Man who used wheelchair to flee El Paso shooting seeks its owner

A survivor of Saturday’s mass shooting in El Paso was taken away from the scene in a child’s wheelchair. Now, he’s hoping to reunite it with its owner.

Jose Luis Gutierrez, 72, was shopping for groceries at Walmart when the gunman began his attack, said his sister-in-law, Lorena Pacheco. Gutierrez was not wounded, but he went into a state of shock.

A police officer put Gutierrez into the wheelchair, thinking it belonged to him, and took him out of the store.

Gutierrez regained his composure and told Pacheco that he remembered seeing a parent grab their child out of the wheelchair and run off in the chaotic first moments of the incident.

He did not recognize the parent or the child, nor does he know whether they survived the shooting.

Pacheco said that her brother-in-law usually uses a cane to get around, which is why the officer thought the wheelchair belonged to him.

She said it’s “extremely important” to her to find the wheelchair’s owner. “I’m sure there’s a child that needs it.”

Pacheco posted a photo of the wheelchair on Facebook in the hopes of reuniting it with its owner.