‘She wanted to be an artist’: Texas mourns for dead schoolchildren

in Uvalde, Texas

Alithia Ramirez wanted to be an artist and have her work displayed in a gallery.

The fourth-grade student was one of the 19 schoolchildren and two teachers who died when an 18-year-old gunman, armed with an assault rifle, broke into their classroom on Tuesday.

On Wednesday night in a rodeo stadium, a few miles outside of Uvalde in southwest Texas, hundreds gathered to attend a vigil for the dead and to support their grieving families.

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Locals sobbed and hugged each other. Other groups formed circles to pray together.

Several therapy dogs were on standby for anyone who wanted to seek comfort.

A solo violinist began a rendition of “amazing grace”, as some in the auditorium wept openly.

The heartbroken mother of Alithia, Jessica Hernandez showed her daughter’s artwork and cards she had made for her birthday last year.

“She was so bright, smart and very talented. She wanted to be an artist. She was always drawing, ever since she was four years old, she wanted to show her art and show how talented she was.”

Jessica Hernandez read out the card that Alithia had made and given to her for her birthday last year.

“Dear mom, you have always been there for me no matter what, you made me feel loved and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all you have done for me. You are truly a wonderful mother. You are special. Have a wonderful birthday.”

Speaking to reporters, including The Irish Times, at the vigil Ms Hernandez said in the aftermath of the attack on the Robb elementary school in Uvalde, she wanted to see more security in schools.

“I do not want this to happen again. I do not want this to happen to other families. I just don’t.”

A teacher in the Robb elementary school, who did not provide her name, said she had been in a nearby classroom on Tuesday where she was teaching 16 students when the attack took place. She asked them to get down when she heard the gunfire.

[ Texas gunman warned he would carry out school shooting on social media ]

She said the two teachers who had been killed had died trying to protect their students from the gunman.

The prayer vigil was attended by the governor of Texas Greg Abbot and senator Ted Cruz — both republicans — who sat among those gathered on the benches surrounding the arena while local pastors led prayers and hymns.

State senator in the Texas legislature Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat whose district includes the town of Uvalde said the events of Tuesday were incomprehensible and that he was speechless.

“I do not understand the reasons why. This is the problem of our United States. There is too much access to militarised weaponry to anyone.”

“This young man bought these weapons at an over-the-counter licensed store.”

“[The first] the day after his 18th birthday. Two days after he buys a second one and buys 375 rounds of ammunition. Why was someone not saying this does not make sense. This is a red flag. But we do not have red flag laws in Texas.”

“Someone should have raised a question that this young man has bought a tremendous amount of ammunition and guns in the last three days. That did not occur. And there is no laws to make that happen.”

Mr Gutierrez said he did not see any change in relation to gun control coming about at the federal level or locally in Texas if the governor continued to maintain that mass shootings were due to mental illness.

“Certain it is a mental health crisis but if mentally ill people do not have access to weaponry, we do not have this problem. ”

US president Joe Biden on Tuesday urged politicians in Washington to introduce new gun control measures. However, in the face of opposition from republicans in the US senate this would appear unlikely to happen.

Democrats on Wednesday said they would try to find a consensus proposal that could draw in enough republicans to break the inevitable filibuster to block any unilateral gun reform proposals.

The Texas governor told a news conference on Wednesday that the gunman had posted on Facebook that he was going to shoot his grandmother and carry out an armed attack on a school.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, said those messages were privately sent to another user.

The governor told a news conference on Wednesday that the gunman, had shot his grandmother and then drove away. She managed to get to a neighbour’s house and contacted the police.

The children who died were aged between seven and 10.

The 18-year-old gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, was shot dead by police at the scene.

After shooting his grandmother, with whom he lived, the gunman shortly afterward crashed his car close to the Robb elementary school in the town of Uvalde, about 128km (80 miles) from San Antonio. He took a rifle from the car and tried to enter the primary school.

The governor said that law enforcement officers at the school engaged the gunman to try to stop him. However, he got into the school through a backdoor. and gained access to a classroom.

Texas state officials said on Wednesday that the gunman had barricaded himself in a classroom and started shooting children and teachers in the room.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said that the shooting ended when a Border Patrol tactical team shot and killed the gunman.

It said investigators were still trying to determine if the gunman, who lived in Uvalde, had planned the shooting. The gunman had one rifle when he went into the school and was wearing “a tactical vest carrier with no ballistic panels”.