Hero Mom on Mother's Day: Off-Duty Police Protects School From Armed Robber
The 42-year old mother of two and off-duty police officer named Katia da Silva Sastre had the wits and the quick hand to swiftly take down a gunman. The suspected robber had suddenly rushed a crowd of mostly women and children at gunpoint outside a private school in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Corporal Sastre may have been off duty at the time, but she was not about to let Mother's Day distract her from her duty. CCTV footage shows the suspect, which has been identified as Elivelton Neves Moreira, approaching the crowd, brandishing a gun, as the Daily Mail recapped the incident.
The crowd was mostly made up of children and mothers, who have gathered in front of the private school the Jardim dos Ipês suburb of the city to celebrate Mother's Day.
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The gunman had his firearm pointed at the school's security guard and was reaching out to grab the wallet and phone being surrendered to him, when he was brought down by Sastre who was waiting at the scene.
She was able to quickly pull her police-issued firearm from her bag and fire three rounds before the assailant could get a shot off. He was hit in the chest and leg as he tried to fight back.
The man was actually able to get off a shot that bounced harmlessly off the ground before he crumpled into a heap. His second shot jammed in his firearm, at which point Sastre has already stepped back from the line of fire and was able to kick off his weapon.
Sastre was on the scene planning to attend the Mother's Day party with her 7-year-old daughter. At the time of the incident, her kids and the other mothers were all she could think about. "'I didn't know if he was going to shoot the kids or the mothers or the security guard at the school door," she would later tell her colleagues.
"'I just thought about defending the mums, the children, my own life and my daughter's," she added. In the panic that enveloped the school, she said that her training in the corporation was able to kick in just in time to prevent the suspect from harming anyone.
The suspect later succumbed to his wounds, dying as he was being rushed to the hospital, according to the Daily Mirror.
For her quick thinking and skills, Sao Paulo Governor Márcio França met with her personally to honor her deed, despite the "regrettable outcome" that resulted in the suspect's death. He also took to social media to share her heroism online.
"I went earlier to the 4th BAEP in the east of Sao Paulo to honor a very special mother: Corporal Katia Sastre. Her courage and precision saved mothers and children, yesterday at the door of a school," he wrote on Twitter, as translated by Google.
