UVALDE, Texas (AP) – Gilbert Limones and a co-worker at a funeral home were among the first to be shot dead by the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school. He has spent most of his days helping to prepare for the burial of young victims and consoling shattered families.
On Sunday, Limones changed his role as a funeral attendant to a preacher trying to comfort a community and explain the horror of challenging easy answers. He is also the pastor of The Shaddai House, a small church less than a mile from where the butchery took place.
“When tragedies happen, all the enemy needs is a volunteer ship,” Limones told his congregation of about 35, meeting for the first time in an old restaurant that has become a place of worship.
Although Limones did not suffer any physical injuries, he said he is exhausted and exhausted through the guilt of not being able to do anything to stop the bloodshed. He has spent hours in tears or prayer, sometimes both at the same time.
Still, Limones tried to find the words to calm his part of a heavily Hispanic city of 16,000 people sad, confused and raw with emotion almost two weeks after the massacre. Satan caused confusion and hurt, he said, but the faithful have a defense.
“Church, you’re armed for that,” he said, holding up a Bible. It was Lemons’ first sermon since the massacre; he was too busy with work at the funeral home to serve last week.
Lemons, who preaches in both Spanish and English, has salt and pepper hair and a wide smile in happy times. He was cheered on in front of the congregation, which is just one turn to the right and another to the left of Robb Elementary School and Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home. The two sit on opposite sides of Geraldine Street, near where 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother in the face at home before the school attack.
On the morning of May 24, Limones and Cody Briseno, another Hillcrest funeral attendant, heard a vehicle crash. A gray Ford van had been resting in a concrete ditch behind the school and in front of the funeral home, and they soon saw a man dressed in black next to the passenger door, according to a search warrant.
Authorities said Limones and Briseno walked towards the man but withdrew when they realized he was putting a magazine in a rifle. A shooter identified as Ramos shot them several times.
Lemons said he remembers hearing someone scream at a gun and then turn around, only to hear the “pop, pop, pop” of the shots behind him. The shooter was about 46 meters (150 feet) from him, but somehow failed, Limones said.
Limones said he escaped as soon as he could, got angry at every shot, and called police as soon as he could. “I was calling, calling 911,” he said.
But Ramos turned the gun on outside the school and then entered the building through a door that authorities say he did not close when a teacher closed it. “I saw it all,” Limones said.
Inside, 19 fourth-graders were mortally wounded along with two teachers, while police in the hallways waited more than an hour to confront and kill Ramos. While questions remain about the police response and what exactly happened at school, the victims’ funerals began last week, with Hillcrest leading five.
So despite her relationship with the killer, Limones returned to work at the family funeral home, which is small and quickly overflowing. He made a request for donations, including handkerchiefs and cleaning supplies, and received help from funeral homes outside of UValde.
Jason Horn, a volunteer funeral director in Longview, Texas, described working in shifts with others at Hillcrest to prepare the young victims for burial.
“We had five cases that were extremely difficult and all five families were able to see their babies and they all decided to go ahead with the coffins open,” he said in a video about the effort. Simply compiling obituaries took time: the writings and photos of the dead accounted for most of the three pages of Thursday’s edition of the Uvalde Leader-News.
Robb Elementary’s most fortunate victims are recovering. Fourth-grader Arnulfo Reyes, who was hospitalized with gunshot wounds, posted a public message on social media last week thanking his friends for their prayers and love.
“I have a long journey ahead of me, but I know I will overcome it. My thoughts and prayers are with the families who continue to afflict their loved ones,” said Reyes, who runs a small plant and gift shop when he is not teaching.
Others are dealing with a mixture of emotions. Following a school board meeting Friday night, Angela Turner, the aunt of the shooting victim Maranda Mathis, shuddered with anger as she talked about the effect the shooting has had on her family.
“I have a fourth grader who was in the next room and is terrified. My niece died. I have a 6-year-old boy who said to me, ‘I don’t want to go to school. Why, to be shot? I have one for high school. I have a third grader, “Turner said. “We want answers about where security will be done. This was all a joke. I’m very disappointed with our school district.”
Another mother, Dawn Poitevent, said her 7-year-old son, who was scheduled to move to Robb Elementary next year, is now afraid of school and wants to stay on his current campus.
“What he knows now is that when he goes to another school he will be shot by a bad man,” he said.
It is unclear where Poitevent’s son could go, but it will not be Robb, who Superintendent Hal Harrell has said will not reopen.
In his sermon, Limones said he believes the victims are in a better place and recounted the hundreds of people who have come to the city with donations of food, water, prayers and more. Uvalde, he said, “is surrounded by love.”
Although the people of the village are suffering very badly at the moment and are looking for answers, he said, they must unite. God’s justice will finally prevail.
“Don’t you think the shooter has to talk to our dad about what he did?” said Lemons.
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