A San Diego State University basketball player lost her two cousins in the El Paso shooting on Saturday.
Senior forward Monique Terry’s cousins, Jordan and Andre Anchondo, were shot and killed protecting their youngest baby, 2-month-old Paul.
Terry said she is struggling to fathom that her family was killed, but she was not surprised to hear how they sacrificed their lives to save their baby.
“It just spoke volumes for my cousin,” said Terry over Face Time with NBC 7. “She was smart, she was beautiful, she was intelligent. She was always someone you wanted to be around. And I know people say someone’s laugh is contagious, but her laugh was contagious. Whenever she laughed you would laugh with her because she was so funny because she was always the light of the family and it’s just sad that she is gone.”
In addition to Paul, the Anchondos were parents to a 5-year-old daughter, Skylin, and a 2-year-old daughter Victoria. Skylin and Victoria were not at the Walmart with their parents when the shooting occurred, which happened to be Skylin’s 5th birthday. The Anchondos also celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary at the end of July. Now their family is working to raise money to help the three children who no longer have their mother and father.
“They are not really understanding what’s happening,” said Terry. “They just all have smiles on their faces still, to this day, but we are all still trying to figure that out.”
Terry wants everyone to remember The Anchondos for the heroes they were to their children.
Local
“She should be remembered… as the hero and the daughter and the niece and the granddaughter that she was; she was amazing. She had an amazing soul. She always saw the good in people. That’s what I really want people to realize we lost a really good soul.”
Paul suffered two broken fingers when his mother shielded him and then collapsed with him, said Terry. He was released from the hospital on Sunday.
If you want to donate to their family, you can find their GoFundMe page here.
