pulled from under her body,” said Terry, who is the sister of Anchondo’s father, Paul, for whom the infant is named.
Jordan died alone at the hospital because no one was able to immediately find her, Terry said. “It too us a while to confirm and identify her throughout all the chaos,” she said. Terry also confirmed later that Andre was confirmed dead.
The baby suffered broken fingers but is home with family, Terry said.
The El Paso shooting was the third mass shooting in the United States in a week — and less than 24 hours later, another shooting spree in Dayton, Ohio, left nine dead. Authorities are investigating the El Paso shooting as an act of domestic terrorism.
Among the 20 dead in El Paso is 86-year-old Angie Englisbee, her family told CNN. Her son, Will Englisbee, told CNN that his brother spoke with Angie that morning when she was in the check-out line at Walmart.
Arturo Benavides, 60, was also killed in the shooting, his niece Jacklin Luna told CNN. Luna described Benavides, an Army veteran, as well-loved. “He was an absolutely caring and strong-willed man,” she said. “He was the first person that would give any dime and shirt off his back, a meal and a home to anyone.”
“He deserves nothing less than the world to know everything he did and the love he had left to share,” Luna said. “My nino didn’t deserve this, neither did any of the beautiful people that were taken from us.”
Seven Mexican nationals were identified as victims, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard said. Their names are: Sara Esther Regalado, Adolfo Cerros Hernández, Jorge Calvillo García, Elsa Mendoza de la Mora, Gloria Irma Márquez, María Eugenia Legarreta Rothe and Ivan Filberto Manzano.
