UVALDE, May 31 — The grieving Texas town of Uvalde begins laying to rest the 21 children and teachers who were killed in a mass shooting at an elementary school a week ago, with funerals scheduled today for a pair of 10-year-old girls.
The children were killed along with 17 other students, all aged 9 to 11, and two teachers by an 18-year-old gunman who burst into their fourth-grade classroom and opened fire with a high-velocity AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle. Over the next two weeks, a series of funerals will take place in the town of 16,000, which is nearly 80 per cent Latino or Hispanic and largely Roman Catholic.
Arredondo has come under severe criticism for his response to the shooting. He was the on-scene commander who decided against storming the classroom where the shooter opened fire, erroneously believing he had time to mount an assault, according to state public safety officials.