The manager, Luis Cruz, was working on his day off on Sunday, filling in for five no-show employees, when his store nearly became the site of a tragedy.
“It was fate,” Mr. Cruz said in a video interview on Wednesday from the supermarket, Super King, El Rey del Ahorro (The King of Savings). Typically, he would be inside working on administrative tasks, he said, but because the store was short-staffed, he was outside helping move items.
Security camera footage taken outside the supermarket shows Mr. Cruz, 34, moving a pallet of toilet paper when the toddler runs out of the entrance and toward a busy thoroughfare with six lanes of traffic. Her speed immediately drew Mr. Cruz's attention, he said.
“I saw the mother reaching out her hand, but she doesn’t quite catch her,” Mr. Cruz said, speaking in Spanish. “So, at that moment I decided to quicken my pace because the danger is imminent, and I see a car coming.”
