Youngest victim of Uvalde school massacre laid to rest
The littlest victim of the Texas school massacre will be laid to rest Monday — the latest in a heartbreakingly long string of funerals for the 21 people shot dead in last month’s horror.
Eliahna Amyah Garcia was two weeks away from her 10th birthday when she was gunned down along with 18 other fourth-graders and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
The 9-year-old will be laid to rest after a service at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde.
The youngster loved basketball and making TikTok videos and hoped to one day be a cheerleader, the Texas Tribune reported.
Her father said Eliahna was “a planner” who already had a dress in mind for her quinceanera celebration in more than five years, the outlet said.
“Told her we’re going to have a party, and her face just lit up,” her father recalled “That was the last time I saw her.”
Eliahna’s funeral was to come just hours before a wake for one of her classmates, according to reports.
Xavier Lopez, 10, could dance to Colombian songs and ham it up for the camera with the best of them, his grieving family told the Tribune.
“He was funny, never serious, and his smile,” his mom, Felicha Martinez, told the Washington Post. “That smile I will never forget. It would always cheer anyone up.”
Police said deranged 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos stormed the school armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and massacred the group.
Cops remained outside for more than an hour as Ramos launched his slaughter inside. It took the heroics of Border Patrol agents to rush the classrooms where Ramos was barricaded and shoot the killer down.
Among the victims still due to be memorialized is teacher Eva Mireles, who is scheduled to be remembered at a funeral service Friday.
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