Her mother, Jacqueline Franco, arrived at Lincoln Hospital Monday afternoon to visit her hero daughter.
"If it wasn't for my daughter, who knows if that little girl would still be alive," said Franco.
She was asked whether that's the type of daughter Sarah is.
"Yes," said Franco. "She is considerate of everyone, she is very sweet and she always thinks of everyone before herself."
The weekend's toll includes three fatalities on Sunday, and another three on Saturday.
The NYPD has arrested a 29-year-old suspect in a triple shooting in Brooklyn where the gunman opened fire on police.
Kevon Brown was arrested Monday on attempted murder and assault charges.
Police say Brown shot a 25-year-old and a 42-year-old both in the torso at around 3:20 p.m. on Sunday. Police say when he was approached by police who heard the shots, he fired on the officers who were not struck and did not return fire.
The two days of bloodshed represents 5 percent of this year's roughly 440 shootings.
That total is still a 23 percent decline from the total of 574 shot through this time last year.
Nearly half the weekend's shootings rang out in Brooklyn. Four more took place in Queens. There were eight in the Bronx. Manhattan had one. Six of the shootings were fatal.
Another shooting left an 11-year old girl paralyzed. Tayloni Mazyck of Bedford-Stuyvesant, shot in the spine Friday night, will never walk again.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke to her father Monday.
"I think this weekend just underscores how important these issues are and we are doing everything we can to keep driving crime down to record lows and pushing Congress to adopt common sense gun laws," said Bloomberg.
Back in the Bronx, Sarah Rivera's family members praise her heroism, but they also understand: she could have been killed.
"I was on the floor crying when I saw her. It was hysterical. She wanted to save the little girl's life," said Sarah's sister, Ashley Franco.
