El Paso Shooting Hero Defies Media Narrative on Trump Visit: 'It Was a Different Side of Him'
It shouldn’t have come as any surprise that the media would criticize President Donald Trump for visiting victims of last weekend’s mass shootings in Texas and Dayton.
Really, the headlines said it all.
“Trump Comes to Console. El Paso Says No Thanks,” The New York Times said.
“After shootings, Trump again shows he prefers political brawler to consoler in chief,” Roll Call claimed.
According to The Washington Post: “Trump attacks local leaders as he visits two cities grieving from mass shootings.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m more inclined to listen to the people who were actually there with Trump than the establishment media, who we know is biased against the president.
And according to one of the heroes of the El Paso shooting, who met Trump during the president’s visit to El Paso’s University Medical Center, Trump showed a different side of himself.
“One of the children went up to hug him so he got down on one knee to let him,” Jimmy Villatoro told the Washington Examiner.
“It was a different side of him, one that you don’t see in public,” he added.
Villatoro has been rightfully hailed as a hero for his actions to save others in response to the shooting.
While he wasn’t at the Walmart when the shooting started, Villatoro learned what had happened from a father who was out of town. The father was worried about his wife and children, who were helping out with a lemonade stand outside the Walmart that was meant to raise money for a youth soccer program.
“I arrive at the scene. The cops were just getting there. I park my truck, run to the middle of the parking lot, looking for the kids because the father told me, ‘Find my family, find my kids,'” Villatoro told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
He soon found the children and helped get them to safety. Then, he went back to look for their parents.
“I found one of the moms, and she just kept asking me, ‘Where are the kids? Get the kids,'” Villatoro said. “I told her, ‘The kids are safe, they’re already out of here, they’re in a safe location.’ I got her out.”
After getting that woman, who’d been shot in her legs, to safety, he went back and found another wounded mom.
“We got her into another vehicle to get her to the hospital because the ambulances were trying to get the most critical out of there as quick as possible,” Villatoro said.
Villatoro told the Examiner he wasn’t concerned about his own safety.
“I just wanted to get the kids out of there,” he said. “That was the most important thing. It didn’t cross my mind. When I think about it now it was a crazy thing to do but I wasn’t thinking about that then.”
And as for Trump, Villatoro said the president just wanted to make sure he and his family were fine.
“He made sure my family was OK, asking after my wife and son,” Villatoro said.
“We met him face to face, and he and Melania were amazing, checking we were OK, offering any kind of help, if we needed someone to talk to. We told him that Democrats, Republicans, we were all united in this city.”
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