May 28, 2022 GMT
https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-shootings-texas-education-a5b21cface8837e830ed2f9bb4bbcf3c
UVALDE, Texas (AP) – Nineteen children were looking forward to a summer full of Girl Scouts and football and video games. Two teachers were closing a school year that they had started with joy and that had had so much promise. The 21 people died Tuesday when an 18-year-old gunman barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School in the city of Uvalde, southwest Texas. Some families have been willing to share their stories with The Associated Press and other media. Others demanded privacy. Here are their names.
Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo, 10 years
Her aunt pointed out that Nevaeh’s first name is heaven written upside down. In a Facebook post, Yvonne White described Nevaeh and her friend Jailah Silguero as “our angels.”
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Jacklyn Cazares, 9 years old
Javier Cazares said his daughter was someone who would give him the “back shirt” to help someone. “He had a voice,” he said. “He didn’t like bullies, he didn’t like being bullied by children. All in all, full of love. He had a big heart.” Annabell Rodriguez, also a victim, was Jacklyn’s second cousin.
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Makenna Lee Elrod, 10 years
Makenna’s father asked on Tuesday if he could go to the local funeral home to look for his daughter because he feared that “she may not be alive,” KTRK television reported. His family later asked for privacy.
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Jose Manuel Flores Jr., 10
Jose’s parents told CNN that the 10-year-old was helpful in the home and loved his younger siblings. “He was very good with babies,” his mother said. His father told CNN that Jose loved baseball and video games and that he was “always full of energy.” A photo taken at school on Tuesday shows him smiling and proudly holding a certificate to show that he has done the honor roll.
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Eliahna Garcia, 10 years
Eliahna’s relatives remembered her love for the family. “She was very happy and very outgoing,” said her aunt, Syria Arizmendi, a fifth-grader at Flores Elementary School in the same district. “He liked to dance and play sports. He was very familiar, he liked being with his family. “
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Irma Garcia, 48
Irma Garcia was finishing her 23rd year as a teacher at Robb Elementary School. In a letter posted on the school’s website earlier this school year, Garcia told her students that she had been married for nearly a quarter of a century and that she and her husband, Joe, had four children: a Marine, a Marine. university. student, a high school student and a seventh grader. She told the students that she loved barbecue, listening to music, and doing country cruises with her husband. Joe Garcia died of a heart attack Thursday, according to a nephew.
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Uziyah Garcia, 10
Uzziyah’s grandfather called him “the sweetest kid I’ve ever met.” Manny Renfro said he last saw Uziyah when the boy came home during the spring break. “We started throwing football together and I was teaching him passing patterns. A kid so fast and he could catch a ball so well, “Renfro said.” There were certain works that I would call him that he would remember and that he would do exactly as we practiced. “
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Amerie Jo Garza, 10 years
Amerie liked to paint, draw, and work with clay. “She was very creative,” said her grandmother, Dora Mendoza. “She was my baby. Whenever I saw flowers I drew them.” For her 10th birthday, Amerie received her first cell phone. Her father, Angel Garza, recalled that her face “lit up with the happiest expression.” Garza said Amerie’s friend told her that Amerie had tried to call police on her phone before being shot.
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Xavier Lopez, 10
Xavier was looking forward to a summer of swimming. “He was just a loving child … who just enjoyed life, not knowing that this tragedy would happen,” said his cousin, Liza Garza. “She was very bubbly, she loved to dance with her siblings, her mother. That just happened to all of us. “
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Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10 years
Carmelo Quiroz’s grandson had asked to be allowed to join his grandmother on Tuesday while accompanying his great-granddaughter’s kindergarten class to the San Antonio Zoo. But, he said, the family told Jayce it made no sense to skip school so near the end of the year. Besides, Jayce liked school. “That’s why my wife hurts so much, because she wanted to go to San Antonio,” Quiroz told USA Today. “I was so sad I couldn’t go. Maybe if I had gone, I’d be here.” He died with his cousin, Jailah Nicole Silguero.
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Tess Mata, 10 years
Faith Mata told The Washington Post that her sister loved TikTok dance videos, Ariana Grande, the Houston Astros and having curly hair.
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Maranda Mathis, 11 years old
The mother of a close friend described Maranda as “very loving and very talkative.” He told the Austin American statesman that his daughter and Maranda had gone to the same classes and that Maranda would ask for her hair to be done like her daughter’s.
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Eva Mireles, 44
In a post on the school’s website earlier this year, the fourth-grader said she had been teaching for 17 years. Mireles loved to run and go hiking. She said she and her husband, a school district police officer, had an adult daughter and three pets.
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Alithia Ramírez, 10 years old.
Alithia Ramírez liked football very much and she liked to draw a lot. Her father Ryan Ramirez’s Facebook page includes a photo, now shown around the world, of the girl in the multicolored T-shirt announcing that she had “no digits” after 10 years. The same photo was reposted on Wednesday without words, but with Alithia with angel wings.
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Annabell Rodriguez, 10
Polly Flores told the New York Times that her niece Annabell Rodriguez was an honor student and very close to her second cousin Jacklyn Cazares.
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Maite Rodriguez, 10
After a difficult time with the Zoom classes during the pandemic, Maite Rodríguez made the honor roll for the As and Bs straight this year and was recognized at an assembly on Tuesday, said her mother, Ana Rodríguez. Maite especially enjoyed physical education, and after she died, her teacher sent a message to Ana Rodríguez telling her that she was very competitive in kickball and that she ran faster than all the boys. Her mother described Maite as “focused, competitive, smart, bright, beautiful, happy.” Maite wanted to be a marine biologist, and after researching a program at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, she told her mother that she wanted to study.
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Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, 10
Lexi’s mother, Kimberly Rubio, posted on Facebook that her daughter was honored for getting all A grades and received a good citizen award at school ceremonies shortly before the shooting. The fourth grader was a softball and basketball player who wanted to be a lawyer. Lexi’s father, Felix Rubio, is attached to the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office. The couple told CNN that he was among the law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting.
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Layla Salazar, 11 years old
Layla’s father said she loved running and swimming, dancing to TikTok videos, and playing games like Minecraft and Roblox with friends. He said he won all six races and hurdles in the school’s last three annual field days. He said that every morning, as he drove her to school in his van, he would play “Sweet Child O ‘Mine” by Guns N’ Roses and they would sing.
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Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10 years
Jailah’s mother told Univision with tears that her daughter did not want to go to school on the day of the shooting and thought that she might have guessed that something would happen. Jailah and her cousin, Jayce Luevanos, died in the classroom.
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Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10
Adolfo Torres told the Associated Press that his granddaughter, Eliahana, died in the shooting. KIII television reported that Eliahana was to play the last softball game of her season that day. Team members knelt during a moment of silence to remember Eliahana and the other victims.
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Rojelio Torres, 10
Rojelio Torres’ mother, Evadulia Orta, told ABC News that her son was a very intelligent and loving child. “I’ve lost a piece of my heart,” he said.
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This story has been corrected to show that Uziyah Garcia was 10 years old, not 8. He also corrects the spelling of another victim’s first name. Her name was Maranda Mathis, not Miranda Mathis.
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