Second Teacher Killed In Texas School Massacre Identified: “She Sacrificed Herself Protecting The Kids In Her Classroom”
As we previously reported, several people were shot and killed by an 18-year-old gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. Earlier it was reported that 14 students and one teacher had been killed but the number has since gone up. According to NBC News, 19 students are confirmed dead as well as two teachers. “The updated numbers that they gave me, as of now, they told me 19 students, two adults, and then we also have the shooter that was deceased,” Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Erick Estrada told CNN’s Don Lemon Tuesday night. This latest incident is one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
The first teacher, Eva Mireles, 44, was identified by devastated friends and family members Tuesday evening. Irma Garcia, 46 was named as the second teacher killed in the massacre at Robb Elementary School. She was a veteran teacher who was a married mom of four. Speaking on Facebook, a nephew of Irma Garcia wrote: “My tia did not make it, she sacrificed herself protecting the kids in her classroom, I beg of you to keep my family including all of her family in y’all’s prayers, IRMA GARCIA IS HER NAME and she died a HERO. she was loved by many and will truly be missed,” Mirror UK quotes. Parents in Uvalde, Texas, waited late into Tuesday night at a civic center to learn whether their children had survived, some having given DNA to help authorities identify victims, they told CNN. Some parents are still looking for their children.
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The shooter entered Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, at approximately 11:32 a.m. local time, after shooting his grandmother and crashing his vehicle near the school. From there, he entered the school and fired at “children, teachers, whoever was in his way.” The sick killer has been identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. He was shot and killed by responding law enforcement. It was said that his grandmother was in critical condition late Tuesday, Estrada said. The status of her current condition as of Wednesday is unknown.
President Biden delivered remarks from the White House Tuesday night. He said:
“I had hoped when I became president I would not have to do this — again,” the president said, with longtime teacher first lady Jill Biden at his side. “Another massacre. Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, innocent second, third and fourth graders. And how many scores of little children who witnessed what happened — see their friends die, as if they’re in a battlefield, for God’s sake. They’ll live with it the rest of their lives.”
“What struck me on that 17-hour flight what struck me was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world. Why?” the president questioned. “They have mental health problems. They have domestic disputes in other countries. They have people who are lost, but these kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency they happen in America. Why? Why are we willing to live with this carnage?”
“As a nation, we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Mr. Biden said. “When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?”
The violent act comes just 10 days from the mass shooting that took place at a Buffalo, New York supermarket where the gunman targeted a Black community.
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