A criminal investigation in Texas over the hesitant police response to the Robb Elementary School shooting is still ongoing as Uvalde marks one year since a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth-grade classroom.
By ACACIA CORONADOVeronica Mata visits the gravesite of her daugher, Tess, in Uvalde, Texas, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. For Mata, teaching kindergarten in Uvalde after her daughter was among the 19 students who were fatally shot at Robb Elementary School became a year of grieving for her own child while trying to keep 20 others safe. Veronica Mata visits the gravesite of her daugher, Tess, in Uvalde, Texas, Wednesday, May 3, 2023.
In a decade replete with mass killings, many of them involving shootings, Uvalde stands out — both for the young age of most of its victims and the abysmal law enforcement response. Nearly 400 heavily armed officials rushed to the school but waited more than an hour before one of them confronted and killed the shooter. Outraged families of children slain have demanded answers and accountability. One year after the killings, they haven’t gotten much of either.
Mata drives through the middle of town: past the Civic Center where she found out Tess had been killed, and through the town square, where crosses memorialize all 21 lives lost. Then a couple of blocks behind the square to visit a colorful mural honoring her daughter’s life. “Where am I going to hide 20 students?” she remembers asking her husband when she cleaned out the room last summer.
Then, she heard gunfire. The shots, her husband told her, had come from the side of the building housing their daughter’s fourth-grade wing. He said he had to go and hung up. Mata tried contacting Tess’ teachers, who were usually quick to respond to texts and emails. No answer. On Tuesdays, Mata and other victims’ families make the three-hour trek to the capital of Austin to advocate for gun safety legislation in the nation’s largest red state. Attempts to raise the minimum buying age for semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 were shut down in both GOP-led legislative chambers, despite a few Republican votes in support.Memories of May 24 haunt Mata and her husband.
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