August 3rd survivor Luis Calvillo shares his story, mourns his father lost in shooting

EL PASO, Texas (CBS4) — The surviving soccer coach who was shot outside the Cielo Vista Walmart while fundraising for a young girls team talks about the shooting on the 2nd anniversary.

Luis Calvillo was outside the Walmart on Aug. 3, 2019, raising money for the EP Fusion team with his father, Jorge Calvillo Garcia and another coach, Guillermo "Memo" Garcia

Luis Calvillo was wounded in the shooting.

His father and Garcia died from their injuries.

Luis Calvillo, who was shot twice in his leg, three times in his back is standing tall.

“I was in the hospital for three, four months... I could barely walk. I was injured five times” said Calvillo. “That really changed, changed everybody’s life."

One moment, he just was selling snacks to raise money for the team.

The next, a man opened fire in the store and Calvillo was on the ground.

“I got to the hospital and I was almost dead. I lost my father. I lost a very good friend,” said Calvillo.

Jorge Calvillo Garcia, Luis’s father, died that day at 61 years old.

“My dad is always looking over me and I see him talking me and telling me not to give up.”

Nearly 8 months later, Guillermo "Memo" Garcia, Calvillo’s good friend and fellow coach, became the 23rd and final victim of the mass shooting. Garcia was 36.

“We have to be resilient. We have to be strong,” said Calvillo.

Calvillo, so beyond grateful to be alive and well, but even more grateful to his community for being so tough.

“Thanks to every single one of you, we continue on going forward and we continue going forward because we’re strong. We’re El Paso strong.”

Two years to the day after he almost lost his life, Calvillo leaves his community with this message:

“It don’t matter where are we at. The type of color of skin, the type of language you speak, or where you come from we’re all the same and that’s what we showed.”

Calvillo has one more message for his El Paso community.

He said we need to be joyful.

We remember those we lost, but he said we should also remember they’re happy, they’re watching over us, and they want us to continue with our lives.

To view other related August 3, 2019, mass shooting stories, visit our El Paso Shooting section.

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