“How do you look at this girl and shoot her?”
Angel Garza said through tears Wednesday while holding a framed picture of his step-daughter, Amerie Jo Garza, one of the 19 children who died during the Robb Elementary School massacre in Texas.
The world watched the heartbroken father tell CNN’s Anderson Cooper how he learned she was a victim. He works as a medical assistant and rushed to her school in Uvalde.
“One little girl was just covered in blood head to toe. Like, I thought she was injured. I asked her what was wrong and she said, she is OK. She was hysterical saying that they shot her best friend. They killed her best friend and she is not breathing. She was trying to call the cops and I asked the little girl the name ... and she said, Amerie.”
His step-daughter had just turned 10 years old on May 10. She had been asking for a cell phone and finally got one. Students in her classroom told the grieving father she tried to use it after Salvador Ramos walked into her classroom.
Ramos, who was wearing body armor, used an AR-15 rifle to kill Amerie’s two teachers, Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, and 18 of her classmates. A friend of Amerie’s mother, Kimberly Garcia, set up a GoFundMe page.
“She received an award yesterday for honor roll just before the shooting occurred,” she wrote. “She was so smart and such a good child. Amerie is known for being a hero and trying to call 911 before the shooter took her life.”
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