Dec. 04--Kevin Ortiz had been shot twice in the leg and once in the shoulder during an attack at Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. But amid the chaos, the 24-year-old managed to call both his wife of two weeks and his father to tell them he was alive.
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FOR THE RECORD
3:21 p.m.: An earlier version of this report said the attack took place at Arrowhead Regional Center. It occurred at the Inland Regional Center.
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"Kevin said he had been shot three times and that he was in pain but he was all right," said his wife, Dyana Ortiz, 23. " Then he said 'I love you' and I said 'I love you.'"
The county environmental inspector at the center made the call at 11:25 a.m.
Carlos Ortiz, who later in the day joined a prayer circle outside the center, recalled his exchange with his son.
"Kevin called me immediately after he got shot and said, 'I've been shot three times, Dad. I'm in pain. Don't worry. There's a policeman with me.'"
Seconds later the phone call ended.
Ortiz's family was not surprised he had found the ability to make these crucial phone calls.
"That's Kevin, he's a fighter," his brother David Ortiz said. "Through him, the Ortizes get to shine again."
Ortiz was shot twice in the leg and once in the shoulder.
The day after the shooting, Ortiz's father said he was "doing very well" but was emotional and in shock over what had happened. He hasn't been sleeping well, the elder Ortiz said.
"Kevin keeps asking when he is going to wake up from this nightmare," Carlos Ortiz said in an interview at the Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
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