Story highlights A man Annika Dean did not know told her, "I will protect you"

She said she was right in the path of the Fort Lauderdale airport shooter

(CNN) As the bullets flew, Annika Dean cowered behind a luggage cart, praying her two sons wouldn't have to grow up without a mother.

There was no place to hide. Had she tried to run, she would have been directly in the path of the gunman who had opened fire at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

That's when Tony Bartosiewicz, a man Dean didn't know, shielded her and said, "I will protect you."

"He was my guardian angel," Dean told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on "New Day" on Monday, as she recounted last week's harrowing experience.

"I knew that I would be safe" -- Airport attack survivor discusses the moment a man shielded her from the shooter https://t.co/AbnvUYbXai — New Day (@NewDay) January 9, 2017

Esteban Santiago confessed to planning the shooting on Friday afternoon that killed five people and wounded several others. The mayor said the attacks were random.

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