Neighbor Angel Cordero says that he, not overnight media sensation Charles Ramsey, first helped Amanda Berry break out of the West Cleveland home where she and 3 others were being held captive.

Image
© WEWS Angel Cordero says he was the first to help Amanda Berry break out of the West Cleveland home in which she and three others were being held captive.
A second neighbor of the West Cleveland home where three captive women were freed Monday says he, not Charles Ramsey, was the one who helped the trio break out of the ramshackle house of horrors.

"I helped her and I was first," neighbor Angel Cordero told local NewsChannel5, referring to Amanda Berry, the 27-year-old hostage who signaled for help.

"Ramsey arrived after she was outside with the girl," Cordero told the reporter in Spanish.

"But the truth who arrived there, who crossed the street, who came and broke the door, it was me."

Cordero said he and other neighbors helped Ramsey break down the door of the Seymore Ave. home.

Image
© Scott Shaw /The Plain Dealer /LandovCharles Ramsey shot to fame this week after he gave several interviews recounting how he busted down the door to free Berry and the others.
Another neighbor, Wintel Tejeda, said Berry made her now-infamous 911 call from his home.

Ramsey became America's newest and unlikeliest hero after he gave several colorful interviews recounting how he busted down the door to free Berry and the others.

The plucky dishwasher gave a face-to-face interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday night and even received a shout-out from McDonald's on Twitter.

Ramsey said he was in his house chowing on a Big Mac when he first heard Berry's screaming as if "a car had hit a kid," he said.

Ramsey's own background isn't so squeaky clean, it was learned Tuesday. He has three domestic violence convictions that resulted in jail time, The Smoking Gun reported. The most recent, in 2003, ended with his wife filing for divorce. Ramsey has prior convictions for drug possession, trespassing and receiving stolen property.

Image
© Emmanuel Dunand /AFP/Getty Images A missing person sign displaying portraits of Amanda Berry ,one of the three women held captive for a decade, stands in front of her sister's house on Tuesday in Cleveland.
Ramsey told a dispatcher he first thought Berry was the victim of a domestic violence situation.

There was a woman in distress," Ramsey told WKYC. "So why turn your back on that? My father would've whooped the hell out of me if had found out that I cowered out."

Cordero and Tejeda said they aren't jealous of the attention Ramsey has received.

"I did what had to be done. I helped her," Cordero told NewsChannel5.

"They have their daughter, daughters are safe over there."