WWALDE, Texas (AP) – Anxious families gathered at a local civic center and turned to social media to mourn and desperately ask for help in finding missing children, as the death toll from a horrific shooting at a school was mostly school in Texas grew to at least 19 students. Authorities say the shooter also killed two adults.
By nightfall, the names of those killed in Tuesday’s attack on Rob’s primary school in the town of Uwalde had begun to appear. A man in the city center walked away, sobbing into his phone. At the back of the building, a woman stood alone, crying and screaming in her phone, shaking her fist and stamping her feet.
Manny Renfro said he received word on Tuesday that his grandson, 8-year-old Uzia Garcia, was among those killed.
“The cutest boy I’ve ever known,” Renfro said. “I’m not saying that just because he was my grandson.”
Renfro said Uzia last visited him in San Angelo during spring break.
“We started throwing football together and I taught him to pass models. He was such a fast little boy and he could catch a ball so well, “said Renfro. “There were certain plays that I would call he would remember and he would do it exactly as we trained.
Fourth-grade teacher Eva Mireles, 44, was remembered as a loving mother and wife.
“She was adventurous. I would definitely say those wonderful things about her. She will definitely miss a lot, “said Amber Ibara, a 34-year-old relative from San Antonio.
Ibara prepared to donate blood for the wounded and thought about how no one had noticed the shooter’s problems in time to stop him.
“For me, it’s more about raising mental health awareness,” said Ibara, a wellness coach who attended the primary school where the shooting took place. “Someone may have seen a dramatic change before something like this happened.”
Lisa Garza, 54, of Arlington, Texas, mourns the death of her cousin Xavier Javier Lopez, who is looking forward to summer swimming.
“He was just a loving 10-year-old boy, just enjoying life without knowing that this tragedy would happen today,” she said. “He was very cheerful, he loved to dance with his brothers, his mother. It has just affected us all. ”
She also complained about what she described as weak gun laws.
“We need to have more restrictions, especially if these children are not in the right state of mind, and all they want to do is just hurt people, especially innocent children who go to school,” Garza said.
Pictures of smiling children, their families begging for information, were posted on social networks. For the year, the classes ended and there was a topic every school day. It was Footloose and Fancy on Tuesday. The students had to wear nice clothes with fun or luxurious shoes.
Adolfo Cruz, a 69-year-old air conditioning repairman, stayed out of school Tuesday night, awaiting information about his 10-year-old great-granddaughter, Elijah Cruz Torres, whose whereabouts remain unknown to the family.
Cruz went to the scene after receiving a tearful and terrifying call from his daughter shortly after the first reports that an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at the school. As he waited outside the school on Tuesday night, his family was in the hospital and downtown, waiting for any potential words about her condition.
Chroes called waiting the hardest moment of his life.
“I hope she’s alive,” Cruz said. “They’re waiting for an update.”
Federico Torres is waiting for news about his 10-year-old son Rogelio. He told KHOU-TV that he was at work when he learned of the shooting and rushed to the school.
“They sent us to the hospital, to the city center, to the hospital, and here again, nothing, not even in San Antonio,” Torres said. “They don’t tell us anything, just a photo, wait, I hope everything is fine.
Torres said he was praying “my son would be found safe … Please, if you know anything, let us know.”
The Hillcrest Memorial, across the street from Rob Elementary School, said in a Facebook post Tuesday night that it would help the families of the victims of the shooting at no cost to the funeral.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Jamie Stengel contributed from Dallas.
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