Houstonians travel to Uvalde to show support after mass school shooting
UVALDE, Texas (KTRK) -- Students and teachers at Robb Elementary School were supposed to be celebrating their first day of summer vacation on Friday. Instead, they were mourning and searching for answers.
"I want to tell everybody I hope they will take care of the children, like me, for safety and I hope they will all be OK," said one student.
This is a plea for protection from those who need it the most.
"I couldn't imagine how that would happen to him also. He has autism, he has special needs so it's really really hard seeing those kids," said the student's mother, Nadia Rojas.
Twenty-one people died in the mass shooting, on Friday their families learned police waited outside for more than an hour as students and teachers were trapped inside with a gunman.
"You're going to sit out here for one hour before you go in and you hear shots during that whole time? Then you have this dumb news conference that I heard where they say no police died. No kidding! You didn't do anything. You didn't do anything. You didn't go in. you sat outside and heard the shots," said Ponciano Cortez who came from Houston.
Houstonians didn't know what to bring, so they brought toys they imagined would go in a fourth-grade classroom.
"Every time I turn on the news, it's something else. It's heartbreaking. I cried. Just being here right now, I'm heartbroken. It's tough, it really is. All we can do is pray," said Ray Urbano from Houston.
For those grieving, there is a feeling of defeat. What happens now?
"Even with me being from the streets, we always learned to protect the elders, women, children, that's just the way it goes," said Trae Tha Truth from Houston.
Other survivors of gun violence have shown up to the scene in Uvalde to show support. Signs were dropped off by those who were at the Santa Fe High School shooting that took the lives of 10 people almost exactly four years ago.
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