May 24, 2022: The sun is warming up Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, south Texas, USA.
The birds are chirping in green sprouting trees, and the brothers Frederico and Rojélio Torres run happily into the school yard.
There are three and a half hours until one of the deadliest school massacres of all time takes place. Until the big nightmare will break out.
The brothers’ feet run across the hot asphalt. They play ball until the bell rings.
That same morning, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a former student at Robb Elementary, wakes up in his grandmother’s house. He has been living there for the past few months.
The 18-year-old has long been brooding and strange. In recent days, he has published pictures on social media of large weapons and loaded magazines. He have made threats of violence and talked about school shootings on Instagram, and in addition urged a 17-year-old girl to jump off a bridge.
SCARED: The pictures Ramos published on social media scared several fellow students. Photo: NTB.
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Former childhood friends of the 18-year-old feel worried. Is there something wrong with the once quiet and modest boy? Is he dangerous?
When Ramos gets up, he shoots his grandmother in the face with a rifle. She is badly injured.
Then he travels to the primary school.
With him he has a handgun, an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and high-capacity magazines.
Salvador Ramos. Photo: NTB.
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A living hell
11:32 a.m. Police receive the first report of a shooting at Robb Elementary.
Ramos fires in the schoolyard for five minutes before entering an unlocked side door.
He then enters a double classroom and shoots wildly.
Inside the school, all hell has broken loose. Children shout and scream for hard life.
The Torres brothers are no exception.
Attention-grabbing detail: – Unusual
Ramos manages to fire a hundred rounds of ammunition before he is stopped. 19 students and two teachers fall for his bullets.
Not until 13:06 is Ramos shot and killed by an officer from the United States Border Control.
The massacre is over after a little over an hour.
But for the community in Uvalde, nothing will be the same again.
REMEMBER: Uvalde’s population has created several memorial sites after the mass shooting. Photo: NTB.
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– It was a living hell, says Evadulia Orta to Dagbladet.
She is the mother of several students at the school. She was at home that fateful morning almost a year ago.
– It was cold down the spine. My heart skipped a beat when I realized that the school was the target of a massacre. It’s every American’s nightmare.
Flight instructor died during the flight
Orta says that she rushed to an evacuation point where the pupils were to be transported in buses.
There she quickly spotted her nine-year-old son Frederico and his older cousin.
But her eldest son, Rojélio, was nowhere to be seen.
Orta stayed up through the evening and into the late hours of the night. She could not fear the worst. It couldn’t be right!
The child’s mother remembers panicked screams and sobs all around her.
A few hours later, the bad news came: There were no more students to transport.
Instead, a list of the dead came: A list with nineteen names.
Orta becomes silent.
– Everything went black. My heart was breaking and my legs were giving out.
MURDERED: Ten-year-old Rojélo was shot and killed in the school shooting last May. Photo: Private.
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Most school shootings
The US has by far the most school shootings in the world. The Gun Violence Archive counted 599 shooting massacres in the United States in 2022 alone.
– It’s insane. It destroys an entire nation, says Orta.
Not a day goes by without her and her family grieving. Everyone in the family goes to therapy.
Orta thinks it’s worst for the younger brother, Frederico. He who was there when it crashed.
– He has lost his playmate and soul mate. Seeing the sadness in his eyes every day doubles my sadness.
MEMORIAL BENCH: Memorial benches have been made for all the victims of the school shooting. This is Rojélo’s memory bench. Photo: Private.
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She does not want to comment on gun policy in the United States. Nor does she want to talk about shooting massacres and what can cause them.
Orta takes a deep breath. Some days she can barely stand up. Most days she forces herself.
Dream cruise ended in tragedy
The mother describes the grief as waves washing onto a beach:
– For one second it is there, cold, heavy and alive – then nothing. This is how it continues, every day, inside and out: Grief. Emptiness. Sorrow.
Every day she visits the grave of her loved one. She places flowers at memorials around the city. Every day she thinks about the children she has. And the child she was supposed to have.
– It is a bottomless sorrow that will never evaporate. No one deserves this, she concludes.
