May 28, 2022 GMT
https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-shootings-texas-education-a5b21cface8837e830ed2f9bb4bbcf3c
WWALDE, Texas (AP) – Nineteen children are looking forward to a summer filled with girls scouts and football and video games. Two teachers ended a school year that began with joy and that promised one. They are the 21 people killed Tuesday when an 18-year-old gunman barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom at Rob Elementary School in the town of Yuwalde in southwest Texas. Some families are willing to share their stories with the Associated Press and other media. Others demanded confidentiality. Here are their names.
Nevaeh Alice Bravo, 10
Her aunt noted that Nevaeh’s first name was the sky written back. In a Facebook post, Yvonne White described Nevaye and her friend Jaila Silgero as “Our Angels.”
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Jacqueline Casares, 9
Javier Casares said his daughter is someone who will give “the shirt off his back” to help someone. “She had a voice,” he said. “She didn’t like bullies, she didn’t like children being kidnapped. Overall, full of love. She had a big heart. ” Anabel Rodriguez, also a victim, was Jacqueline’s second cousin.
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Makena Lee Elrod, 10
Makena’s father asked on Tuesday if he could go to the local funeral home to look for his daughter because he feared she “might not be alive,” KTRK television reported. Her family later sought solitude.
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Jose Manuel Flores Jr., 10
Jose’s parents told CNN that the 10-year-old was helpful in the house 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 “was always full of energy.” A photo taken at school on Tuesday shows him smiling and proudly holding a certificate to show he has made the honorary roll.
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Eliana Garcia, 10
Eliana’s relatives remembered her love for her family. “She was very happy and very sociable,” said her aunt Syria Arizmendi, a fifth-grade teacher at Flores Elementary School in the same area. “She loved to dance and play sports. She was great in the family, she was happy to be with the family. “
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Irma Garcia, 48
Irma Garcia was finishing her 23rd year as a teacher at Rob 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 college student, a high school student and a seventh grader. She told the students that she loves barbecuing, listening to music and cruising the countryside with her husband. Joe Garcia died of a heart attack on Thursday, according to his nephew.
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Uzzia Garcia, 10
Uzziah’s grandfather called him “the cutest little boy I’ve ever known.” Manny Renfro said he last saw Uzzia when the boy came to his home during the spring break. “We started throwing football together and I taught him to pass models. He was such a fast little boy and he could catch a ball so well, “said Renfro. “There were certain plays that I would call he would remember and he would do it exactly as we trained.
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Amery Joe Garza, 10
Amery loved to paint, paint and work with clay. “She was very creative,” said her grandmother, Dora Mendoza. “She was my baby. Whenever she saw flowers, she painted them. For her 10th birthday, Amery received her first cell phone. Her father, Angel Garza, recalled that her face “just shone with the happiest expression.” Garza said Ameri’s friend told him that Ameri had tried to call police on her phone before she was shot.
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Xavier Lopez, 10
Xavier was looking forward to the summer of swimming. “He was just a loving … little boy, he was just enjoying life without knowing that this tragedy was going to happen,” said his cousin, Lisa Garza. “He was very cheerful, he loved to dance with his brothers, his mother. It has just affected us all. ”
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Jace Carmelo Luevanos, 10
Carmelo’s grandson, Kiroz, had asked to be allowed to join his grandmother on Tuesday as she accompanied her great-granddaughter’s kindergarten class to the San Antonio Zoo. But, he said, the family told Jace that there was no point in missing school so close to the end of the year. Besides, Jace loved school. “That’s why my wife hurts so much, because he wanted to go to San Antonio,” Kiroz told USA Today. “He was so sad he couldn’t go. Maybe if he had gone, he would have been here. ” He died with his cousin Jaila Nicole Silgero.
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Tess Mata, 10
Faith Mata told The Washington Post that her sister loves dance videos on TikTok, Ariana Grande, Houston Astros and her hair is curly.
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Maranda Mathis, 11
The mother of a close friend describes Maranda as “very loving and very talkative”. She told the American statesman from Austin that her daughter and Maranda were in the same classes and that Maranda would want her hair 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-grade teacher said she has been teaching for 17 years. Mireles loved to run and walk. She said she and her husband, a school district police officer, have an elderly daughter and three pets.
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Alicia Ramirez, 10.
Alicia Ramirez loved football and really loved to paint. Her father’s Facebook page, Ryan Ramirez, includes a photo already appearing around the world of the little girl wearing a multicolored T-shirt announcing she had “one-digit numbers” after she was 10 years old. The same photo was published again on Wednesday without words, but with Alicia wearing angelic wings.
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Anabel Rodriguez, 10
Polly Flores told the New York Times that her great-niece Annabelle Rodriguez was an honorary student and close to her second cousin, Jacqueline Casares.
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May Rodriguez, 10
After a tough time with Zoom lessons during the pandemic, Maite Rodriguez made the honorary roll for doing As and Bs this year and was recognized at a meeting on Tuesday, her mother Anna Rodriguez said. Mayte especially liked physical education, and after she died, her teacher texted Anna Rodriguez to say that she was very competitive in kickball and ran faster than all the boys. Her mother describes Maite as “focused, competitive, smart, bright, beautiful, happy”. Mayte wanted to be a marine biologist, and after studying a program at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, she told her mother she wanted to study there.
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Alexandria Lexi Rubio, 10
Lexi’s mother, Kimberly Rubio, posted on Facebook that her daughter was honored for winning all grades and received an award for good citizen 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 a deputy in the Uwalde County Sheriff’s Office. The couple told CNN that he was among law enforcement officers who responded to the shooting.
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Leila Salazar, 11
Leila’s father said she enjoys running and swimming, dancing on TikTok videos and playing games, including Minecraft and Roblox with friends. He said she had won all six of her running and hurdle races in the school’s last three annual field days. He said that every morning, while driving her to school in his pickup truck, he would play Guns N ‘Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and they would sing together.
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Jaila Nicole Silgero, 10
Jayla’s mother told Univision through tears that her daughter did not want to go to school on the day of the shooting and thought she might have sensed that something was going to happen. Jaila and her cousin Jace Luevanos died in the classroom.
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Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10
Adolfo Torres told the Associated Press that his granddaughter Eliahana was killed in the shooting. KIII TV reported that Eliahana must play the last softball of her season that day. Team members knelt in silence for a moment to remember Elijah and the other victims.
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Rogelio Torres, 10
Rogelio Torres’ mother, Evadulia Orta, told ABC News that her son is a very smart and loving child. “I lost a piece of my heart,” she said.
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This story has been corrected to show that Uzzia Garcia was 10, not 8. The spelling of another victim’s first name has also been corrected. Her name was Maranda Mathis, not Miranda Mathis.
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Find out more from the AP’s report on the Uvalde shooting
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