SAN ANTONIO – About 60 family and friends on Wednesday crowded St. Jude Catholic Church on the city's West Side to pay their last respects to a good Samaritan who was remembered as a hero.
Isidro Zarate, 39, was shot and killed while defending a woman who was being assaulted during Black Friday shopping at a Walmart on Vance Jackson Road near Interstate 10.
The suspect, Teles Juarez, 21, was charged with murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
"Out of everyone, like, he's the one who had the courage to speak up and talk for a woman, and you don't see that very often," Zarate's cousin, Daisy Deleon, said. "That's what we want people to remember him by. That he was a hero to everyone."
Deleon said the family knows the holidays will be tough without him.
"Just getting together in one big house. And you know, just laughing and having a good time and remembering him," she said. "And I know he's going to be there. He's going to be there in spirit with all of us."
The family said they want to thank the community for the $45,000 that was donated for funeral expenses. Deleon said if it wasn't for the donations, the family wouldn't have had the money to bury him.
Zarate was laid to rest at San Fernando Cemetery III.