To say that Uvalde (Texas) woke up this Wednesday, the day after the great tragedy, would be false. Uvalde did not sleep.
On a sultry day, many parents crowded into the civic center, and meeting point, with heavy hearts.
They were looking for news about the fate of their children, if they were among the 19 who lost their lives, along with two teachers, in the shooting at Robb Elementary School.
Sobbing could be heard from the street. Alfred Garza's family was gathered there when the police told them the worst news. Amerie Jo Garza, his 10-year-old daughter, was among the victims.
Employed at a used car shop, he was at lunch when Amerie's mother told him she couldn't pick up the girl. The school was closed due to an armed threat. He walked over to the scene and felt the chaos, with other parents trying to get to the school and patrol cars everywhere. He waited and waited in vain.
After 24 hours, the investigators begin to reveal how the tragedy unfolded, although they recognized that there are gaps. "We don't know the motive or what led to the shooting," said Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
What they did explain is that the action of Salvador Ramos, 18, began in his home, as announced on Facebook a while before. "I'm going to shoot my grandmother." Soon he reported: "I shot my grandmother." And then: "I'm going to shoot myself at the elementary school." He did so.
His 66-year-old grandmother, admitted in serious condition with a shot in the face, managed to regain strength and go out to ask for help. His grandson had already taken the pick-up vehicle, but his cries for help allow us to understand why some patrol cars followed Ramos.
After driving his car into the school fence, and despite the fact that the agents opened fire, the gunman entered the facilities through a back door. He shot those inside. There, in a single fourth-grade classroom, he left his 21 victims. Special agents who quickly arrived also tried to enter, but were repelled by the assailant. Three soldiers were injured. Border agents also appeared (due to the proximity of Mexico, many reside in this area). In the middle of the fire, the uniformed men tried to take children out of a window, until they finally "neutralized" the aggressor.
The United States is not at war, but in what other developed (or not) country do they leave their children at school and pick them up in a coffin. This is the question raised by a mother after the massacre in Uvalde, a small town in rural Texas, 130 kilometers from San Antonio, which has entered the history of this particular infamy.
“We all know each other here,” says Emily, a mother and grandmother who once attended this school. Uvalde is a city of about 20,000 inhabitants and predominantly Hispanic.
"This affects us all," laments that woman. Other neighbors demonstrate that communion by showing videos where dead children continue to run.
The two teachers are Eva Mireles, with 17 years of experience, and Irma García, with 23 years at the center. She had four children. According to their relatives, the two died trying to protect their students. They received posthumous treatment of heroines.
"I'm furious," Lydia Martínez Delgado, Mireles' aunt, told the microphones. “These guys are innocent. Rifles should not be allowed to be so easily obtained. I never imagined this would happen here,” she says.
Belinda Irene Arreola, Amerie Jo's grandmother, assured that both authorities and survivors confessed to her that Ramos told the students: "You are going to die." Her granddaughter tried to pick up the mobile phone to call an emergency and the gunman shot her. Her table companion and good friend was completely bloodied and traumatized.
Ramos, an isolated young man who had evolved towards violence, calculated his action well. The attack took place this Tuesday, just a couple of days before the end of the school year. So parents and relatives, instead of preparing for the holidays, were met with the unimaginable. Unimaginable? In the US it is not.
In his loneliness, the gunman had given up continuing in the institute near the school. A few days ago he gave himself two rifles for his 18th birthday. He posed with them on the networks and undertook a suicide mission, which consists of dying by killing.
Again the same story. It seemed that there would never be a new Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and seven adults died ten years ago in December. In neither case is the gunman counted.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott appeared this Wednesday in Uvalde, surrounded by the major forces of conservatism. In addition to announcing that one of the police officials lost a daughter in the shooting, Abbott said that Ramos had no prior history or been diagnosed with mental illness.
Point and followed, the governor gave his verdict. "The big problem in this community is mental problems," he said. Weapons? Not at all. In Chicago, where there are restrictions, more people die than in Texas.
His Democratic opponent, Beto O'Rourke, who had sneaked in, interrupted the event. "You do nothing, this is a matter of weapons, not mental health."
They kicked him out of the room.
