On Could 24, simply days away from summer season trip, fourth-grader Amerie Jo Garza was killed in her elementary faculty classroom as she tried to name 911 for assist throughout a mass capturing.
On Tuesday, the Lady Scouts introduced that they posthumously awarded her one in all its highest honors for risking, and in the end giving, her life to avoid wasting others.
The group gave 10-year-old Garza the Bronze Cross, which is awarded "for saving or trying to avoid wasting life on the danger of the Lady Scout's personal life."
In an interview with CNN, Garza's stepfather Angel Garza instructed Anderson Cooper of the second he found what occurred to his daughter. He is a medical help who was responding to the scene when he got here throughout to a bit woman who was "coated in blood head to toe." He thought she was injured, and went as much as her to assist.
"She was hysterical saying that they shot her finest pal, that they killed her finest pal, she's not respiratory, and that she was attempting to name the cops," Garza mentioned. When he requested the little woman what her pal's identify was, she instructed him it was his stepdaughter.
Angel Garza mentioned that "she was simply attempting to do the suitable factor" when she referred to as the police. He mentioned Amerie Jo had been wanting a cellphone for therefore lengthy, and that they lastly gave her one for her birthday simply two weeks earlier than.
"She was so fearful of simply strangers and issues like this. She would lock the door after I would step out to place gasoline within the automotive. That is actually her worst worry and she or he was simply attempting to assist everybody," he mentioned.
"She simply tried to name the police. I obtained affirmation from two of the scholars in her classroom that she was simply attempting to name authorities. And I suppose he simply shot her," he cried, clutching a photograph of Amerie Jo to his chest. "How do you have a look at this woman and shoot her?"
On Friday, Texas Division of Public Security Director Steven McCraw unveiled a timeline of the capturing, saying that from 11:30 a.m. to 12:51 p.m., there have been 11 completely different calls made to 911, most of them from kids, none of whom had been publicly recognized.
"On Could 24, Amerie did all she may to avoid wasting the lives of her classmates and lecturers," Lady Scouts of Southwest Texas tweeted. "...We'll carry her story with us all the time and guarantee her courageous actions will endure for generations."
Lady Scouts awarded the Bronze Cross to Garza's household and performed the Presentation of Colours at her funeral on Tuesday. She was the primary of the 21 individuals killed in the course of the Robb Elementary College capturing to be buried.
Amerie's name to 911 was not her first act of standing up for these round her.
On Monday, David Treviñ instructed The Texas Tribune that his 11-year-old daughter had confronted important bullying at Robb Elementary. Amerie Jo Garza caught up for her towards those that put her down.
"[My daughter] is taking it actually arduous," Treviño mentioned, as his daughter sobbed throughout a vigil for Amerie. "She would defend her from the bullies."
In a GoFundMe for Amerie, her mom's finest pal describes her as a "stunning soul" who "touched everybody's hearts round her."
"She lit up each room she walked into," her mother's pal Jasmine wrote. "She acquired an award yesterday for honor roll simply earlier than the capturing occurred. She was so good and such a great little one."