PASADENA, Texas – Peacefully sleeping with his 3-month-old son beside him, 26-year-old Daniel McClain couldn’t have imagined what would happen to him this past Sunday night.
Pasadena police investigators said McClain had been watching "Sunday Night Football" at a sports bar when suddenly a woman was being attacked in the parking lot of the Daddy O’s Sports Bar on Spencer Highway.
Immediately, family members said, McClain jumped in with a bouncer at the bar to protect the young woman and was stabbed over and over again by Michael Adrian Loya.
McClain died later at the hospital.
Loved ones said McClain paid for his bravery with his own life.
“The next thing you know, he’s on the ground being stabbed multiple times across the face, across the chest and body, and his life is lost at the hospital,” said Erica Vega, McClain's cousin.
McClain was a maintenance engineer who had planned to marry his girlfriend soon. He leaves behind a 3-month-old boy, Charles, and was going to celebrate his son’s 4-month birthday on Wednesday.
Family members say McClain always said exactly what was on his mind and was always willing to protect the helpless.
Heroic, his family said, is the word that best describes his life and the way he lived it.
“You can’t say it in any other way, heroic is it. That’s what he was. He is an amazing person with a big heart and the way he went proves it,” Vega said.
Loya was charged with murder. According to online court records, he was released from jail on $50,000 bond.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help McClain's girlfriend and her son.