CNN
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Eliahna “Ellie” Garcia would have turned 10 over the weekend, however as a substitute of on the brink of sing her “Happy Birthday,” her family was getting ready for her funeral.
Eliahna was amongst the 19 college students and two lecturers who had been killed by a gunman of their adjoining elementary faculty school rooms on May 24. The tragedy has devastated the city of Uvalde, Texas, the place households proceed this week to bury their youngsters who died in the taking pictures.
On Sunday, Eliahna’s family held a visitation and on Monday morning they are going to collect once more at a funeral mass to honor the little lady who loved cheerleading and basketball and dreamed of turning into a trainer.
Local residents have shortly shaped a bedrock of assist for the survivors and victims’ grieving households, together with the Garcia family. Some companies have begun having their workers put on the coloration purple and go out purple goody baggage to point out assist for these grieving Eliahna, who beloved the coloration.
But as the group rallies round the grieving, frustrations stay excessive over officers’ lack of transparency about the horrific day. Officials have repeatedly changed the narrative of what happened in the assault, together with key particulars on how the gunman entered the faculty, why police delayed confronting the gunman and the way lengthy it took for authorities to kill him.
Former Uvalde metropolis councilman Rogelio Muñoz instructed CNN Sunday he believes errors had been made throughout the police response, however a number of folks ought to share the duty for legislation enforcement choices made that day.
“The truth is often gray. It’s not black and white. You have the state authorities who responded who are throwing the local police under the bus. … The officers who responded were good honorable people who, in retrospect, made a mistake in judgment during a heightened situation,” Muñoz mentioned.
Muñoz, who has no direct information of what occurred throughout the taking pictures, mentioned he believes Uvalde School District Police Chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo is a kind of who share the duty for the legislation enforcement response. Arredondo is the one who made the resolution to not instantly enter the classroom the place the shooter was holed up with youngsters and lecturers, the Texas Department of Public Safety has mentioned.
“Arredondo made mistakes that day, but he’s not the only one,” Muñoz instructed CNN, stating DPS officers additionally responded to the scene.
Arredondo was just lately sworn into the metropolis council seat beforehand held by Muñoz. The faculty police chief has largely stayed out of the public eye since final week and instructed CNN he won’t be releasing additional info whereas victims’ funerals are ongoing.
“We’re going to be respectful to the family,” Arredondo mentioned. “We’re going to do that eventually. Whenever this is done and the families quit grieving, then we’ll do that, obviously.”
The lack of clear particulars surrounding legislation enforcement’s response might impede efforts to stop future assaults on colleges, according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde.
“How in the world are we going to be able to do anything if we can’t figure out what happened in that building in those 40 minutes?” Gutierrez mentioned in an interview with CNN Friday.
The security and restoration of surviving youngsters in Uvalde has turn into an pressing precedence for fogeys and native officers.
Students won’t return to the Robb Elementary campus subsequent faculty yr and preparations are being made to accommodate them at different colleges, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Hal Harrell introduced final week.
The plan was reiterated at a faculty board assembly Friday evening, however dad and mom had been left with no clear solutions on the board’s plans to deal with the aftermath of the taking pictures.
Angela Turner, a mom of 5 youngsters in Uvalde who misplaced her niece in the faculty taking pictures, was outraged at the lack of a transparent end result.
“We want answers to where the security is going to take place. This was all a joke,” she mentioned after the assembly. “I’m so disappointed in our school district.”
Turner won’t permit her youngsters to return to high school till they really feel secure, she mentioned, including her 6-year-old little one instructed her, “I don’t want to go to school. Why? To be shot?”
Robb Elementary joins a rising internet of communities shaken by gun violence. So far this yr, there have been 246 mass shootings in the US, in accordance with the Gun Violence Archive, which, like CNN, defines a mass taking pictures as one through which 4 or extra individuals are shot, not together with the shooter.
The family of a student killed in the bloodbath and a trainer who survived the horrors of that day are each demanding info from the producer that made the firearm utilized by the gunman, in accordance with courtroom filings obtained by CNN.
The mom and father of 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza, who was killed in the taking pictures, have written separate letters to Daniel Defense, the firm that manufactures the AR-15-style rifle utilized in the assault.
Attorneys for Amerie’s mom, Kimberly Garcia, requested that Daniel Defense “preserve all potentially relevant information” associated to the taking pictures, together with “all physical, electronic, and documentary evidence potentially relevant to” the firm’s advertising and marketing of AR-15-style rifles, in accordance with a letter obtained by CNN.
Alfred Garza, Amerie’s father, additionally demanded details about the producer’s advertising and marketing methods, significantly to youngsters and teenagers, in addition to any communications the firm had with the shooter,
“My purpose for being now is to honor Amerie Jo’s memory,” Garza mentioned in a information launch about the letter. “She would want to me to do everything I can so this will never happen again to any other child. I have to fight her fight.”
Emilia Marin, a trainer at Robb Elementary, filed a petition Thursday to depose Daniel Defense, a courtroom submitting reveals. The pre-suit petition doesn’t accuse the producer of wrongdoing however is investigating whether or not Marin has any foundation to file a declare towards the firm.
“We need to hold these people accountable,” Marin’s lawyer, Don Flanary, instructed CNN, including her authorized group has no plans to sue the faculty, police or faculty district.
Through their requested deposition, Marin’s attorneys are searching for information surrounding the taking pictures, the possession and sale of the weapon utilized by the gunman, the loss of life and harm brought on by the gunman’s use of a Daniel Defense AR-15-style rifle. They are additionally looking for details about “Daniel Defense’s pattern of marketing of its products in a manner associating firearms, and minors, by positing on social media,” in accordance with the petition.
Daniel Defense has not replied to a number of requests by CNN for remark.