Juvenal Antero, Pleasant Grove, Dallas dad shot dead protecting pregnant wife, 4 year old son during home invasion from would be robbers who remain at large as spouse, Elizabeth Cardenas demands justice.
‘I have to welcome this new baby into the world without a father.’ Those are the words uttered by a pregnant Texas woman, days after her husband and father of her young son sacrificed his life in a bid to shield his family from the bullets of armed robbers in the front of the family door.
Juvenal Antero, 24, was with his family at their Pleasant Grove, Dallas apartment Saturday afternoon, December 30th, when a pair of strangers knocked on their door, asking to borrow a plunger, the victim’s wife, Elizabel Cardenas, told WFAA.
The would be robbers then forced their way inside the apartment — and one of them displayed a gun.
Husband and father makes the ultimate sacrifice
‘I’m slamming the door on [the robber’s] hand, and I’m holding the door with all the strength that I could pull,’ said Cardenas, who is 11 weeks pregnant.
Antero ran to grab his own gun and returned to find his four year old son in the armed intruder’s crosshairs.
‘My husband jumped in front of my son and took the bullet for my son,’ Cardenas told NBC DFW. ‘My husband was able to fire back, defend our family, defend my son.’
Antero was shot once and collapsed on the floor as the robbers ran off.
‘He said, ‘They hit me. They hit me. I’m going to die. I don’t want to die in here,’’ Cardenas told WFAA.
Antero was rushed to an area hospital, where he died from his injuries.
‘My son keeps asking me, when is my dad going to be alive again?’
Cardenas and her son witnessed the entire episode, leaving the boy traumatized.
‘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 mom said.
‘We were his everything. We were all that mattered to him,’ Cardenas added.
The couple were just months away from welcoming their second baby, which was conceived after the mom’s two earlier miscarriages and years of fertility struggles.
On Wednesday, Antero and Cardenas were scheduled to go to her prenatal appointment to hear their baby’s heartbeat for the first time and get sonogram photos.
Instead, the family is now busy planning Antero’s funeral.
‘I have to welcome this new baby into the world without a father,’ the grieving widow said, describing her slain husband as having ‘a heart of gold.’
Dallas police said the suspects got away. To date no arrests have been made and no suspects have been publicly identified in connection with Antero’s killing.
Seeking justice, Elizabel Cardenas called on the armed bandits to turn themselves in.
‘No one’s life should be taken away because you wanted what we had,’ Cardenas said. ‘You’ll never have what we had or what we continue to have.’
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Kramer at 214-670-4735 or [email protected].
