BSS/AFP :
The traumatized Texas town of Uvalde began on Tuesday laying to rest the 19 young children killed in an elementary school shooting that left the small, tight-knit community united in grief and anger.
The body of Amerie Jo Garza, 10, arrived in a silver coffin and was carried into Sacred Heart Catholic Church by six pallbearers wearing white shirts with red carnations.
Mourners, some of them dressed in the purple color of Robb Elementary School across the street, gathered outside the church ahead of the funeral amid a strong police presence.
Another girl, Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, also 10, was due to be laid to rest later Tuesday, with further ceremonies scheduled through the coming weeks.
A funeral for one of the two teachers killed, 48-year-old Irma Linda Garcia, will take place Wednesday, according to a local CBS News affiliate. As the community mourned, anger has seethed over the response of police.
Officers have come under intense criticism since the May 24 tragedy over why it took well over an hour to neutralize the gunman-the “wrong decision,” Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) director Steven McCraw has admitted.
ABC news on Tuesday cited multiple law enforcement sources saying that the Uvalde police department and school district had stopped cooperating with the DPS’s investigation into the handling of the attack.
The great-grandfather of one of the young victims berated police near the memorial of white crosses surrounded by wreaths and bouquets of flowers.
“They could tell me ‘Oh, we made a mistake. We made the wrong decision’. But my great-granddaughter is not coming back to me,” said a distraught 78-year-old Ruben Mata Montemayor. When President Joe Biden visited the town, about an hour’s drive from the Mexico border, over the weekend, shouts of “do something!” rang out from the crowd.
The shooting-the latest in an epidemic of gun violence in the United States that came less than two weeks after 10 people died in an attack at a Buffalo grocery store by a young gunman targeting African Americans-has spurred desperate calls for gun reform.
“There’s no words to describe (it),” said Esther Rubio, who traveled from nearby San Antonio to attend the wake on Monday for Amerie Jo.
