Cancel, a former US Marine, in response to his mom, signed as much as work for the personal navy contracting firm on high of his full-time job as a corrections officer in Tennessee shortly earlier than the battle in Ukraine broke out on the finish of February, Cabrera stated. When the battle started, the corporate, in response to Cabrera, was trying to find contractors to combat in Ukraine and Cancel agreed to go, Cabrera stated.
“He wished to go over as a result of he believed in what Ukraine was preventing for, and he wished to be part of it to comprise it there so it did not come right here, and that perhaps our American troopers would not need to be concerned in it,” Cabrera informed CNN in a telephone interview.
Cancel flew to Poland on March 12 and crossed into Ukraine someday over March 12 and 13, Cabrera stated.
The group of males Cancel was preventing alongside have been from “all completely different international locations,” Cabrera stated.
Cabrera was informed by those that notified her of her son’s dying that his physique had not been discovered.
“They have not discovered his physique,” she stated. “They’re making an attempt, the lads that have been with him, nevertheless it was both seize his physique or get killed, however we might love for him to return again to us.”
A State Division official stated they’re “conscious of those stories and are intently monitoring the state of affairs.”
“Attributable to privateness concerns, we now have no additional remark,” the official added. “We as soon as once more reiterate US residents shouldn’t journey to Ukraine because of the energetic armed battle and the singling out of US residents in Ukraine by Russian authorities safety officers, and that US residents in Ukraine ought to depart instantly whether it is protected to take action, utilizing any business or different privately accessible floor transportation choices.”
Cancel leaves behind a 7-month-old child and a spouse, Cabrera stated. Cancel was residing in Tennessee earlier than he left for Ukraine, and is initially from Orange County, New York, stated Devin Tietze Jr., Cancel’s brother-in-law.
Cabrera stated Cancel “at all times put everyone forward of himself.”
“He was only a actually considerate particular person. He at all times put everyone forward of himself even when conditions have been so anxious,” Cabrera stated of her son. “He at all times stored everyone laughing and calm. He was the person that stood up when everyone else stood again.”
Tietze stated Cancel was the “sort to combat for what’s proper whatever the end result,” when requested why Cancel had determined to hitch the combat in Ukraine.
“He believed wholeheartedly this should not have occurred and he wished to go assist the folks in Ukraine,” Tietze stated in a telephone interview.
Cabrera stated Cancel “wished” to do the navy contract work.
“It was one thing that he believed in his coronary heart, that was the best factor. He was the kind of man who at all times stepped up when everyone else stepped again, and there have been lots of males who have been like that that have been with him,” Cabrera stated.
Earlier on Thursday the British authorities confirmed a UK citizen had been killed in Ukraine and stated officers are “urgently looking for additional data” on one other who’s lacking, a UK Overseas Workplace spokesperson informed CNN.
“We are able to affirm {that a} British nationwide has been killed in Ukraine and are supporting their household,” they stated.
CNN’s Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.
