Authorities ID Man Who Saved Baby During El Paso Walmart Shooting

mystery hero identified

The El Paso Police Department has confirmed the identity of a mystery man they say helped save a baby's life and others during a mass shooting at a Walmart last year.

Lazaro Ponce, 43, was interviewed by the FBI on Monday in Memphis, the El Paso Times reported.

"We can confirm that's the individual we are looking for," police spokesman Sgt. Enrique Carrillo told the paper. "Not only did he remove the baby from among the dead bodies — it could have suffocated — he ran out and turned the baby over to emergency services personnel.

"He ran back into the store and with a shopping cart went to the towel section and went around treating the wounded and applying pressure," Carrillo added.

The deadly shooting at the El Paso Walmart last August claimed 22 lives and wounded more than two dozen in what law enforcement described as a domestic terror attack targeting Mexicans.

"The man in this photo has been identified. After saving an infant the man ran back into the store, gathered towels from shelves and went around from wounded to wounded packing wounds and applying pressure," the department tweeted.

Ponce told the El Paso Times that after helping the baby, he went back to help a man in a wheelchair and an elderly woman who'd been shot in the arm. He and his wife had been homeless at the time, and staying in a makeshift homeless camp near the Walmart location.

The couple has since moved to Memphis where Ponce works as a laborer and is staying with a co-worker.

Photo: El Paso Police Department


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