Families mourn 22 lives lost after Texas school massacre

There were glimmering candles and prayers well into Thursday morning in Uvalde, Texas. The city west of the U.S.-Mexico border was home to the country’s latest school massacre involving an AR-15 rifle.

A group of women said they traveled from Dallas to deliver flowers outside of Robb Elementary School. The community was preparing for the funerals of two teachers and 19 fourth-grade students.

A family in anguish about an injured 66-year-old grandmother was also struggling to understand what motivated a young man to commit such evil acts about a week after celebrating his 18th birthday.

Uvalde residents gather Wednesday at the Uvalde County Fairplex to pray after 19 children and two adults were killed during a school shooting the day before. (Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune/)

Timeline

Salvador Ramos turned 18 on May 16. A day later, he walked into Oasis Outback and legally purchased a rifle. He also purchased 375 rounds of 5.56 ammunition on May 18 and another rifle on May 20.

Ramos, described as a quiet loner, used Instagram and Facebook on May 24. He communicated with a 15-year-old girl from Frankfurt, Germany.

That day, he shot his grandmother, Celia Martinez, in the head and stole her pickup truck. Ramos crashed into a ditch outside of Robb Elementary School.

He was wearing body armor and was holding his rifle — manufactured by Daniel Defense — when he walked into the school shortly after 11:30 a.m. He barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom. Officers fatally shot him at about 1:05 p.m.

Victims

While in the school, Ramos killed two teachers, Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, and 19 of their students.

Here is the list of children killed:

Nevaeh Bravo
Jayce Carmelo Luevanos
Jacklyn Jaylen Cazares
Eliahana Cruz Torres
Jose Flores Jr.
Eliahna Garcia
Uziyah Garcia
Xavier Javier Lopez
Makenna Lee Elrod
Jayce Luevanos
Tess Marie Mata
Miranda Mathis
Alithia Ramirez
Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez
Maite Rodriguez
Lexi Rubio
Layla Salazar
Jailah Nicole Silguero
Rojelio Torres

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