According to his family, a 78-year-old Dacula man passed away on Wednesday after shoving his sister and twin 8-year-old grandchildren out of the path of a huge falling tree branch.
Around midday, the girls were on Ewing Chapel Road with Manuel Javier Pinzon when they saw a little animal in his backyard. The twins had been sending family members photos of their discovery because they were so thrilled.
In the backyard, my daughters discovered a young deer. “They’ve been playing back here for years,” Pinzon’s son-in-law Jason Krause said.
Together with his sister, Pinzon assisted the girls in providing water to the deer. They heard a tremendous cracking sound coming from above at that moment.
“There was a very loud cracking sound, crashing. Cracking is kind of how they described it, and they got shoved out of the way. Then when they turned back, he had gotten them out of the way and taken the full hit of a falling branch, a falling limb on his head, and he didn’t make it,” Krause stated.
About 80 feet up from a huge tree, the 20-foot branch had snapped off. According to Krause, it weighed between 75 and 85 pounds.
With her tiny hands smeared with blood, eight-year-old Gabriela took hold of her grandfather’s phone and dialed 911, following the operator’s directions. Isabella, her twin sister, rushed inside the home to ask elders for assistance.
Gabriela sobbed as she recalled, “My other aunt came out here, and I told her to pass me the phone, and I called 911 and they just told me what to do.”
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After being sent to Northside Hospital Gwinnett, Pinzon passed away approximately four hours later.
Pinzon had previously rescued his family before making the valiant sacrifice. After his mother was killed by political violence in Colombia about 30 years ago, he fled with his wife and daughters to safety in the United States.
He is known for prioritizing others all the way to the finish.
“He chose to protect his sister and these two girls instead of himself. And I don’t think that should be forgotten. He was a hero,” Krause stated.
