Robb Elementary School kids should have been celebrating the start of summer break on the first day of a happy week. Instead, the first two of the 19 students killed in a classroom were recalled at funeral visitations on Monday.
The funeral for 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza took place at Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home in Uvalde, Texas, immediately across from the elementary school where the students and two instructors were shot to death on Tuesday before the gunman was killed. Maite Rodriguez, a ten-year-old girl, had her visitation in the town’s second funeral parlour.
People in the southwestern Texas community will say their final goodbyes to the children and teachers over the next two and a half terrible weeks, one heartbreaking visitation, funeral, and burial after another. Investigators will demand answers about how police responded to the massacre, and lawmakers have stated that they will investigate what can be done to stop the country’s epidemic of gun violence.
Eleven children and their teacher, Irma Garcia, will be buried this week.
During the request of Amerie’s father, Angel Garza, some mourners at her visitation on Monday wore lilac or lavender purple colours, which were Amerie’s favorites. Many people brought purple flowers in with them.
For her tenth birthday, the little girl, who enjoyed drawing, had received a cellphone. During the assault on her fourth-grade classroom, one of Amerie’s friends told Angel Garza that she tried to contact the police on the phone.
Some of Maite’s family were among those who attended Amerie’s funeral. They were there for both, like many others.
Maite’s family donned green tie-dye shirts with a drawing of Maite with angel wings on them. They stopped at the ditch to view the metal gate that gunman Salvador Ramos slammed a pickup truck into before crossing a field and entering the school before heading inside the funeral home.
“How did he manage to walk for so long?” says the narrator. enquired Maite’s aunt, Juana Magaa
The shooting and the Hillcrest Memorial will be inextricably linked. Two men at the funeral home heard the truck smash and hurried to the accident scene after Ramos crashed it. They were shot at by Ramos. Both men were saved when he missed.
Eliana “Ellie” Garcia’s funeral will be held on June 6, the day after her tenth birthday. Her family had been planning a lavish birthday party for her grandmother this weekend. She had hoped for gifts relating to the Disney film “Encanto.”
Siria Arizmendi, her aunt, stated, “She adored that movie and talked about it a lot.”
Ellie was quiet even around her family, but she enjoyed watching movies and had been practising a routine for her quinceanera party — a girl’s 15th birthday celebration — with her older sister, despite the fact that it was still five years away, according to Arizmendi.
Ellie’s older sister is doing well, according to Arizmendi, who recognises that their family and others will face a long recovery.
“It’s simply so horrible for all the kids,” she expressed her sorrow.
Funeral directors, embalmers, and others travelled from all over Texas to assist. According to NBC News, Jimmy Lucas, head of the Texas Funeral Directors Association, brought a hearse and offered to drive, assist with services, or do whatever else he could. Given the damage caused by the shooter’s military-style gun, other arriving morticians were on hand to assist with facial reconstruction.
Governor Greg Abbott urged Texans to keep Uvalde in their thoughts during a Memorial Day event in Longview.
Abbott described what occurred at Uvalde as a “horrific act of evil.” “As Texans, we must unite to assist Uvalde in whatever manner we can.” It will take time to mend the trauma that the families in that area have experienced and continue to experience, but rest assured that we will not give up until Uvalde is restored.”
A review of law enforcement reaction was announced by the US Department of Justice on Sunday. Ramos was killed within the adjoining classrooms where he unleashed havoc, and it took police over an hour to execute him.
Officials disclosed Friday that students and instructors begged 911 operators for assistance many times as a police commander directed over a dozen policemen to wait in a hallway. According to officials, the commander believed the perpetrator was barricaded inside an adjacent classroom and that the attack was no longer underway.
The news sparked further questions about whether lives were lost as a result of agents’ failure to respond quickly enough to stop the gunman, who was killed by Border Patrol tactical officers.
Ramos bought two guns legally not long before the school shooting: an AR-style rifle on May 17 and another rifle on May 20. He had recently turned 18, making him eligible to purchase firearms under federal law.
President Joe Biden voiced some optimism on Monday, a day after visiting Uvalde and promising, “We will,” in response to protesters yelling, “Do Something,” that bipartisan support for tightening limitations on the high-powered guns used by the gunman might exist.
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“I believe things have gotten so horrible that everyone is becoming more rational, at least that’s my hope,” Biden told reporters before giving Memorial Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery to honour the nation’s dead soldiers.
Biden added, “The Second Amendment was never absolute.” “When the Second Amendment passed, you couldn’t buy a cannon.” “You couldn’t just go out and get a bunch of guns.”
Over the weekend, a bipartisan group of senators met to see if they could reach even a rudimentary agreement on gun legislation. Senator Chris Murphy, who is driving the push, said that encouraging state “red flag” laws to keep weapons away from people with mental health difficulties, as well as school security and mental health resources, were on the table.
The committee will meet again this week to try to reach an agreement before the 10-day deadline expires.
