New Bedford native Kharisma James jumped in front of a moving car to save the life of three children this week in El Paso, Texas. Victoria Bruce was at the scene, and she called Fun 107 this morning to tell us what happened.

Monday was the first day of school at Tippin Elementary in El Paso, Texas. While other mothers were reluctantly dropping off their children, lamenting that the summer was too short, Victoria Bruce was joking with her husband about how excited they were to be dropping off the kids at school.

Victoria later told us that she would have given anything to get back to this light-hearted moment in time--just hours before tragedy would play out in that same school parking lot.

She called our show this morning to give her account of what happened in the parking lot, and how New Bedford native Kharisma James, just 33 years old, jumped in front of a moving car to save a 10-year-old boy and her own two children.

"I heard the most horrific metal crash, it sounded as loud as a metal crash on the freeway," she said. "I never imagined, though, that it was anything like this. I prayed that it was just a fender bender. But in less than two minutes, one mom came screaming towards her asking if there were any doctors at the school."

The source of the destruction seems to be a 58-year-old man who was disoriented, hitting the children multiple times with his car before striking and killing Kharisma James, who was jumping in front of his car to try to stop him.

"This woman exuded charisma," said Bruce.

Listen to her entire interview with Fun 107 in the YouTube video below.

 

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