Hero Dad Shot Dead in Front of Pregnant Wife While Shielding Son During Home Invasion

In a very sad story that illustrates the rise of senseless violence in our nation, a young father was shot dead in his home while protecting his family.

Juvenal Antero, 24, was with his wife and young son on Saturday when strangers knocked on his Dallas apartment.

Elizabel Cardenas, Antero’s wife, told WFAA the two men at the door asked to borrow a plunger.

Before Cardenas responded the two men attempted to force their way into the home.

Cardenas, who is 11 weeks pregnant recalled: “I’m slamming the door on [the robber’s] hand, and I’m holding the door with all the strength that I could pull.”

But the two men entered the home and one produced a gun.

While this was happening Antero ran to the bedroom to retrieve his weapon. Seconds later he returned to the room to see one of the intruders pointing his gun at his four-year-old son.

Without a second thought, Antero threw himself between the intruder and his son.

Cardenas told NBC DFW: “My husband jumped in front of my son and took the bullet for my son. My husband was able to fire back, defend our family, defend my son.”

The intruders fled after the exchange of gunfire, leaving Antero bleeding on the floor.

Cardenas told WFAA. “He said, ‘They hit me. They hit me. I’m going to die. I don’t want to die in here.’”

Medical personnel quickly arrived on the scene but Antero died at the hospital a short time later.

The horrible incident has reportedly “traumatized” Antero and Cardenas’ son.

A distraught Cardenas said: “My son keeps asking me, when is my dad going to be alive again? Things that no child is supposed to witness or supposed to ask. I don’t wish this on anyone/”

The New York Post reported the couple was “just months away from welcoming their second baby, which was conceived after the mom’s two earlier miscarriages and years of fertility struggles.”

Antero and Cardenas expected to receive sonogram photos and hear their baby’s heartbeat for the first time at Wednesday’s prenatal appointment.

“I have to welcome this new baby into the world without a father,” Cardenas said, adding that her husband had “a heart of gold.”

Police report no arrests have been made and no suspects have been identified in the case. The investigation is ongoing.

In a message to the intruders, Cardenas said: “No one’s life should be taken away because you wanted what we had. You’ll never have what we had or what we continue to have.”

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