Two Mothers Confront the Unimaginable in Uvalde
Years of frustration with the local police and school officials have boiled into rage. Photographs by Hope Mora
On Friday afternoon, Crystal Quiroz, a server at the Bad Boyz Smoked BBQ, in Uvalde, Texas, stared at her cell phone and watched police officials hold a press conference, at least their fifth in four days. They were again describing their response to the gun massacre that had imperilled her nine-year-old son and killed nineteen of his schoolmates. Quiroz, who is thirty-four, began taking notes on a waitress pad where she normally scribbled orders for tacos and brisket quesadillas. Above all, she was interested in the time line of when and how the Uvalde Police Department responded as her son cowered inside Robb Elementary School.
“11:31 Starting Shooting,” she wrote.
“11:33 got in Rm 111 112.”
“11:35 UPD entered”
“11:50”
Quiroz stopped writing and shook her head. Years of frustration with the local police and school officials boiled into rage. Meth use, meagre wages, and racial tension had roiled Uvalde for years, she and other residents said. Now the unimaginable had happened. The police department’s claims about the shooting did not match her son’s version of events. Nor did it match what Quiroz, her sister Carolina, and their cousin had seen with their own eyes. Their children had no reason to lie. They could not say the same of the police.