A father of one of the children killed during the attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas last week has spoken of his grief.
According to reports, Jacklyn Cazares, only nine years old, died along with her second cousin, Annabelle Rodriguez, and their three best friends at the school.
“They are all gone now,” Javier Cazares said. “All her little best friends were killed too.”
The group of girls were amongst those shot when an 18-year-old gunman gained entry to Robb Elementary School, barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom and opened fire.
Javier told how his daughter was to celebrate her tenth birthday on June 10.
“She had a voice,” he said. “She didn’t like bullies, she didn’t like kids being picked on. All in all, full of love. She had a big heart.”
“She was a character – a little firecracker.”
Last Tuesday, on the day of the attack, Javier drove his daughter to school for an awards ceremony that was to take place that morning.
Just 90 minutes later, he got a call informing him that there was an active shooter.
“I drove like a bat out of hell,” he recalled. “My baby was in trouble.
“There was more than 100 people out there waiting, it was chaotic.”
Javier said his entire family assembled at the hospital after learning that Jacklyn had been taken there. They were forced to wait three hours for information.
“My wife asked the question, ‘Is she alive or is she passed?’” Javier said. “They were like, ‘No, she’s gone.’”
The grieving father has spent the past week pondering how his daughter spent her final moments after the gunman barricaded himself in the classroom, but he says the family can take solace in one thing.
“It kind of comforts our hearts that she would be one of the ones that was brave and tried to help as much as she could,” he said.
It breaks our hearts to have to write about the tragedy in Uvalde. All that’s left for us now as a nation is to work to ensure nothing like this ever happens again.
Please, share this article to send thoughts and prayers to the grieving families who lost loved ones in this callous attack.
