One Year In : Uvalde
May 6
March 27
33-year-old man killed eight people, including three children, when he opened fire outside an outlet mall in Allen, near Dallas.
28-year-old woman shot through the doors of The Covenant School in Nashville and killed three adults and three 9-year-old students.
Uvalde is far from the only community that’s been ripped apart by a mass shooting.
Since the start of 2023 alone, there have been 23 mass killings in the U.S., about one a week, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. Mass killings in this case are classified as involving four or more fatalities, not including the perpetrator.
“I knew exactly why they felt that way, because here I was 10 months into this, putting my whole life into this, and then another shooting took more children,” she said. “So I know that now. It does kind of feel like I failed, like I hadn't worked hard enough, like, what can I do more so this doesn't keep happening?”
“Unfortunately, they joined a very large family in the United States that no one wants to be a part of, ever.”
Not only did May 24, 2022, mark a day of tragedy in Uvalde, it also marked the deadliest school shooting in Texas history.
Since, families have pushed for accountability from law enforcement as well as gun reform from the Texas Legislature.
Families have vowed to never stop fighting for change, even in the face of continuing gun violence.
By Rebecca Salinas, Leigh Waldman, Andrew Wilson, Valerie Gomez, Henry Keller, Gavin Nesbitt, Bill Caldera, Stephania Jimenez, Steve Spriester, Kolten Parker
May 23, 2023
In looking back on a year since the shooting, several families sat down with KSAT to reflect on their loved ones and discuss recovery.
Life will never be the same, they said, but they are finding ways to remember the 21 lives lost through their passions and advocacy.
The Makenna Elrod Seiler roping competition and scholarship presentation was held in April to honor the girl who loved horses.
The Eva Strong Memorial Run was held in March for slain teacher Eva Mireles’ birthday.
Parents said the tragedy feels like decades ago, while also feeling like it’s been mere weeks.
“I always hear that time heals all wounds, but time goes by and the wound is still there. And the pain is there, the emptiness is there,”
Garcia said.
Sandra Torres, Eliahna Torres’ mother, said she’s feeling the signs of the one-year mark —
“It tears apart everything that you've ever lived, loved and cared for ...”
“... sometimes it’s even hard just to breathe.”
sleepless nights and the constant “what-ifs.”
It feels unreal, she said, but she’s holding on to her faith in God. It’s what keeps her going.
“It’s hard to live without her, sometimes it’s even hard just to breathe. Just the thought of her, she’s never coming back,” she said.
In the past year, 21 families have lived through holidays, birthdays and anniversaries without their loved ones.
The milestones they’ve faced and the bonds they’ve created with other victims’ families have been bittersweet as they try to grapple with their new reality.
Instead of holding birthday celebrations in the backyard or at a restaurant, they gather by gravesites. Springtime travel became trips to the Texas Capitol to advocate for stricter gun laws. Children’s bedrooms transitioned to altars of remembrance.
Torres said when they moved into a new house after the shooting, she made sure Eliahna had her own room, something she always wanted.
Her room is lined with pictures, drawings and tributes, and she finally has her princess-style canopy bed. Eliahna, who was hoping to make it to the All-Star team before she passed, was honored by the Houston Astros with a signed jersey, which now hangs near her
softball memorabilia.
Amerie’s parents, Angel Garza and Kimberly Garcia, honored their daughter’s “Forever 10” birthday with art therapy. Art was Amerie’s gift to the world; her family said she loved to paint, draw, make flowers and play with clay.
“Anything with her little hands,” her grandmother Dora Mendoza said.
She would have turned 11 on May 10. For her birthday, Amerie’s family set up tables for painting at the town square, where a memorial was set up for the victims, so people could gather and remember what she loved.
“It’s still super hard because, at the end of the day, she’s not going to be there with us,” Garcia said.
Brett Cross, Uziyah Garcia’s guardian, said he’s not afraid of being a nuisance. He’s not going to let his son be a statistic, he said, believing that Americans are desensitized to
gun violence.
“It happens. It happens and it tears you apart. It tears apart everything that you've ever lived, loved and cared for, it tears apart your day-to-day,” he said. “It tears apart your thoughts. And so I'm not going to let that happen.”
KSAT spoke with the Crosses on the day after the Nashville shooting. Nikki Cross, Uziyah’s guardian, said learning about the tragedy took her back to May 24, 2022.
They know exactly what those and other families of mass shooting victims face: no privacy, “dark days” and the longing for answers.
Even after a year of advocacy for gun reform and awareness, Brett Cross said it seemed all their work was dismissed with yet another shooting.
Nikki Cross recalled when families and survivors of previous mass shootings apologized to her, saying they felt like they had failed.
She didn’t understand why they were the ones apologizing. Then the Nashville shooting happened.
Eliahna was in her first year of softball. She wanted to quit on the first day, Torres said, but the sport ended up becoming “everything to her.”
“I let her know and reassured her that no matter if she made it or not that she would always be an All-Star in my eyes, and I would always be her No. 1 fan,” Torres said. “That’s the last time I heard her say ‘I love you’ to me.”
The children in Rooms 111 and 112 at Robb Elementary School were as vibrant and diverse as any group of fourth-graders. Amerie Jo Garza had a knack for art. Eliahna Torres was growing a passion for softball. Jackie Cazares dreamed of being a veterinarian. They loved to sing, dance and play. They were simply kids ready for a summer that would never arrive.
On May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old entered their school and fired hundreds of rounds, killing 19 students and two teachers. Their parents and families are now left shifting through a life they never imagined, a life they share with the ever-growing group of families affected by mass shootings. In the last 365 days, they’ve weaved between grief and action, determined to inspire change amid America's gun violence epidemic.
In our one-hour special, “One Year In: Uvalde,” KSAT looks at the past 12 months, the victims and survivors, and how their legacy spreads outside their local community.
THE LOSS
THE LEGACY
THE RECOVERY
THE REBUILD
THE IMPACT
ONE YEAR IN:
The Loss
These families have grieved, rallied and testified together, and now they are permanently linked through their loss.
Rubio, Gloria Cazares and Veronica Mata decided — on a whim — to get tattoos to feel closer to their daughters, and each other. They each have three hearts in lavender, sage green and yellow on their wrists.
Tattoos have become a symbol of remembrance for them; if they can’t see their loved ones in person, they can look to their skin for comfort.
“If I could help somebody at least get through a little bit of that pain, it’s helping me with my pain as well.”
Jazmin Cazares, Jackie’s sister, said she never saw herself participating in rallies, activism, politics, or testifying in front of lawmakers. She also never saw herself stepping into a sister role for the siblings of other victims.
“It’s things that I didn’t know I needed that I get from other families,” she said.
One of those siblings, Faith Mata, wants to continue her sister Tess' legacy through
her career.
Faith Mata graduated from Texas State University on May 12 and wants to help families of victims affected by gun violence. Her ultimate goal is to become an FBI crime victim specialist, the type of person who came to the aid of her family.
Berlinda Arreola, Amerie’s step-grandmother and secretary for Lives Robbed, said groups like theirs have become all too common because mass shootings aren’t a rare horror in the U.S. Arreola said they want to join forces with other groups to share their stories and
influence change.
They hope, someday, that they won’t need the group, and that enough gun reform will happen so they can go their separate ways. It’s the group that should have never been formed, for the tragedy that should have never happened, they said.
Brett Cross called it “odd” because though he hates why they met, he can’t imagine fighting without them.
“I wish I didn't have to meet these people, but I'm happy to have them in my life,” he said.
Their new reality has also taken them places they never expected.
“Sometimes you can’t describe it. You’re just tired, you’re just tired. But deep down inside you know there’s no way that we would stop,” said Gloria Cazares, Jackie’s mother and treasurer of Lives Robbed.
“There’s days when it’s hard to get out of bed… it’s important because our girls meant the world to us and we’re going to continue until we get what they deserve,” added Veronica Mata, Tess Mata’s mother and advocacy director for Lives Robbed.
“... our girls meant the world to us and we’re going to continue until we get what they deserve.”
“But deep down inside you know there’s no way that we would stop.”
A flurry of gun-, school- and safety-related bills were introduced in the session, but they were particularly vocal about House Bill 2744, which would have raised the age limit from 18 to 21 to purchase certain semi-automatic rifles. The Uvalde gunman had just turned 18 years old when he legally purchased two AR-style rifles from a local store, one of which was used in the shooting.
The bill was voted out of the House Select Committee on Community Safety on May 8, but it was left off the House agenda by the next day’s deadline, effectively blocking the
proposal’s path.
Between dealing with grief and pushing for reform, the families say there’s no chance of slowing down.
The families of those killed have bonded together on the path to healing. They’ve created a unique form of love they never expected, and they’ve found ways to honor their loved ones through scholarships, memorials, runs and tattoos.
It’s their way of keeping the 21 victims’ legacies alive, both within Uvalde and outside
its borders.
“Really I just want us to share our story and make change, and we’re stronger together,” said Kimberly Rubio, mother of Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio and president of Lives Robbed. “I see the potential, and I know where we’re headed and what we can do with it.”
Families said they’ve traveled to Austin weekly throughout the 88th Texas Legislature.
Families formed Lives Robbed, a nonprofit organization that’s fighting for changes in gun legislation.
They’ve rallied at the Texas Capitol and in Washington D.C. with the goal of bringing awareness to gun reform and school safety.
ONE YEAR IN :
The Legacy
AJ Martinez and Jaydien Canizales are among the students in Room 112 who survived the attack. AJ suffered a gunshot wound to his upper right thigh and was grazed in the lower back. Jaydien’s scars are mental.
Uriegas no longer drives bus No. 19, and has only visited it once since the shooting. She only walked to the second seat; she didn’t want to look toward the back of the bus.
“There’s no way somebody is shooting kids,” she believed at the time.
Reality hit when she heard gunshots. Moments later she saw law enforcement running from the school with injured children in their arms, approaching her bus.
“All you hear was the kids crying, yelling for their moms. It’s like every kid that got on was just yelling ‘mom,’” she said. “It was so chaotic that I couldn’t hear anything else.”
As the children ran to the back of the bus, she and the officers tried to find anything they could to help the wounded. She ended up driving three students to the hospital, and they survived their injuries.
Before heading back to the school to help again, she swapped out her bus, No. 19, with another, knowing the bus was unsuitable to transport kids due to the amount of blood on the back seats.
It’s bittersweet knowing that the kids she transported that day survived their injuries, she said.
One of her regular students, Alithia Ramirez, died that day. Uriegas described her as “the best kid on the bus.”
“... every kid that got on was just yelling ‘mom.’”
Outside the campus, no one had mentioned anything about a shooting when bus driver Sylvia Uriegas was told to drive to a
situation at Robb.
She arrived to find chaos, then horror. Sitting on her bus, she saw law enforcement arrive in droves and parents visibly upset.
She still didn’t understand what was happening; her phone kept ringing but she didn’t answer. She soon learned about an active shooter
in the school.
During the shooting, AJ ran, hid under a pile of backpacks and acted as if he were dead,
his mother said.
Jaydien’s mother Azeneth Rodriguez said Jaydien wanted to help his friends, but he couldn’t move or else the shooter would have seen him.
He realized the scope of the tragedy when he walked out from under a table.
“It’s sad because that’s his new life and it’s not fair to him because he had that taken away,” Kassandra Martinez said. “I don’t know what else to do for my son besides staying positive and trying to let him enjoy his life with his friends.”
“... it’s not fair to him because he had that taken away.”
Their mothers said having each other’s company has helped them cope. It gives them a chance to be kids again, and they’re even fundraising for a trip to Disneyland for the week of May 24.
“They’re reliving their life again and that’s what we wanted,” AJ’s mother Kassandra
Martinez said.
AJ and Jaydien bond around sports and video games. AJ wants to be a famous NBA player and Jaydien wants to be a quarterback in the NFL.
But due to AJ’s injuries, his mother said, he won’t be able to play sports “like a normal kid.” His injury has disabled him, and he has a mass on his thigh that can’t be removed.
He still plays sports, but his mother said it becomes too painful for him.
“It’s been pretty hard on Mayah losing her friends but she’s just so strong,” Christina Zamora said, adding that Mayah was good friends with Makenna.
They have noticed changes in their daughter; she’s not as talkative and she’s more fearful. They stay away from fireworks and movies with gunfire, but keeping her circle small has helped her feel safe, they said.
“She shows a fear of this world that she’s never had before,” Christina Zamora said.
They added that someday, they will move back to Uvalde, the place they know as home.
Back in Uvalde, a group of survivors have found solace in each other. From one day to the next, they started hanging out at each other’s houses, spending time swimming in the pool or riding golf carts.
They keep moving forward and Mayah keeps painting.
“I don’t think there’s enough paint in Hobby Lobby for Mayah,” he said. “I guess that’s
her getaway.”
The Zamoras said the good days are starting to outweigh the bad, and even on her hard days, she’s resilient. They feel survivor’s guilt, they said, but they won’t let the tragedy win.
Christina and Ruben Zamora say their daughter is making progress in her recovery, and her therapy is boosting her confidence.
She’s trying to get stronger — she’s set on learning how to do a cartwheel again — but there will be more surgeries before then.
Her day includes school in the mornings and appointments in the afternoons, mainly for therapy or follow-ups.
“It’s to the point where you don’t have a choice, you just go,” Ruben Zamora said.
She made it for her mother, Christina, as they’ve had to uproot their lives and move to San Antonio so Mayah could attend doctor’s appointments.
“She cries a lot, and … I want her to know she's strong,” Mayah said.
Mayah spent just over two months at University Hospital in San Antonio and went through more than 60 surgeries.
ONE YEAR IN :
The Recovery
Mayah Zamora, a student in Room 112, was shot seven times in her chest, back, arms and hands. She’s one of 11 children in Room 112 who survived.
Now, Mayah signs her paintings with her initials, surrounded by a heart. Smiley faces adorn several pieces of art she showed to KSAT during an interview at the
family’s home.
Her father, Ruben Zamora, asked Mayah to show off one of her projects that’s dear
to him.
“It says being a mother is learning about strengths you didn't know you had,” said Mayah, holding a canvas that included flowers around the poem.
“It’s very difficult to secure every student getting on the bus anywhere in the community. It’s very difficult to protect everything at large gatherings like football games and concerts,” Patterson said. “Schools were built to keep people into all these facilities, not keep them away. There’s still work to be done and our students still can be vulnerable in certain positions no matter how much security we have… so yeah we
still worry.”
Gutierrez said his mindset is keeping students safe so they can enjoy simple things like playgrounds and field days.
“If a bad person entered our schools, I will protect your child at all costs,” he said.
When asked if he would have entered the rooms where the shooter holed himself up, Gutierrez replied, “I will protect their child at all costs, ma’am.”
“I will protect their child at all costs, ma’am.”
The schools are safer now, they said, but they acknowledged that they are continuously finding ways to improve.
“When I took this job on, the biggest, I guess my main goal was to build a foundation for the police department,” he said. “And every officer since then that we've brought on is understanding that we're also building trust back with the community and building relationships back with the community and along with our staff and our students.”
Gutierrez was named the interim police chief in November after then-police chief Pete Arredondo was fired in August. Arredondo took much of the initial blame as DPS Director Steve McCraw identified him as the incident commander who didn’t properly act. Gutierrez was promoted to official police chief in March.
UCISD Police Chief Josh Gutierrez said the district has five officers, including himself. DPS troopers were called in to help at the beginning of the school year and they will remain until no longer needed, he said.
The district has eight schools and 4,000 students. Patterson said he wants to grow the police department and have an officer for
every campus.
It’s harder than it looks to hire qualified officers because they’re in demand, he said.
Apart from the training, Gutierrez said he wants his officers to build trust and communicate with each other and the community.
Gary Patterson, the interim superintendent for UCISD, said they’ve made “great strides” in securing campuses, like adding fencing, cameras and key access cards.
“It looks a lot different than it did a year ago, obviously,” he said. “After the incident in May, then the district really fast-forwarded as quick as they can and made a lot of decisions on what they wanted the schools to look like, how safe they wanted them to be, and how fast that can happen.”
“... the example that Uvalde can set for the world ...”
“I think this school, the process of designing this school and building this school, and having children and teachers laugh and learn in a school, will be the example that Uvalde can set for the world in terms of how to come back from such a horrible event,” he said.
Safety and security were priorities in the design, he said. A secure vestibule, access control security cameras, security glass and 9-foot, 4-inch-tall fencing are some of the security features.
The families of victims have also been involved in the design of a memorial at the new school. Built near the library, the memorial will represent an oak tree.
It will include two large branches for teachers Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles and 19 smaller branches for the students.
The campus will hold students from second through fourth grades, as Robb did, and will have a trauma-informed schematic design, Miller said. That includes counseling rooms, classrooms for students with special needs, and a design that allows for natural light and calming colors.
The design incorporates trees, the Frio River, honeybees and monarch butterflies — the symbols of Uvalde.
Tim Miller, executive director of the Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation, said they are planning on breaking ground this summer. The nonprofit foundation was charged with raising funds to build a new school.
“It’s an accelerated process,” he said, “because right now, students are out in portables and other places in our schools and they don’t have a 2nd, 3rd, 4th campus to call their own.”
The Community Advisory Committee started to hold meetings in September and they received input from people in the community, law enforcement, students and school staff. A schematic design for the new building was approved by the school board in April.
No students will ever go back to Robb Elementary School.
It will be demolished, but there are no firm plans for what will go in its place. Parents said they don’t believe a park with a playground would be appropriate, but they support a memorial. They just want something peaceful, they said.
A new school will instead go up near Dalton Elementary School.
ONE YEAR IN :
The Rebuild
“... we are fighting for your child as well.”
It’s unfortunate to know how many groups like theirs are out there, Arreola said, but they understand they have to advocate for the next victims of gun violence.
“Each one thought they would be the one to make that difference. And we thought the same thing as well,” she said. “Because we are fighting for your child as well.”
The only person with the authority to call a special legislative session is Gov. Greg Abbott. He refused to do so last year despite pushes from Uvalde parents, state Democrats, a handful of state Republicans, Uvalde CISD, Uvalde City Council and Uvalde County Commissioners.
Despite the lack of action, the families have remained steadfast, advocating for the future mothers, fathers, siblings and grandparents who may one day have their worlds turned upside down by gun violence.
“I arrived here today at 8 a.m. and as we waited more than 13 hours, I'm reminded of May 24, 2022, when we waited hours to be told our daughter would never come home,” Rubio testified. “I expressed confusion then, and I'm perplexed now. Did you think we would go home?”
“Did you think we would
go home?”
They had an unexpected-but-ultimately-hollow victory when the bill was voted out of the committee 8-5. Their elation fell the following day when it was left off the Texas House agenda ahead of an important deadline.
A state lawmaker who represents Uvalde, Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat who has been vocal about accountability and policy, has filed more than 20 bills related to gun reform, school safety and mass shooting victims. None of them had a committee meeting, the first
legislative hurdle.
“It’s pretty sad where we are right now because we went an entire session and the Republicans and the Legislature that control the House and the Senate didn’t do much, not just to help these families but really to protect all Texans,” he told KSAT in a Q&A on May 11.
“In the House, it seemed like they paid lip service… but there was never a real intent to have it move further.”
Families faced lawmakers directly on April 18, when the Texas House Select Committee on Community Safety held its first public hearing on HB 2744, the so-called “raise the age” bill.
They, however, had to wait more than 13 hours to do so.
The families whose lives were torn apart are writing their own stories with Lives Robbed. They’re taking thoughts and prayers and turning them into action at the Texas Capitol.
They know they are met with a wall of opposition. The state’s Republican-controlled Legislature has pushed back on virtually all firearm restrictions.
Cruz Ortiz said he counted about 80 performers that day, all playing for a community wounded by a nightmare.
“It's part of the Mexican, the Hispanic culture because when a tragedy does happen, the first thing we do is we unite. That's the first thing that we do,” Juan Ortiz said.
Art contributes to healing. The scars will remain, but the music is a fellowship,
he added.
Ortiz and San Antonio artist Cruz Ortiz helped coordinate mariachis to perform at Uvalde’s town square within days of the shooting. They created a song to dedicate to the community, a song called “El Corrido de Los Angeles de Uvalde.”
When the tragedy became part of the national conversation, the public turned to their elected leaders for change. Some people looked within to offer another path to healing — one
through art.
Artists painted murals through the center of Uvalde as a positive outlet for grief, and mariachis from across South Texas came together to show their support through song.
For mariachi performer Juan Bautista Ortiz, May 24, 2022, is etched in his soul.
ONE YEAR IN :
The Impact
The legislative session ends on May 29. The only way new rules or laws can be made in Texas outside a regular legislative session is through a special legislative session.
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Bump-stock Conversion Kits Ban - Relates to banning the transfer, distribution, sale of bump-fire stock; creating a criminal offense. Bill did not make it out of State Affairs committee.
Emergency Operations Plans - Relates to emergency operations plans for school districts and public junior colleges to promote safe and positive schools. Bill did not make it out of the Education committee.
Gun Storage & Safety - Relating to gun safety; creating an offense; increasing a criminal penalty. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Life Without Parole for School Shooters - Relating to the punishment for certain conduct constituting the offense of murder and providing for the prosecution of that conduct as capital murder; increasing a criminal penalty. Bill did not make it out of the Criminal Justice committee.
Relating to the automatic suspension and investigation of law enforcement personnel involved in a shooting with a child. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Ban on Expanding Bullets - Relating to banning the possession and use of expanding ammo; creating an offense. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Closing Gun Show Loopholes - Relating to the creation of certain criminal offenses concerning firearm sales at gun shows; authorizing a fee. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Robb Elementary Firearm Safety Act - Relates to regulating certain firearm transfers, possession of certain firearms, and protective orders prohibiting possession of a firearm; creating criminal offenses; increasing criminal penalties. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Ammunition Purchasing Requirements -Relating to the requirements for the purchase of ammunition; creating an offense. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Liability Insurance for Firearms - Relating to liability insurance for firearm ownership. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Safe Storage Requirements - Relating to gun storage and safety measures; creating a criminal offense; increasing a criminal penalty. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Bulk Ammunition Database - Creates a bulk ammunition database. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
30-Day Waiting Period - Relating to requiring a 30-day waiting period before a person less than 21 years of age may purchase a firearm; creating a criminal offense. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Law Enforcement Radio Interoperability and Training - Relating to law enforcement radio interoperability and training. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Texas School Patrol - Establishes the Texas School Patrol. Bill did not make it out of the Education committee.
End Qualified Immunity - Relating to the creation of a cause of action for deprivation of rights and the waiver of immunity. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
School Violence Victims' Compensation Act -Relating to the creation of the School Violence Victims' Compensation Fund. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Uvalde Victims’ Compensation Fund - Relating to the creation of the Uvalde Victims' Compensation Fund. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
Age Limit Increase - Increases the age limit to purchase firearms from 18 to 21. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
High-Risk Protective Orders - Relating to extreme risk protective orders; creating criminal offenses. Bill did not make it out of the State Affairs committee.
SB
2388
SB
2297
SB
1740
SB
1739
SB
1738
SB
1737
SB
1736
SB
1274
SB
914
SB
913
SB
912
SB
911
SB
910
SB
738
SB
737
SB
575
SB
574
SB
146
SB
145
SB
144
Bills introduced by Sen. Roland Gutierrez
Amerie’s portrait has a place on her step-father’s arm.
“It means a lot to me, at the same time it’s kind of hard to think that it’s there,” Garza said. “I hate that I have to look up and see pictures of her everywhere when she should just be right there.”
Dora Mendoza has her grandaughter’s name, Amerie, tattooed on her wrist.
Dora Mendoza, Amerie’s grandmother, has a tattoo that reads, “I love you so much ganni,” along with a drawing.
"Right here is 'I love you so much Ganni' and then she put Amerie, and then she drew me, and then she put a 'G' for Ganni," she said.
Sandra Torres has a sunflower and a butterfly to represent Eliahna. Below the tattoo reads, “I love you.”
"I had read the letters that she would write to me and I found that 'I love you,'" Torres said. "So I decided I want it on me. So I went to go get it. So that way when I'm feeling down or whatever, if I want to hear that 'I love you' of our last conversation, I always just look down and I can read it."
One of Amerie's messages to her mom, “you console me” and “I will love you always love you” is tattooed on Kimberly Garcia’s arm.
"This one really stood out to me because it was I mean, 'console' is a big word," Garcia said. "So that ... meant a lot to me."
Kim Rubio has a tattoo of one of Lexi’s drawings on her left arm.
“...It's something she drew and it's me and her,” she said. “And I love that I get to see how she saw me.”
Brett Cross has a tattoo of a bullet wound on his spine, because that’s what Uziyah was left with, he said. He uses it to illustrate what Uziyah went through.
"We need visualizations. And like I said, without actively showing or dropping the actual photos, you can see it on me and you can see what it looks like on it on a 220-pound grown man," he said. "Now imagine that on a 10-year-old that weighed 65, 70 pound maybe. I mean, he was tiny."
"And if that looks like that on me, imagine what that looked like on him, imagine what that looks like on your child."
Brett Cross has a tattoo of an upside-down American flag on his inner bicep that says, “The sounds of children screaming have been removed.”
Those words were included in Robb Elementary hallway surveillance footage released months after the shooting.
“The gunshots were still there, everything that that ended their lives was there," he said. "And it's not just their screams were removed. Their their voices, their laughter, their their presence. It's all been removed from this, you know, mortal plane."
Brett Cross has Spiderman, Uziyah’s favorite comic character, on his arm.
Uziyah wanted to be like Spiderman, too — a superhero in his own right, someone who helped others. He wanted to be a police officer, Brett Cross said.
Spiderman’s hand signal is reversed to the “I love you” sign, one he gave his parents every morning.
“As much as I hate that I couldn't protect him that day, I feel like he's here protecting me because whenever it … starts getting real bad, I can look down and ... it's a part of me,” Brett Cross said.
None Passed
None Passed
THE LOSS
THE LEGACY
THE RECOVERY
THE REBUILD
THE IMPACT
THE LOSS
THE LEGACY
THE RECOVERY
THE REBUILD
THE IMPACT
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