Victoria Soto was a 27-year-old first grade teacher who was murdered as she protected her students from the fate she suffered.
[Soto] ushered her students into a closet, and in so doing placed her body between them and the assailant.
“She was found huddled over her children, her students, doing instinctively what she knew was the right thing,” her cousin Jim Wiltsie tells ABC News. “I’m just proud that Vicki had the instincts to protect her kids from harm,” he continued. “It brings peace to know that Vicki was doing what she loved, protecting the children, and, in our eyes, she’s a hero.”
Soto was among the six adults, all women, killed in the Friday morning massacre.