'Nobody should have to bury their child,' mother mourns son who protected homeless veteran during 7-eleven robbery in Santa Ana
At the 7-Eleven in Santa Ana, there is a small memorial for Matthew Rule, who was shot and killed while protecting a homeless veteran.
Written on a photo frame in the middle of a modest memorial, his mother left a message for her 24-year-old son: "I love you always, Bubba. Love, Mama."
"You've always been loved," said the heartbroken and confused mother Selina Escamilla. "God's plan was, at the moment, to take him home. It was his time to go home."
Escamilla said her son was the kind and artistic middle child of three close siblings who grew up in Amarillo, Texas.
"Always doing what he could to help others," she said.
On Monday morning, Escamilla said Rule left his Santa Ana apartment to grab a drink for his girlfriend at the 7-Eleven. When Rule got there the suspect attempted to rob a homeless veteran at gunpoint.
"He's like 'hey, you heard what he said, he didn't have anything,'" said witness and veteran Richard.
Richard said that Rule defended him from the gunman.
"Some stranger took a bullet for me to stay alive," he said.
Escamilla said that her son protecting someone he didn't even know was not a surprise.
"He didn't want Richard to be hurt," she said. "So, he wanted to de-escalate. It makes me feel like I raised him right. It makes me feel like he cared. He cared about humanity. He cared about people."
But his selfless act to care for a complete stranger put the 24-year-old into the crosshairs of the suspect who shot and killed the aspiring artist.
"Nobody should have to bury their child," his mother said. "Nobody should have to go through this."
Now, as she mourns the death of her son, Escamilla's only wish is for the shooter who ruined so many lives, to be behind bars forever.
"Wherever he is, I want him caught," she said. "Somebody knows something."
