49-year-old Brenda Lee Marquez McCool was what many would consider a cool mom. She had tattoos, she rocked a trendy haircut, she loved salsa dancing and she totally supported her 21-year-old gay son, Isaiah Henderson. So much so that she tagged along with him and his friends last Saturday when they went out to Pulse Nightclub.
Brenda, a two-time cancer survivor and mother of 11, was dancing with Isaiah when Omar Mateen opened fire on the club with an AR-15 assault-style weapon. Bullets flew through the air. Bodies dropped all around them. And that’s when the gunman turned his weapon their way, according to her sister-in-law Ada Pressley.
“Brenda saw him point the gun. She said, ‘Get down,’ to Isaiah and she got in front of him,” Pressley tells NY Daily News. “She was a brave woman. All day and night we hoped she would be in the hospital.”
It wasn’t until late Monday that the family learned Brenda had not survived.
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“She was shot dead,” Pressley explains. “That’s how much she loved her kids. If it weren’t for her, he’d of been shot.”
Just two hours before her death, Brenda had uploaded this video of herself Salsa dancing on Facebook:
Because of his mother’s bravery, Isaiah survived Saturday night’s terrorist attack. Afterwards, he posted on social media:
Just laying here thinking that I was just with my mom 24 hours ago, this is so surreal I love you mom.
According to Pressley, Brenda was always very supportive of her gay son.
“Every year she comes to New York to celebrate the Puerto Rican Day Parade,” she said. “But this year she went to Pulse to celebrate. If she’d come to New York, she’d be alive.”
Another one of her sons, Farrell Marshall, set up a GoFundMe page to help cover his mother’s funeral costs. So far, over $20,000 has been raised.
“One decision changed the lives of many,” wrote Marshall. “You will forever be in our hearts. Always. I truly love you so much MOM!”
The day before she died, Brenda wrote the following status update on her Facebook page:
Words Brenda lived and died by.
Related: Here Are The Victims Of The Orlando Shooting At Pulse Nightclub
Alistair Wiseman
All politics aside, how does this happen? How does someones heart and soul become so corrupted, twisted and evil that they believe this to be the way?
I’m sure an autopsy will be performed on the murderer. It would be interesting to see if there was some sort of psychopathic abnormality with his brain.
I guess I just want an answer, which will probably never be answered.
MaxH
@Alistair Wiseman: Islam is the answer.
Captain Obvious
James Howell article when?
MikeColling83
Covering her son was probably the easiest decision she ever made. God bless Brenda, the world needs more moms like you.
SportGuy
May God look after her and all the other victims in heaven.
marc sfe
@MaxH: NO it is not! Christians are just as hateful – how dare you blame an entire religion for one mans actions. I feel nothing but pity for you.
Alistair Wiseman
@marc sfe:
“Christians are just as hateful….”
Whoa! Step away from the Kool-aid.
Thank you for the moral equivalence arguement. Hillary will appreciate your vote in November.
Kangol
@Alistair Wiseman: Homophobia and hate. The killer hated himself, he hated his queer desires. He also expressed hatred against gay people, black people, latinxs, and women. Hatred. Aided and abetted by religion, social and political discourse, and deep psychological wounding.
And the easy availability of weapons of mass death.
That’s how it happens. You have repressive religion and ideologies, terrible social, political and economic conditions, and brutal histories of oppression in other countries, but you don’t have the widespread and increasing numbers of mass killings we have here. It’s a toxic brew.
This woman is a hero. Everyone who did anything to save any life at Pulse is a hero.
GC1985
You just couldn’t help but bring up your political banter, alistain. You are a STAIN to this website. Islam isn’t the problem. Trump is looking more and more wrong with more details coming out. What kind of fanatical Muslim drinks more than a sailor? Muslims aren’t even allowed to drink. This guy wasn’t a Muslim (or a fake one at best). He was a terrible, horrid person in every sense of the word. An outright evil man.
Remember the movie theater shooting? The guy in that wasn’t Islamic or even from a Muslim country. He was white. Most mass shootings involve white Christian men.
This woman should be recognized as a hero, so yes please leave your idiotic rhetoric to other articles.
I can’t believe how dumb republicans look right now… finger pointing Daesh immediately when it wasn’t even Daesh.
Alistair Wiseman
@Kangol:
Actually, there is an interesting story about his comments about blacks.
He supposedly had an affinity with blacks. As one of the survivors recounts, at one time the killer was in one the bathrooms and asked if there were any blacks in the bathroom. Most people were hiding or playing dead. Someone actually volunteered they were black. He stated, “This is about my country. You guys suffered enough.”
Sure enough, that person survived.
gayhope1990
@Alistair Wiseman:Hear Hear!Islam is a cancer.Lgbt people,Jews,Christians or atheists they live in the hell owing to that evil cult.Their is no limit of the evilness of that religion.
iggy6666
@GC1985: Alistair didn’t mention Islam…….
Whine about political banter yet throw yours in there…. yup sounds like typical Giancarlo theatrics
MaxH
@marc sfe: Islam is an ideology, like Nazism and Christianity. I see you think believing in an ideology that includes a magic flying man in the clouds should negate any criticism of that ideology. But if he were a Nazi and not a Muslim, you wouldn’t assume his Nazi beliefs played no part.
ingyaom
This one of the saddest stories I’ve heard about the Pulse shooting. Religious fundamentalism of any kind is sad. I’m with Thomas Jefferson – who swore “eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
Invert
Brenda gave her son life twice. She loved her baby that much! What a saint.
It’s not inconceivable that Brenda’s friends or relatives would be googling her name and might come across this thread which is basically her obituary; do try and be respectful and keep your bickering about religion or whatever on other places on the boards, people, please.
Liviu
I never had a more intense feeling of unfairness as I had reading this… Surviving cancer twice and being gunned down by an idiot…
o.codone
@MaxH: You equate Nazism with Christianity. so much for you being a peaceful person assclown. you’re starting a war telling me that as a christian i am the same as a nazi. what kind of a stupid shit are you?
o.codone
@GC1985: GIANCARLO, GET THE FUCK OFF OF QUEERTY, NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR ANYTHING YOU HAVE TO SAY.
onthemark
(sigh.) If I may drag this predictable conversation in another direction…
The son was 21 years old. Maybe he should have tried to protect his 49 year old mother instead of the other way around? No doubt it was an instantaneous thing, but jeez, this article makes it sound like he was 6 years old and totally helpless.
Ogre Magi
@MaxH: Very good point
MaxH
@o.codone: How stupid are you? I stated they’re all ideologies, an ideology is “a system of ideas and ideals”. How I implied those ideas and beliefs are identical and equally abhorrent I don’t know. The point is that religion is no more deserving of respect than political ideologies, which is great because America’s highly divisive politics make for great fodder. Believing in an ideology that includes a supernatural being doesn’t give that ideology special status. I do not respect religion, I respect people but that doesn’t go as far as people that use their ideology to cause harm to others.
tracy18
@MaxH: A religion cannot be judged by people to follow it cos it is open to interpretation. Similarly, a person cannot be judged on the basis of his religion. It is true that radical Islamist groups are the primary perpetrators of terrorism but it is wrong to blame Islam and innocent muslims for the deeds of few religious fanatics. https://www.google.com/#q=studymode.com+Islam+and+Terrorism
MaxH
@tracy18: “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them”
That is one of 109 verses in the Koran that call followers to go to war with non- believers in the name of Islamic rule, it was these beliefs that gave rise to the Ottoman empire and brought them to the gates of Vienna.
I do not need to judge a religion just by its followers, the book helps.
And please don’t spew the it’s not literal line. Nobody has ever spotted small print in there.
Alistair Wiseman
@MaxH:
You are making an assumption, that is neither true nor based on any reality or evidence.
joeyty
Beautiful lady.
Cee
@Liviu: My thoughts exactly.
TravisLopez
@onthemark: All of them are helpless, any mother would’ve also feel obliged to protect their children, no matter how old her child may be.
onthemark
@TravisLopez: It should have been the other way around. He is a grown-up man and that is a really weird family dynamic.
onthemark
@TravisLopez: ” any mother would’ve also feel obliged to protect their children, no matter how old her child may be.”
Seriously, “no matter how old”? Ugh, what a nauseating and barf-inducing quote that is.
When you, personally, TravisLopez, are say age 45, are you really gonna expect your 70 year old mommy to protect you from danger? Hopefully not, because that would be really, really weird and totally screwed up. Please re-think this and GROW UP.
iggy6666
@onthemark: Christ. In that instant it was her reaction. Not the sons. It’s not like he used her as a shield. For someone who gets their panties in a twist when people stray off topic you seem to be reaching
onthemark
@iggy6666: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I get that it WAS her instant reaction. Despite it making little sense. And then TravisLopez went and universalized it to “any” mother and “no matter how old” (!!!) which makes even less sense.
Marky
Sad and touching story.
@onthemark: If you’re going to need an explanation that’s logical: She’s already experienced 49 years of life, whereas he has only experienced 21. If in any given situation, a life must be put in jeopardy, the elder person should be taking the risk if the risk is the same for all people. Obviously you don’t send a clumsy person off the street to walk a tightrope, but in this situation, the risk is pretty much the same–it depends where you are hit with a bullet. You get hit in the heart, you get hit in the heart; it doesn’t matter how old you are. I’d say that she /was/ thinking and that her instant reaction was spot on.
Also, why do you think it odd for parents to protect their children… This kind of goes over and above notions of “chivalry” if that is where this is all coming from. Personally I wasn’t raised in a household where I was expected to hold out the soccer-mom arm when one of my parents slammed on the brakes. However, if there were a physical altercation/fight what have you, not something like what had occurred that night, then I can see where you’re coming from. But I don’t believe that it applies in this situation.