UVALDE, Texas (AP) – The bad guys gathered at a Catholic church on Wednesday to say goodbye to Robb Elementary School teacher Irma Garcia, who died in the shooting at Uvalde Elementary School, Texas. , and her husband, Joe, who died two days later. of a heart attack.
Nineteen children and two teachers — Garcia and his partner Eva Mireles, 44 — were killed on May 24 when an 18-year-old gunman burst into his classroom. The litany of visits, funerals and burials began on Monday and will run until mid-June.
On Wednesday at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, two black hearses carrying the coffins of the Garcias arrived in a procession led by police and civilian motorcycles. Covered with flowers, the two closed chests were carried by porters from the dry land in front of a phalanx of policemen in uniforms and priests in white robes.
Some sobbed during the service in which Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller thanked Irma García for her dedication. He listed the names of students killed several times during the homily.
“Because you were there with them,” he said. “You did what you would have done with your own children. You cared for them to the last breath.”
Irma, 48, was finishing her 23rd year as a teacher at Robb Elementary. In a letter posted on the school’s website earlier this year, Garcia told her students that she and Joe had four children: a Marine, a college student, a high school student, and a seventh-grader.
Most of the readings during Wednesday’s service and homily were in English, with García-Siller offering a few words in Spanish.
“We’re all hurting,” he said. “In the midst of so much, please, please, people need consolation, people need you.… We all promote a culture of peace.”
Joe, 50, collapsed and died after leaving flowers at his wife’s memorial. The couple had been married for 25 years on June 28. His obituary noted that he and Irma “began their relationship in high school and it became a beautiful and kind love.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, who attended the Garcia funeral, said in a statement that America “must unite as a country against this cycle of senseless violence, take immediate action to protect the our children and make sure every child and every educator feels safe in our schools. “
Another funeral on Wednesday was for 10-year-old Jose Flores Jr., also at the Sacred Heart. He made the honor roll and received a certificate on May 24, hours before the shooting. His father told CNN that his son loved baseball and video games and that he was “always full of energy.”
On Tuesday afternoon, hundreds flocked to remember Amerie Jo Garza, a smiling fourth-grader whose funeral service was the first since the massacre. The funeral of 10-year-old Maite Rodriguez was Tuesday night.
At Amerie’s funeral, grieving Erika Santiago, her husband, and their two children wore purple shirts adorned with images of the victims. He described Amerie as “a nice girl who smiled a lot” and was “so humble and charismatic but full of life.”
Investigators are still searching for answers about how police responded to the shooting, and the U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing law enforcement actions.
The blame for the unbearable delay in killing the gunman, although outside parents asked police to hurry up and the children panicked 911 from inside, was attributed to the district police chief school, Pete Arredondo. The director of state police said last week that Arredondo made the “wrong decision” not to enter the classroom, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and that the children were not at risk.
On Wednesday, Arredondo told CNN he spoke regularly with Texas Department of Homeland Security investigators, contradicting claims by state law enforcement that he has stopped cooperating.
Authorities say the gunman, Salvador Ramos, legally bought two weapons shortly before the school attack: an AR-15-style rifle on May 17 and a second rifle on May 20. He had just turned 18 and was allowed to buy weapons. under federal law. Ramos was killed by law enforcement.
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