Father: ‘My little love is now flying high with the angels above’
10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza identified by her father as victim in Uvalde shooting
From CNN’s Melissa Alonso
The father of one of the children killed in Tuesday’s school shooting has identified his daughter as 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza.
Angel Garza took to Facebook early Wednesday morning to share that his daughter had been killed in the shooting at her elementary school.
“Thank you everyone for the prayers and help trying to find my baby. She’s been found. My little love is now flying high with the angels above. Please don’t take a second for granted. Hug your family. Tell them you love them. I love you Amerie jo. Watch over your baby brother for me,” said the father.
The post came hours after Angel’s original post asking for help in finding the girl in the wake of the shooting. “I don’t ask for much or hardly even post on here but please It’s been 7 hours and I still haven’t heard anything on my love. 💔 Please fb help me find my daughter.”
France’s Macron denounces Texas shooting as “cowardly attack”
From CNN’s Xiaofei Xu in London
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his condolences over the Texas elementary school shooting, calling it “a cowardly attack.”
“Children and teachers were murdered in a cowardly attack in their Texas school,” Macron said in a tweet. “We share the shock and grief of the American people, and the rage of those who are fighting to end the violence.”
Pope Francis says his “heart is broken” over shooting
From CNN’s Hada Messia, James Frater and Xiaofei Xu
Pope Francis expressed his condolences over the Texas school shooting tragedy and sent his prayers to the victims and their families during today’s morning weekly audience.
“My heart is broken over the mass shooting at the elementary school in Texas,” he said.
The Pope also called for stronger gun controls and commitment so that “such tragedies can never happen again.”
Other European leaders, including the prime ministers of Slovakia, Ireland and Finland, are also sending their condolences today.
“I was deeply saddened by the news from Texas, where lives of children were taken in a murderous rampage,” Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger said.
Meanwhile, Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin called the shooting “an appalling and shocking tragedy” and offered his “heartfelt sympathies” to families of the victims.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin also sent her thoughts to the families of the victims.
“My heart goes out to all who lost their children and loved ones during the mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas,” Marin said.
German and Spanish leaders send their condolences to Texas shooting victims’ families
From CNN’s Xiaofei Xu in London and Al Goodman in Madrid
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez separately expressed their condolences over the Texas school shooting.
“Our thoughts are with the injured and the bereaved of the victims of this inconceivable massacre for which hardly any words can be found,” Scholz said in a tweet.
Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez shared on Twitter a video of the emotional speech given by Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
Some context: Before Tuesday’s game in Dallas, Kerr told reporters “basketball questions don’t matter” right now, referring to the mass shooting, adding, “When are we going to do something?”
Analysis: As deadly school massacre unfolds in Texas, few signs of common ground in Washington
Analysis from CNN’s Maeve Reston
The nation faced yet another horror on Tuesday after a lone 18-year-old gunman entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, with two assault rifles and killed at least 19 children and two adults, snatching the lives of innocent elementary school students before he was killed by law enforcement.
It was a chilling reminder of how little progress America’s leaders have made in stemming the tide of gun violence since the 2012 massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
It was also the second mass shooting in less than two weeks after a different 18-year-old gunman trafficking in White supremacist theories killed 10 Black Americans in Buffalo.
In a nation where mass shootings are now a weekly, and sometimes a daily occurrence, the flags at the White House and across the country were lowered to half-staff by the time President Joe Biden returned home from a trip to Asia to address a grieving nation.
It was a role he has filled too many times.
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Ukrainian President Zelensky expresses condolences to families of Texas shooting victims
From CNN’s Sophie Jeong
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed condolences to family members and relatives of children who were killed in the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday
“I would like to express my condolences to all of the relatives and family members of the children who were killed in an awful shooting in Texas,” Zelensky said, speaking through a translator, via videoconference at a breakfast event moderated by Fareed Zakaria in Davos.
Zelensky further acknowledged 21 people had been killed, including 19 children, adding “this is terrible to have victims of shooters in peaceful time.”
4th-grade teacher identified as a victim of Texas school mass shooting
From CNN’s Jose Lesh, Amanda Jackson and Chris Boyette
Eva Mireles, a fourth-grade teacher, was killed Tuesday in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, her aunt told CNN.
Although authorities haven’t publicly identified any of the victims, Lydia Martinez Delgado said her niece was killed.
Delgado also gave a statement to CNN affiliate KSAT.
“I’m furious that these shooting continue, these children are innocent, rifles should not be easily available to all. This is … my hometown a small community of less than 20,000,” she told KSAT.
“I never imagined this would happen to especially to loved ones. … All we can do is pray hard for our country, state, schools and especially the families of all.”
According to Mireles’ profile on the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District website, she had been an educator for 17 years.
In her off time, she enjoyed running, hiking, biking, and spending time with her family, according to the website.
Scenes of anguish as families asked to give DNA samples to match with victims of the school shooting
From CNN’s Nicole Chavez in Uvalde
Less than two miles away from Robb Elementary School, where at least 19 children and two adults were killed by a mass shooter on Tuesday, the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center has become the epicenter for families looking for their children.
For more than 12 hours, families gathered in silence outside the center — which was serving as a polling place for the runoff election on Tuesday — waiting for updates.
At least four families told CNN that parents had been asked for DNA swabs to confirm their relationship with their children and instructed to wait for an hour for an answer.
A father, who had just received the news that his child was dead, fought back tears as several of his cousins embraced him.
A few yards away, a grandmother who had driven from San Antonio said she would not stop praying for her 10-year-old granddaughter as they waited for the results of the DNA swabs.
Inside the civic center, city workers were handing out pizza, snacks and water to families. Some parents waited in silence or were sobbing quietly as a group of children sat on the floor playing with teddy bears. Later, a group of local pastors and chaplains arrived to offer their support to the families.
Zinna Aguilera, a 61-year-old bookkeeper who lives in front of the elementary school, said she first learned about the shooting when a friend called her, asking if her granddaughter stayed home on Tuesday.
“It’s sad. You would have never imagined that this was going to happen in Uvalde, Texas. I’ve lived here 32 years, I went to this school, my sisters, my brothers, my grandkids, my daughters, everybody. If you lived in this area, you went to this school,” Aguilera says.
People in this largely Hispanic neighborhood sat outside their homes after the shooting, some with their families while others gathered with neighbors.
“We’ve been in this neighborhood forever, We have cousins, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews who live in the same streets or within a couple of blocks,” Aguilera said.
Across the street from the school, Adolfo Cruz waited for word about his 10-year-old granddaughter.
The 69-year-old air conditioning contractor answered calls from worried family members and friends while watching local and state law enforcement officers walk inside the school building.
Cruz, a cancer survivor, said he couldn’t lose hope but questioned how no school resource officers were able to stop the shooter from walking into the campus.
“Where were they (officers)? How did he get across the school fence?” Cruz said.
Adela Martinez and her husband Paul Martinez, a former city council member and former furniture store owner, spoke about the grief spreading across this town of 16,000 people.
“We are like a big family here. You can expect something like this (shooting) in big cities like New York, but in Uvalde? If this happened here, now I believe it can happen anywhere,” Adela Martinez said.
Analysis: Gun legislation is stalled in Congress. Here’s why that won’t change anytime soon
Analysis from CNN’s Paul LeBlanc
Tuesday’s shooting at a Texas elementary school, which has left at least 19 children and two adults dead, marked another instance of a uniquely American tragedy.
The shooting is the latest entry in the long history of gun violence in the United States. Before Tuesday, there had been at least 39 shootings in K-12 schools, colleges and universities in 2022, resulting in at least 10 deaths and 51 injuries.
While proposals to overhaul gun laws — such a ban on assault-style weapons or high-capacity magazines — face steep odds at the federal level, there are some areas of bipartisan agreement. Whether that’s enough to break congressional gridlock is yet to be seen.
Read the full analysis:
Source: https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/texas-elementary-school-shooting-05-25-22/h_eb0fca681339e0cf418084a885b91763
