The grief-wrenched Texas town of Uvalde has begun burying its dead from the bloodiest US school shooting in a decade, with funerals for a pair of slain 10-year-old girls who were among the 19 students and two teachers killed one week ago.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Separate memorial services, both closed to the media, were held hours apart for Amerie Jo Garza, remembered for her love of swimming and art, and her classmate Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, an honour student who dreamed of becoming a marine biologist.
The two girls were among 19 students, aged nine to 11, who were shot to death last Tuesday along with two teachers by an 18-year-old gunman who burst into their fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School and opened fire with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle.
Funerals for the remaining victims are planned during the next two weeks.
One service on Wednesday will be a joint memorial for Irma Garcia, 48, one of the two teachers killed, and her husband, Jose Garcia, 50, who died of a heart attack two days after the shooting. The couple, who were high school sweethearts, are survived by four children.
The laying to rest of those who perished in the attack one week ago began as Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a formal disaster declaration he said was designed to "accelerate all available state and local resources to assist the Uvalde community".
The chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police force, Pete Arredondo, has come under heavy criticism for his role as on-scene commander of local law enforcement's handling of the shooting.
According to Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officials, it was Arredondo who decided against immediately storming the classroom where the shooter opened fire.
As many as 19 officers waited outside the classroom for nearly an hour as frantic schoolchildren cowering inside repeatedly called 911 pleading for help, authorities said last week. A US Border Patrol-led tactical team ultimately burst in and killed the gunman.
The DPS said investigators had determined that the rear school door through which the gunman entered had been closed by a teacher before the shooter arrived but had failed to lock behind her, contrary to a DPS account last week that a teacher had left the door propped open.
The shooting, the deadliest at a US school since 26 people were slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, came 10 days after 10 people were killed by an 18-year-old gunman at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The back-to-back massacres have reignited a national debate over federal and state gun laws.
Texas law allowed the Uvalde shooter to purchase an AR-15-type weapon on his 18th birthday, a week before the massacre.
US President Joe Biden has joined many fellow Democrats in calling for new gun restrictions, something Republicans have successfully held off in recent years.
Australian Associated Press
