Uwalde, Texas (AP) – Days after a local man broke into a primary school and killed 19 children and two teachers before police managed to kill him, signs of grief, solidarity and local pride are everywhere in Uwalde.
Many are dressed in maroon, the color of Uwalde’s school district. And light blue ribbons adorn the giant oaks that overshadow the city’s central square, where mourners come to lay flowers around a fountain and write messages on wooden crosses bearing the victims’ names. In front of the day center on one of the city’s main streets, 21 wooden chairs sit empty.
Everyone in the predominantly Latin American city of about 16,000 seems to know someone whose life has been turned upside down by the loss of a family member or close friend in the Robb Elementary School attack, which was one of the deadliest of its kind.
Joe Ruiz, pastor of Templo Cristiano, said a teacher who was friends with his wife, Uwalde’s former teacher herself, best summed up the mood of the community, saying people had “shouted everything” they could now. are just tired and need a break.
Police have been heavily criticized for waiting more than 45 minutes to confront 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos in neighboring classrooms where he carried out the massacre.
As the investigation into the attack continues, including Ramos’ reasons for carrying it out, some residents have expressed anger at police. Among them is 24-year-old carpenter Juan Caranza, who said he watched the attack across the street from the school. The next day he called the officers cowards.
Stephen McCrow, head of the Texas Public Safety Department, said Friday that the school’s district police chief, Pete Aredondo, had made the “wrong decision” to wait so long before sending staff to locked classrooms. He said Aredondo, who was responsible for law enforcement response during the siege, believed Ramos had been barricaded in two adjoining classrooms and that the children were no longer at risk. Aredondo, who graduated from high school in Uwalde and was recently elected a member of the city council, has not spoken publicly since McCrow criticized the decision-making, and his house already has police guards.
Oasis Outback, where Ramos bought his weapons, remained open, and the barbecue restaurant was doing its usual busy Friday night. The gun shop at the back of the sporting goods section was temporarily closed out of respect for the victims’ families, according to a sign.
An Oasis employee, who declined to give his full name, said the store was receiving angry calls accusing it of the attack, but the callers’ phone numbers were not in the area.
Support for gun rights is strong in Uwalde, which is approximately halfway between San Antonio and the border town of Del Rio. But some parents and relatives of the victims are calling for change.
“I just don’t know how people can sell that kind of gun to an 18-year-old.” What will he use it for, other than that? “Said Syria Arizmendi, a fifth-grade teacher whose niece Eliana Garcia was killed. She spoke in her dining room shortly before Eliana’s great-grandmother and grandfather, also residents of Uwalde, arrived.
Javier Caranza, a 43-year-old gun owner and army veteran whose daughter Jacqueline was killed, said it was “somehow ridiculous” to sell such firepower to an 18-year-old and that better checks were needed.
Uwalde sits among flat fields of cabbage, onions, carrots, corn and peppers, but mechanized agriculture has replaced many jobs. Construction materials companies are among his most desirable employers.
The city is home to a border patrol station that operates a highway checkpoint and monitors freight trains in what has suddenly become one of the busiest corridors for illegal crossings. A huge camp of Haitian migrants, which appeared under the bridge in Del Rio last year, has made a splash around the world.
Many residents can trace their family’s presence in Uwalde for three or four generations, creating an intimate sense of community. On a Friday night every month, shops remain open until late, and food vendors occupy the central square in front of the neoclassical courthouse.
Uvalde Strong messages adorn shop windows, T-shirts and lawn signs. Curbs and sidewalks are less common the further away you are from Central Square, with roosters roaming the cracked pavement near Rob Elementary School.
Ruiz, the pastor of Templo Crisitano, whose children and grandchildren live in Uwalde, asks the new parishioners about their origins to get to know them better.
Before Tuesday, accidental trafficking deaths were the biggest tragedies to befall Uwalde.
“We killed people, but not on a mass scale like this,” said Tony Gruber, pastor of Baptist Temple Church.
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For more AP coverage of the shooting at Uvalde School:
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