Elizabel Cardenas, right, speaks to reporters about the murder of her husband Juvenal Antero who was shot to death while protecting his family during a home invasion at their Dallas apartment, left. (WFAA/YouTube)
A wife says her husband died when he took a bullet for their 4-year-old son after two men broke into their Dallas home.
Dallas Police said in a press release that officers were dispatched around 2:40 p.m. to an apartment complex Saturday in the Pleasant Grove area on the city’s east side for a shooting. Police arrived to find Juvenal Antero shot. Cops say two men barged into the home, shot the 24-year-old Antero and fled. The suspects have not yet been arrested.
Antero’s wife Elizabel Cardenas described the ordeal to multiple media outlets. She said the family was inside the apartment when she heard a knock so she went to answer the door where she saw two men.
“They were asking for help. They were wanting a plunger,” Cardenas told ABC affiliate WFAA.
That’s when the two forced their way inside, she said. One of them had a gun.
“And he points the gun at my son. My husband jumped in front of my son and took the bullet for my son. My husband was able to fire back, defend our family, defend my son,” Cardenas told NBC affiliate KXAS.
Cardenas said she saw her husband getting shot.
“He said, ‘They hit me. They hit me. I’m going to die. I don’t want to die in here,’” said Cardenas.
Medical personnel took Antero to the hospital where he died.
Now Cardenas is left with raising her 4-year-old son along with another child on the way — she’s 11 weeks pregnant. The two were planning this week to go hear the heartbeat and get sonogram photos, she said.
“My son keeps asking me, when is my dad going to be alive again? Things that no child is supposed to witness or supposed to ask. I don’t wish this on anyone,” Cardenas said to KXAS. “There are no words, nobody’s words can comfort me. You know, the detective didn’t let me touch his body, or let me hold his hand. He was evidence.”
A Dallas police public information officer declined to confirm Cardenas’ version of events and referred Law&Crime to the press release that had just a few details. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Kramer at 214-670-4735 or [email protected].
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