Funerals begin: White gloves, small casket, overflow crowd
Ten-year-old girl remembered
UVALDE, Texas — A week after a gunman ran into a Texas grade school and started shooting, the first of 21 funerals began on Tuesday. Meanwhile, at least one family still hasn’t seen the body of their loved one.
Hundreds of mourners turned out for an afternoon Mass to remember Amerie Jo Garza. Six pallbearers wearing white shirts and gloves carried her small casket into Sacred Heart Catholic Church, which turned away several mourners after reaching capacity. Maite Rodriguez’s funeral was scheduled for later Tuesday at one of the funeral homes in Uvalde.
The two 10-year-old fourth graders were among 19 children and two teachers killed when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos burst into a classroom on May 24 and began firing a militarystyle rifle. Visitation for one of the teachers, 48-year-old Irma Garcia, also was Tuesday, along with visitations for children Nevaeh Bravo and Jose Flores Jr. Amerie loved purple, and Erika Santiago, her husband and their two children wore purple shirts adorned with images of the victims to Amerie’s funeral. Santiago described Amerie as “a nice little girl who smiled a lot,” and who was “so humble and charismatic but full of life.”
Santiago said her 10-yearold son, Adriel, watched in horror when the first images came out on the news after the shooting and he recognized his friends Amerie and Maite.
“It affected him so much,” Santiago said. “He told me he did not want to go to school fearing that could happen. He told me, ‘Mom, I just don’t feel safe.’”
Funerals will continue over the next two-and-ahalf weeks. Vincent Salazar’s 11-year-old daughter, Layla, has the last of the scheduled services — her visitation is June 15 with the funeral the following day. Salazar said the family likely won’t see Layla’s body until soon before the visitation.
“It’s strange because usually when somebody dies, these things happen in three or four days,” Salazar said. “It’s not something that goes on this long. I understand there were other children as well, but we’re just waiting to get her back. That’s all we’re focused on.”
Uvalde County Justice of the Peace Eulalio “Lalo” Diaz Jr. said the bodies of all 21 victims were sent to the medical examiner’s office in San Antonio for autopsies, which he said is standard for a major crime.
“Our thing is to have all the facts,” Diaz said. “Even though there is a deceased shooter and we probably won’t have a trial, we still need to have the facts.”
Diaz said the autopsies are complete. He declined to discuss preliminary results and said final reports will take three to four months.
Meanwhile, Diaz said, there simply isn’t enough space at Uvalde’s two funeral homes to keep all of the bodies, so many were sent to out-of-town funeral homes until services near. He said the Uvalde funeral homes are working with the families on when they can see the bodies. A message left at Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home wasn’t immediately returned. A woman who answered the phone at Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary declined an interview request.
“It’s mainly because of the number of victims,” Diaz said, asking: “Where do you store that many people?”
Investigators continue to seek answers about how police responded to the shooting.