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Jarell Brooks

by Iris Mack and ABC News Sources

Jarell Brooks
Jarell Brooks

A Colorado teen helped save the lives of a woman and her kids, even though it resulted in him being shot.

 

 

 

 

The woman -who had been attending the screening of “Dark Knight Rises” with her boyfriend, young child, and 4 month old infant – found herself abandoned when the shooting began. Her boyfriend  dropped their 7 month old on the floor, jumped from the balcony, and drove himself home.

 

Luckily, Jarell Brooks, 19, came to the woman’s aid.

 

While trying to escape the gunfire, Brooks says he saw a woman, later identified as Patricia Legarreta, struggling to get herself and her two children out. He said he crawled on top of Legarreta in an attempt to push her and the kids out the door but then couldn’t get out himself.

“At the end of the aisle, I ran into a woman. She yelled, ‘My kids!’ and I saw she had two young kids with her,” he told ABC News. “I made sure they got in the aisle and pushed behind her to make sure she got out of there.”







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“We fell together,” Brooks said. “I picked myself back up and continued to the back exit door, on one leg.”

 

“I was thinking, I have to get this family out, without getting hit myself. I managed to do one,” Brooks told ABC News.

 

Jarell told ABC News that the bullet that struck his leg could have hit Patricia’s 4-month-old infant if not for his body covering the family. But he refuses to be called a hero.

“I don’t want to say hero necessarily, I was just in the wrong place at the right time,” he told ABC News’ Chris Cuomo during a TV interview.

“I was in the wrong place because I had to deal with the situation, but I was there at the right time because I was there to help a family.”

After she recovered in the hospital, Patricia confirmed the story, and said she’s thankful there are young men in the world like Jarrell.

I saw someone in distress,’ he said. ‘I’m not the kind of person who would let them be in that situation and me selfishly trying to get myself out of the equation… all she’s trying to do is protect her kids, so I felt like if I could get her out, then maybe, I would have gotten out maybe I wouldn’t, as long as I knew she was OK I was alright.’

 

 

Page created on 7/24/2012 12:00:00 AM

Last edited 9/26/2018 3:33:17 AM

The beliefs, viewpoints and opinions expressed in this hero submission on the website are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, viewpoints and opinions of The MY HERO Project and its staff.
 

Author Info

A bit of good news from the Colorado shooting...

Teen Rescued Woman and Kids During Colorado Shooting After Boyfriend Abandoned Them..

This brave young man is Jarell Brooks.

Here is a quote posted on his Facebook page on January 16th.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. -

Martin Luther King.