The 9-year-old boy who died 'defending his mother' in the Texas shooting was friends with the suspect's child, his family says

• The 9-year-old Texas shooting victim was friends with the suspect's child, an uncle said.
• The young boy died "defending his mother" who was also killed in the shooting, his dad said.

The youngest victim in the deadly Texas shooting — a 9-year-old boy — died "defending his mother" and was friends with the shooting suspect's son, according to family members.

Survivor Wilson Garcia told NBC News that his young son, Daniel Enrique Laso, ran to his mother after she was fatally shot at the family's home in rural Cleveland, Texas, on Friday night.

"My son died because he wanted to protect his mother, because seeing her fallen, he took off running to where she was. And he [the suspect] had no compassion, to see a boy crying for his mother," Garcia told the news outlet.

He added, "My son, he died because he was defending his mother. When he saw her on the floor, he ran towards her, and that man had no compassion. A kid crying for his mom."

Garcia's son and his wife, 25-year-old Sonia Argentina Guzman, were among the five victims who were killed in the "almost execution-style" shooting, police have said.

The shooting unfolded after Garcia asked the shooting suspect, his neighbor, to stop firing an AR-15-style rifle near Garcia's family home because his newborn baby was trying to sleep.

"He told us he was on his property, and he could do what he wanted," Garcia told the Associated Press on Sunday after a vigil.

The uncle of Garcia's son who survived the shooting by hiding in a closet with his wife and child told NBC News that his nephew was friends with the suspect's child.

Ramiro Guzman said his nephew "always would take his bicycle to where the school bus would stop," and "sometimes" he and the suspect's child "went together."

"They always went on their bicycles together. They were like friends. And he killed him," Guzman said of the suspect, identified as 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa Perez-Torres, who remains on the run and wanted by authorities.

Guzman called Daniel "a great kid" who was like a second son to him.

Garcia previously said that his family called 911 five times shortly before the gunfire started.

But by the time authorities arrived at the scene, the gunman had fled.

Guzman recalled to NBC News that each time he called 911 a dispatcher told him that deputies were already at the scene, but they weren't.

"It was half an hour after we first started calling," Guzman said, according to the news outlet. "I wonder if they had come in those 30 minutes this wouldn't have happened. Maybe my family would still be alive."