Uwalde, Texas (AP) – Gilbert Limones and his colleague at a funeral home were among the first people to be shot by a gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school. He spends most of his days helping prepare for the funerals of young victims and comforting broken families.
On Sunday, Limones replaced his role as a funeral companion with that of a preacher trying to comfort the community and explain the horror that cannot be answered easily. He is also the pastor of Casa El Shaddai, a small church less than a mile from where the massacre took place.
“When tragedies happen, all the enemy needs is a ship of desire,” Limones told the 35-year-old congregation, meeting for the first time in an old restaurant turned into a place of worship.
Although Limonez did not suffer any physical injuries, he said he was exhausted and guilty that he could not do anything to stop the bloodshed. He spends hours in tears or prayer, sometimes both at the same time.
However, Limones tried to find the words to calm his part of the highly Spanish-speaking city of 16,000, which is sad, confused and emotionally harsh almost two weeks after the massacre. Satan has brought confusion and hurt, he said, but believers have protection.
“Church, you are armed with this,” he said, picking up the Bible. This was Limones’ first sermon after the murder; he was too busy working at the funeral home to serve last week.
Limones, who preaches in Spanish and English, has hair with salt and pepper and a wide smile in happy moments. It was lively in front of the congregation, which meets just one right turn and another left away from Rob Elementary School and Hillcrest Memorial. The two are sitting on opposite sides of Geraldine Street, near where 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother in the face before the school attack.
On the morning of May 24, Limones and Cody Briseno, another Hilcrest funeral director, heard about the crash. A gray Ford pickup truck had stopped in a concrete ditch behind the school and opposite the funeral home, and they soon saw a man dressed in black by the passenger’s door, according to the search warrant.
Authorities said Limones and Brisseno went to the man, but withdrew when they learned he was loading a rifle. An archer identified as Ramos fired at them several times.
Limonez said he remembered hearing someone shout for a weapon and then turned around to hear “poop, poop, poop” shot behind him. The shooter was about 150 feet (46 meters) away, but somehow missed, Limones said.
Limones said he escaped as quickly as possible, shrinking at every shot and calling police as soon as possible. “I was shouting, I was shouting at 911,” he said.
But Ramos aimed his gun at the school’s exterior and then entered the building through a door that authorities say did not lock when a teacher closed it. “I saw everything,” Limones said.
Inside, 19 fourth-graders were fatally wounded along with two teachers while police lined up in the hallways waiting for more than an hour to stand up and kill Ramos. Although questions remain about the police response and what exactly happened at the school, the victims’ funerals began last week, with Hillcrest leading five of them.
So, despite his patience with the killer, Limones returned to work at the family funeral home, which is small and quickly overloaded. It requested donations, including wipes and cleaning supplies, and received help from gravediggers outside Uwalde.
Jason Horn, a volunteer funeral director from Longview, Texas, describes the work of shifts with others at Hillcrest to prepare young victims for burial.
“We had five cases that were extremely difficult and all five families were able to see their babies and they all decided to continue with the coffins open,” he said in a video of the effort. Simply compiling obituaries took time: recordings and photos of the dead make up most of the three pages in Thursday’s edition of Uvalde Leader-News.
The happiest of Robb Elementary’s victims are recovering. Fourth-grade teacher Arnulfo Reyes, who was hospitalized with gunshot wounds, posted a public message on social media last week thanking their friends for their prayers and love.
“I have a long journey ahead of me, but I know I will overcome it. My thoughts and prayers are with the families who continue to grieve for their loved ones, “said Reyes, who runs a small factory for gifts and gifts when he is not teaching.
Others deal with a mixture of emotions. After a meeting of the school board on Friday night, Angela Turner, the aunt of the shooting victim Maranda Mathis, shook with anger as she spoke about the effect the shooting had on her family.
“I have a fourth-grader who was in the next room who is terrible. My niece died. I have a 6-year-old child who just told me, “I don’t want to go to school. Why be shot? I have one who goes to junior high school. I have a third grader, “Turner said. “We want answers about where the security will take place. It was all a joke. I am so disappointed with our school district. ”
Another mother, Dawn Pointevent, said her 7-year-old son, who was due to transfer to Rob’s primary school next year, now fears school and wants to stay on his current campus.
“What he knows right now is that when he goes to another school, he will be shot by a bad person,” she said.
It is not clear where Poitevent’s son may end up, but it will not be in Robb, who Superintendent Hal Harel said he would not reopen.
In his sermon, Limones said he believed the victims were in a better place, and told of the hundreds of people who came to the city with donations of food, water, prayers and more. Uwalde, he said, “is surrounded by love.”
As citizens become seriously ill and seek answers, he said, they must come together. God’s justice will eventually prevail.
“Don’t you think the shooter should talk to our father about what he did?” Said Limones.
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