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Another Neighbor Of Rescued Cleveland Women Says He Helped

Charles Ramsey became famous overnight for his role in helping rescue Amanda Berry from the Cleveland house where she and two other abducted women were held for nearly a decade.

But Charles Ramsey did not act alone. He may not have even been the first to offer help. Angel Cordero, another neighbor, claims he arrived there before Ramsey and forced open the door.

Mr. Cordero was interviewed in Spanish by Stephanie Ramirez of the ABC station in Cleveland:

In the interview, Cordero does not seem at all upset about Ramsey getting the vast majority of the attention. But he does clearly state, "I helped her. And I was there first." (There is one difference between Cordero's comments in Spanish and the English-language translation in the television report. The voiceover says, "[Ramsey] arrived after she was outside with the girl." What Cordero specifically said was "el moreno llego después," which translates exactly as "the dark-skinned man arrived afterwards." Cordero was referring to Charles Ramsey.)

Cordero's last response to the reporter was, "I did what had to be done. Imagine how happy that family feels today to have their daughter safe."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Luis Clemens is NPR's senior editor for diversity. He works across the newsroom to build a broad foundation of diverse experts and sources in order to enhance NPR's news coverage.