Meanwhile, families and friends have begun burying their loved ones, and the community continues to cope. In the sun-drenched town square, a park fountain is the centerpiece of a growing memorial honoring those lost.
“She was just there for anybody that needed anything. And that was one thing that we all loved about her,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
Alithia “loved drawing,” her father said, and when he met with President Joe Biden during his Uvalde visit on Sunday, Biden told him that he would have one of Alithia’s drawings displayed at the White House.
She “always had a crayon in hand, just going to town,” Ramirez said.
“I just kept hearing shots fired, and I just kept praying, ‘God, please don’t let him in my room, please don’t let him come in this room,’ and for some reason, he didn’t.”
Three people injured by the gunman remained hospitalized Tuesday at University Hospital San Antonio. The gunman’s 66-year-old grandmother, who was shot in the face before the attack on the school, is in good condition; a 9-year-old girl is in good condition; and a 10-year-old girl is in serious condition, the hospital said.
School district police chief says he’s in contact with authorities
Asked about reports he was not cooperating with DPS, Arredondo told CNN, “I am in contact with DPS every day.” Arredondo was wearing a badge and a gun when he spoke to CNN outside of his home in Uvalde.
In a separate interview with CNN outside his office, Arredondo said Wednesday he’s not going to release any information while funerals are ongoing.
“We’re going to be respectful to the family,” he said. “We’re going to do that eventually. Whenever this is done and the families quit grieving, then we’ll do that obviously.”
It’s the first time Arredondo has commented publicly since two brief news statements on the day of the attack, in which he said the gunman was dead but provided little information on the shooting, citing the ongoing investigation, and took no questions.
The school’s police department and the Uvalde Police Department are “still cooperating,” said Considine, the department’s spokesperson.
The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas will refrain from commenting on the specifics of the investigation, out of respect for the families and the investigative process, it said in a news release. But it noted “there has been a great deal of false and misleading information in the aftermath of this tragedy.”
“Some of the information came from the very highest levels of government and law enforcement. Sources that Texans once saw as iron-clad and completely reliable have now been proven false, “the union’s release reads. “This false information has exacerbated ill-informed speculation which has, in turn, created a hotbed of unreliability when it comes to finding the truth.”
On Tuesday, new members of the city council went to City Hall “at their convenience” to be sworn in, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said. No formal ceremony was held “out of respect for the families who buried their children today, and who are planning to bury their children in the next few days,” McLaughlin said.
Arredondo’s swearing-in Tuesday night was “a private thing” out of respect for the families, he told CNN outside his house Wednesday, adding the families are the focus right now.
More resources are inbound, state says
“The disaster declaration will accelerate all available state and local resources to assist the Uvalde community, as well as suspend regulations that would prevent, hinder, or delay necessary action in coping with the aftermath of the tragic shooting,” the release said.
“The community of Uvalde has been left devastated by last week’s senseless act of violence at Robb Elementary School and should not have to encounter any difficulty in receiving the support needed to heal,” Abbott said.
Patrick Johnson, 58, was so overcome with grief after hearing about the shooting that he drove seven hours from Harleton, Texas, to Uvalde, filling his trunk with children’s toys from a Walmart to pass out in the town square, he told CNN.
For three days, children were invited to choose any toy they liked from a table crowded with stuffed animals, miniature cars and soccer balls.
“When you lose something, especially as a child, you need something else to hold onto,” Johnson said. “It brings joy to the kids, so it brings joy to me.”
CNN’s Andy Rose, Aaron Cooper, Shimon Prokupecz, Omar Jimenez, Eric Levenson, Christina Maxouris, Amanda Watts, Alaa Elassar, Raja Razek, Joe Sutton, Jeremy Grisham and Virginia Langmaid contributed to this report.