A production assistant on TV talk show The View was shot in the stomach during an angry stand-off in a New York deli yesterday – all because she took too long ordering her food.
Three armed thugs fired at Lourdes Guillen, 25, as she tried to protect her cousin, Juan Medina, 24 – who had already been shot twice.
Hosts from the TV show have praised Guillen, who still has a bullet lodged in her stomach, as a hero.
This weekend, a member of our “View” family almost paid the ultimate price for her act of heroism,’ said Whoopi Goldberg.
The incident took place at a 24 hour bodega in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood at 5am on Sunday morning.
Miss Guillen, who works behind the scenes on the hit daytime show, had been celebrating Mr Medina’s last day in the city with a third cousin, Ramali Rodriquez.
The men began hasseling the trio after deciding they were taking too much time ordering their food.
One began fighting with Mr Medina , who is visiting the city from his home in the Dominican Republic, and then pulled out a gun and opened fire – hitting him twice in the stomach.
Doctors at Manhattan’s Bellevue hospital say she is in stable condition, her cousin, Mr Medina is in critical condition after undergoing a four hour operation.
View panelist Barbara Walters said she had spoken to Guillen this morning and that Guillen had told her that would step in front of her cousin again.
‘Lourdes bravely stepped between them and pleaded with the gunman to stop the violence. He responded by shooting her in the stomach,’ Walters said.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck added that Guillen had applied pressure to her cousin’s wounds and said she believe Guillen’s decision to put herself in the line of fire ‘saved both their lives.’
