On May 24, 2022, a gunman opened fire inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers
Alexandria Rubio usually liked to go home early after the annual end-of-year awards ceremony at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. But this year, on May 24, the 10-year-old fourth-grader decided to stay at school and celebrate with her family later. So her parents—Kimberly, a reporter at the Uvalde Leader-News, and Felix, a Texas state patrol deputy—kissed “Lexi” goodbye after watching her earn the school’s Good Citizen award along with a spot on the honor roll. “We said that we loved her,” recalls Kimberly, 33, “and that we would pick her up after school.”
Those would be the last words the Rubios would ever share with their daughter. At 11:33 a.m., 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos entered the school through an open back door and began firing more than 100 rounds inside two fourth-grade classrooms, killing 19 children and two teachers. Officer Rubio, 35, who was off duty, put on his uniform and raced to the school. He arrived to a scene of such unspeakable horror that DNA tests were needed to identify the victims: “I don’t want to say what I saw.”
The massacre is the deadliest school shooting since 26 children and educators were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School nearly a decade ago, and it came just 10 days after another 18-year-old shooter killed 10 people at a grocery story in Buffalo. As the nation—and the world—reacted with grief and outrage, the close-knit community in Uvalde was plunged into anguish. “When is enough going to be enough?” asks Vincente Salazar III, 45, whose 11-year-old daughter Layla was killed. “How many times does it have to keep happening?” Adds Layla’s grandfather Vincente Salazar Jr.: “We have 19 babies that passed away. They’re innocent children.”
For the young survivors who witnessed the nightmare, the trauma is beyond measure. Inside one of the classrooms with the shooter, Miah Cerrillo, 11, covered herself in a classmate’s blood and played dead as bullets flew.
Meanwhile, 9-year-old Adalynn Garza shook amid the crack of gunfire for 78 agonizing minutes while multiple children called 911 begging for help as law enforcement waited outside. (The delay in entering “was a wrong decision,” Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said on May 27.)
Inside her class, recalls Adalynn, “I just sat down and stayed at a Level Zero. That means no talking and stay quiet.” In their own words, first responders, survivors and loved ones share their stories.
Berlinda Arreola, 49, GRANDMOTHER OF AMERIE JO GARZA, 10
Amerie got up that morning; she kissed her brother [Zayne, 3], because that’s their routine. She went to school. We live literally across the street from school, and my daughter-in-law called to tell me that she heard gunshots. My son [Angel Garza] and I work at the same clinic. We took off [toward] the school.
The place was surrounded by cops by the time we got there. We had SWAT getting there. The U.S. Marshals. Border Patrol. Texas Rangers. Little by little, everyone was showing up, and they weren’t doing anything. We were frustrated. They finally started breaking windows to classrooms and getting children out. And so my son, being a certified medical assistant, was trying to aid those who were injured until the EMTs got there.
This one little girl ran out, and she was saturated in blood. My son was like, “Where are you hurt?” And she’s like, “I’m not; I’m not; it’s not my blood.” And Angel goes, “Are you sure?” Because the blood was overwhelming; it was all over her. And she said, “No. It was my best friend, Amerie. She’s not breathing.” So that’s when we found out that [Amerie] had gotten shot. And we just lost it. Nobody could give us answers.
[At the hospital] one of Amerie’s classmates was there, and that’s when we were told she got shot because she was trying to call 911. She was a hero trying to save her friends. And he just shot her.
Related: Uvalde School District Votes Unanimously to Fire Police Chief 2 Months After Mass Shooting
‘Rey,’ AN EMT AT THE SCENE
Our job was to transport the victims who were clinging to life or had minor injuries. One girl who I was stabilizing, she was so tiny. There was blood everywhere. She had been shot in the chest and the shoulder, and she had suffered a lot of damage. I don’t think you can understand how much damage is done by a gun like that on a little kid who is 70 lbs. We were trying to stop the bleeding, but it wasn’t going well. She was bleeding out.
We had about an eight-minute trip to the hospital, and I didn’t want her to die in the ambulance. I looked at her and I was like, “She’s just a baby. Who would shoot a baby?”
As we pulled away, people were trying to look into the back windows [of the ambulance] to see who she was. Everyone wanted to see, because they wanted to make sure it wasn’t their kid. A father came up to me and asked in Spanish if it was a boy or a girl inside [the ambulance]. He was looking for his son, and when I told him that it was a girl, he just ran to another ambulance. So much desperation. It was awful.
Vincente Salazar III, 45, FATHER OF LAYLA, 11
Whoever was there from the school, they told us that no children had been harmed. And we were like, “Well, who is being harmed?” Because there’s ambulance after ambulance. They lied to us the whole day. We were there from 1 o’clock in the afternoon to 11 o’clock at night. All these hours had passed. When the state troopers got there, I saw it in their faces—just saw grown men crying. That tells you what you need to know. It wasn’t until about 9 o’clock that they pulled everybody into the room and told us that if you’re still here, there’s a strong possibility that your child didn’t make it.
Related: How a Uvalde Mother Turned Her Grief into Action: ‘I Want Children to Have a Chance to Grow Up’
Christopher Salazar, 33, UNCLE OF JOSE MANUEL FLORES JR., 10
Jose really wanted to go home with me the night before, but his dad, Jose, said he had to go to school the next morning. And I was like, “All right, I’ll pick him up after school then.”
[After the shooting] we were looking for Jose Jr. all day. The cops kept saying he was on the bus. Finally, we saw all the kids getting off [a bus]. We were praying that he would get off. I saw a little kid, he looked exactly like Jose, with a cap on. It wasn’t him. That was the last bus.
[Jose’s dad] went to the hospital, because they said there were more kids there. I showed up, and they told both of us that he had passed away, and that we couldn’t even see his body because it was too bad. It wasn’t a body for a dad and an uncle to see.
Miguel Cerrillo, 35, FATHER OF MIAH, 11, WHO SURVIVED
I was born and raised in Houston. I moved to Uvalde to work in the oil fields. Then I met my wife here, and I told her, “Hey, let’s go back to Houston.” I forgot which shooting happened, but [my wife] said, “We’re leaving. This is a big city. Let’s go back to Uvalde.” We never thought it would happen here.
There’s a video of me screaming for my daughter when I saw her coming out [of the school] covered in blood. I sleep two, three hours, and I’m up. I see it. I keep replaying it in my head.
Related: Families of Uvalde School Shooting Victims Announce $2M Settlement with City
Jose Cazares, 54, UNCLE OF JACKIE CAZARES, 10
I live in Shallowater, Texas, maybe about a six-hour drive from Uvalde. My younger sister called me and said there was an active shooter at Jackie’s school. So we called our prayer warriors to put up protection over the school. We asked for prayers that [the shooter] would change his mind. Shortly after, my brother [Javier, Jackie’s father] called me and he said, “She’s gone.”
It was just hard to believe that. I thought she was just injured. I didn’t think it was going to be fatal. My brother told me that when he heard the gunshots from his house, about five blocks away, he rushed over there. He really wanted to go in, but [law enforcement] wouldn’t allow him. They kept pushing him back. They were just standing there. And he was like, “Let me in! Do your job!” He told me, “Man, all I could think about is bullets hitting my baby.”
The police department could have done more, and the school could have done more to protect our kids. [Texas governor Greg Abbott] said he’d allocated half a billion dollars for school safety. That’s not enough. It’s a beautiful thing to see people coming together, but why can’t we get together like this all the time, instead of just on tragic occasions?
We’re a strong, God-fearing family. We do believe in forgiveness, but that part is pretty hard. My mom, my brothers and sisters are torn apart. They’re broken emotionally.
John Martinez, 21, NEPHEW OF TEACHER IRMA GARCIA, 46
I had a friend that I went to high school with. She lost two of her cousins [in the shooting], and she called me and said that one of her cousins was in my aunt’s arms when they found the body. My aunt, she died a hero trying to protect her students. I’m sure she would refer to them as her own kids. She really was a mom to them as well. She was trying to protect them just like any mother. That’s just the way she was.
Joe Flores, 55, NEIGHBOR OF TEACHER EVA MIRELES, 44
People cry, and they don’t know how to cry anymore. I’m just crying for them and crying for everybody. You just get tired of crying. It’s just too much to handle. Small children, the neighbor, just people looking for their families. They’re saying, “Baby, come home. I know you’re there. Come home.” They’re talking to the little girls who are deceased.
Related: Uvalde School Shooting: Remembering the Victims, 1 Year Later
Evelyn Espinosa, 36, MOM OF A THIRD-GRADER AT THE SCHOOL
[After being reunited with my son] he was so scared, and he was like, “Mama, Mama, Mama.” We hugged and I cried. I told him he was very brave. I do not want my son to go to school in America anymore. I want to go back home [to Mexico]. This is too dangerous. I can never sleep thinking of this. When I close my eyes, I will think of these children, I will think of my son, and I will not sleep. It will be too hard.
This story featured reporting by ELAINE ARADILLAS and ALEXANDRA ROCKEY FLEMING in Uvalde; and K.C. BAKER, CHRIS HARRIS, STEVE HELLING, DIANE HERBST and WENDY GROSSMAN KANTOR,Photograph by ILANA PANICHLINSMAN
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Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
