Mother shot while shielding her son in Dallas shooting had Minneapolis ties

A woman who was shot in the leg when snipers opened fire on police officers Thursday night in Dallas was a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis.

Shetamia Taylor, 37, who now lives in the Dallas suburb of Garland, was attending a Black Lives Matter rally with her four sons ages 12 to 17 to protest this week's fatal police-involved shootings of black men in Falcon Heights and Louisiana when she got caught in the crossfire.

She was taken to Baylor University Medical Center, where she underwent surgery, said her mother, Mary Washington.

"She is doing pretty good this morning … a lot of pain," her mother said in a phone interview Friday. "She is resting right now."

Taylor graduated from Patrick Henry High School in 1995, her mother said.

She later studied at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, according to Taylor's Facebook page.

She later moved to Texas, where her mother lives.

"She jumped on top to cover him on the ground as she pushed him in between two cars in the curb," Williams told the TV station. "All she could think about was her other three boys — where are they at?"

Police got to Taylor after about five minutes. Her three other sons, lost in the chaotic scene, became stuck behind a barricade at a hotel near a parking garage where officers engaged in a standoff with a suspect for several hours, Taylor's sister told the AP.

The boys were reported to be OK.

"She's not so much worried about the gunshot wound she has on her leg," Williams told WFAA.

"We're watching the news in the hospital room, and all she can do is say, 'Lord, be with those families of those police officers.'"