This brave mother died saving her gay son’s life during Orlando shooting
Brenda Lee Marquez McCool was at Pulse with her son Isaiah Henderson.
The latest heartbreaking story of Sunday’s mass shooting saw a brave mother shield her son during the attack – sacrificing her own life in the process.
Brenda Lee Marquez McCool courageously stepped in front of her 21-year-old son when she saw the gunman draw his weapon – ultimately saving his life.
The mother of 11 – who beat cancer twice – apparently loved to go out dancing with her son, moving to Orlando to be near to him and her youngest child.
She uploaded a video of she and a friend enjoying themselves shortly before the horrific attack took place.
The pair were out celebrating the Puerto Rican Day Parade, which took place in New York – a celebration the fun-loving mother usually attended.
“Every year she comes to New York to celebrate the Puerto Rican Day Parade,” McCool’s sister-in-law Ada Pressley – who was also inside the club during the attack – told the Daily News.
“If she’d come to New York, she’d be alive.”
Pressley went on to describe the harrowing moment McCool saved her son’s life.
“Brenda saw him point the gun. She said, ‘Get down,’ to Isaiah and she got in front of him. She was shot dead. That’s how much she loved her kids.”
McCool’s oldest daughter has since told of her brother’s guilt following the attack.
“He had to watch his mother die,” Khalisha Pressley told NBC.
“He saw everybody getting killed. He feels it was his fault.”
Pressley said her mother was “always really cool, but really a mom at the end of the day,” adding that she was “the sweetest, lovingest [sic] person in the world.”
“She loved to dance,” Robert Vance Pressley told The New York Daily News of his ex-wife. “She was selfless, always giving of herself. All the kids in the neighbourhoods were part of her extended family.”
Her children have since set up a GoFundMe page to pay for their mother’s funeral and help care for her other children.
