The children at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, were two days away from their summer break when Tuesday's massacre unfolded.
They had visited the zoo and participated in a gifted-and-talented showcase, recent posts on the school's Facebook page showed. Tuesday was awards day, according to the calendar, and pupils were invited to wear a nice outfit and fun shoes as part of a “footloose and fancy” theme.
But at 11:43 a.m., a note was posted on the Facebook feed: “Please know at this time Robb Elementary is under a Lockdown Status due to gunshots in the area. The pupils and staff are safe in the building,” it read.
Then came a second message: “There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary. Law enforcement is on site.”
School administrators asked parents to stay away. The school serves about 570 children in second through fourth grades, nearly 90% of them Hispanic.
The details that came next were devastating: an 18-year-old gunman had opened fire at the school, killing 19 children and two adults, officials said.
Messages poured in from around the world, offering prayers and expressing outrage at yet another U.S. mass shooting.
Mourners attend a prayer vigil in Houston for victims of the school shooting that left at least 19 children dead at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas earlier that day on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. The attack in a rural town west of San Antonio was the deadliest American school shooting since the massacre at Sandy Hook a decade ago. (Mark Felix/The New York Times)
“Our hearts are breaking for the families that have been affected by this evil,” Susan Vanderwier of Indiana wrote on the school's Facebook page.
The school district said the elementary school, where the student mission statement is “Live. Learn. Love. Lead,” would remain closed for the final days of the school year.
Family grieves teacher killed
Eva Mireles on Tuesday went to a job she seemed to love, teaching fourth grade in the small Texas town of Uvalde, but she never came home, murdered along with 19 pupils and another teacher in the latest mass shooting to plague U.S. schools.
Mireles, who was trained in bilingual and special education, worked at Robb Elementary School, where a teenager killed them all in a hail of gunfire before being killed himself by police officers.
Mireles taught fourth grade children, generally 9 or 10 years old, her cousin Cristina Arizmendi Mireles said on Facebook.
“My beautiful cousin! Such a devastating day for us all! My heart is shattered into a million pieces,” Arizmendi Mireles said.
In a short biography posted on the school district's website, Mireles had written she had “a supportive, fun, and loving family” comprised of her husband, her college graduate daughter, and “three furry friends.”
Her husband, Ruben Ruiz, is a police officer at the school district's police force, the agency investigating the massacre.
“I love running, hiking, and now you just might see me riding a bike!!” Mireles wrote on the website.
Her aunt, Lydia Martinez Delgado, grieved for her niece in a Facebook post, asking for prayers for her family and the entire town of Uvalde. The community, about 80 miles (130 km) west of San Antonio, has about 16,000 residents, nearly 80% of them Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census data.
“I'm furious that these shootings 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. I never imagined this would happen to especially loved ones,” Martinez Delgado said in a statement.
All we can do is pray hard for our country, state, schools, and especially the families of all,” the statement said.
NBA Warriors coach calls for gun control
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr refused to talk about basketball at a pre-game news conference on Tuesday and instead called for stricter gun control after the killing of at least 18 children and an adult in a Texas school shooting.
Authorities said an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at an elementary school in south Texas, about 80 miles (130 km) west of San Antonio, before he apparently was killed by police officers.
A visibly shaken Kerr, who has been an advocate of tighter gun laws, said he would not discuss the Warriors' Eastern Conference finals game against the Dallas Mavericks.
“Any basketball questions don't matter ... ,” Kerr told reporters.“In the last 10 days, we've had elderly black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, we've had Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California.
“Now we have children murdered at school. When are we going to do something? I'm so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there.”
Kerr also criticised lawmakers for blocking efforts to advance gun control measures.
Small, rural, often Republican-led states where gun ownership is widespread have disproportionate influence in the U.S. Senate, where a supermajority of 60 votes is needed to advance most legislation in the 100-seat chamber.
“Do you realize that 90% of Americans, regardless of political party, want background checks, universal background checks? 90% of us,” Kerr said.
“We are being held hostage by 50 Senators in Washington who refuse to even put it to a vote, despite what we the American people want. They won't vote on it because they want to hold on to their own power.”
U.S. President Joe Biden has asked Congress to require new background checks for gun buyers and ban military-style“assault” weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines.
Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James also called for change.
“These are kids and we keep putting them in harms way at school,” he wrote on Twitter. “Like seriously 'AT SCHOOL' where it's suppose to be the safest! There simply has to be change!”
