Willy Joseph Cancel was killed Monday while working for a military company that sent him to Ukraine, his mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN. Cancel had recently worked as a penitentiary officer in Tennessee and had previously served in the Marines from 2017-21, and joined the service the same year he graduated from high school. Cabrera said her son had registered to work with the private military contractor shortly before the start of fighting in Ukraine on February 24. He told CNN he had agreed to go to Ukraine. “He wanted to go because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for and he wanted to be a part of it to limit it there so that he would not come here, and that maybe our American soldiers should not be involved in that,” he said. Cabrera said her son’s body was not found. “They did not find his body,” he said. “The men who were with him are trying to grab his body or kill him, but we would like him to come back to us.” She said her son flew to Poland on March 12 and entered Ukraine shortly afterwards. He said he was fighting alongside men from different countries. Cancel also served as a volunteer firefighter in New York and left behind a 7-month-old son, according to a fundraising website created by a man who identifies himself as his father. His wife received the call informing her of his death on Tuesday, the page reported. The father wrote that Cancel decided in early March to go to Ukraine because he wanted to defend innocent people. Cancel graduated from the Newburgh Free Academy in New York in 2017, the school district said. He participated in the Training Corps of Junior Reserve Officers while he was in High School. Cancel worked in a private jail in Tennessee from May 2021 to January, said Matthew Davio, a spokesman for private jail company CoreCivic. Trousdale Turner Correctional Facility, a medium-sized facility, is located approximately one hour northeast of Nashville. “As a prison officer, Mr. Cancel has served his state and community by helping to maintain a safe, secure environment where inmates can participate in life-changing re-entry programs. “We are grateful for his service and we are saddened by his loss,” Davio said in a statement. While in the Marines, Cancel served as a rifleman and was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He was acquitted of misconduct after being convicted of violating a lawful general order, said Marine Corps spokesman Major Jim Stenger. It had not developed into a war zone, Stenger said. No further details were given on the conviction for misconduct. The United States has not confirmed reports of Cancel’s death. On Friday, the State Department said it was aware of the reports and was “closely monitoring the situation,” but could not comment further “due to privacy concerns.” “We reiterate that US citizens should not travel to Ukraine because of the active armed conflict and the detention of US citizens in Ukraine by Russian security officials, and that US citizens in Ukraine should leave immediately if they are “It is safe to do so using any commercial or other privately available ground transportation options,” the State Department said in a statement. Cancel’s widow, Brittany Cancel, told Fox News that she was leaving a young son behind and that she saw her husband as a hero. “My husband died in Ukraine,” said Brittany Cancel. “He went there wanting to help people, he always felt that this was his main mission in life.” She said her husband volunteered to go to Ukraine, but also had ambitions to become a police officer or firefighter. “He had dreams and ambitions to become a police officer or join the FDNY,” he told Fox. “Of course when he learned about what was happening in Ukraine, he was willing to volunteer.” Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are believed to have been killed in the war. Other non-combatants from the U.S. have been killed, including a documentary that was killed when his vehicle came under fire at a checkpoint and a man was killed while waiting in line for bread.
Drew reported from Durham, North Carolina. Contributed by AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington and Associated Press Writers Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia. Allen G. Breed in Hubert, North Carolina. Kristin Hall in Murray, Kentucky. Karen Matthews in New York. and Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky.
