- The two robbers tried to gain entry into the house by pretending they needed a plunger. When they were turned away, they opened fire, killing 24-year-old father Juvenel Antero
A pregnant mother due to receive ultrasound images of her newborn this week is instead preparing for her husband's funeral after he was shot to protect his young family from two opportunistic robbers.
According to the Dallas Police Department, 24-year-old Juvenal Antero was shot and killed in his home on the afternoon of December 30th.
His wife, Elizabel, told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that she had just opened the door when a man knocked looking for a loaner plunger for his toilet. The tragic incident occurred in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood of Dallas.
As she refused him, another man with a gun stepped forward and ordered her and her four-year-old son to get on the ground.
Elizabel tried to close the door, but the gunman shot her son, prompting Juvenal to throw himself in front of him, saving his child's life.
“My son constantly asks me, ‘When will my father be alive again?’ Things no child should see or ask. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. There are no words that can comfort me. You see, the detective didn't allow me to touch his body or hold his hand. “He was proof,” Elizabel told the station.
Heartbroken Elizabel Antero describes the trauma of losing her husband to gun violence just weeks after learning she was pregnant with her second child
Juvenal Antero, 24, was killed when he fell in front of a bullet aimed at his young son, 4
My son constantly asks me: When will my father be alive again? Things no child should see or ask. “I wouldn’t wish this on anyone,” Elizabel told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth
The family home shown here is in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood of Dallas
Elizabel went on to say that she was 11 weeks pregnant and described her husband's excitement at the news.
“He was very excited to go to my appointment on Wednesday, this Wednesday, to listen to the heartbeat and take sonogram photos,” she said.
In a separate interview with WFAA, Elizabel said her late husband “guided” her through everything.
“My son needs me to be strong.” My unborn child needs me to be strong. It's hard for me not to have him here because he guided me through everything. “He had a heart of gold,” said the heartbroken mother and wife.
In this interview she described her husband's last words. “He said, ‘You hit me. They hit me. I'm going to die. I don’t want to die in here.” We were his everything. “We were all that mattered to him,” she added.
Elizabel further told the station that this pregnancy was very special as she had suffered two miscarriages and the couple had been trying to have a second child for years.
“I suffered two miscarriages. We've been trying for a few years now. It's finally happened… I have to welcome this new baby into the world without a father.'
At the time of writing, there have been no arrests in the case while the investigation continues; both suspects fled after the shooting.
“I just want you to turn yourself in because what you did was wrong.” No one's life should be taken just because they wanted what we had. You will never have what we had or what we continue to have. “You will never take his place,” Elizabel told WFAA.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Detective Michael Christian at 214-670-4735 or [email protected].