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Uvalde mourns teacher killed in school shooting

The funeral mass for Joe and Irma Garcia took place in Texas today
The funeral mass for Joe and Irma Garcia took place in Texas today

The Texas town of Uvalde has laid to rest one of the two teachers killed in last week's elementary school massacre, along with her husband who died days later.

Irma Garcia, 48, was killed when a teenaged gunman went on a rampage at Robb Elementary, in an attack that left 19 young children and another teacher at the school dead.

Compounding the tragedy, Ms Garcia's 50-year-old husband, Joe, died two days later. They had been married for more than 24 years.

"They began their relationship in high school and it flourished into a love that was beautiful and kind," obituaries for the pair said. They are survived by two sons and two daughters, the youngest aged 12.

Pallbearers carried the Garcias' flower-topped coffins into Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde for today's funeral mass. They were to be buried later in the day.

A GoFundMe set up for the Garcias said Mr Garcia died of a "medical emergency" on 26 May, two days after the shooting. It sought to raise $10,000, but more than $2.78 million has been donated so far.

Irma Garcia was a teacher at Robb Elementary in Texas

With the community in mourning - the first funerals for the children killed were held yesterday - anger has also seethed over the police response as the tragedy unfolded.

Officers have come under intense criticism over why they waited well over an hour to shoot the gunman, which Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) director Steven McCraw has admitted was the "wrong decision."

19 children and two teachers were killed in the shooting

'Not coming back'

ABC News yesterday cited multiple law enforcement sources saying that the Uvalde police department and school district had stopped cooperating with the DPS's investigation into the handling of the attack.

Beside a memorial of white crosses surrounded by wreaths and bouquets of flowers, the great-grandfather of one of the young victims berated police.

"They could tell me 'Oh, we made a mistake. We made the wrong decision'. But my great-granddaughter is not coming back to me," said 78-year-old Ruben Mata Montemayor.

The Uvalde massacre, the latest in an epidemic of gun violence in the United States, has rekindled calls for gun reform. It came less than two weeks after ten people died in an attack at a Buffalo, New York grocery store by a young gunman targeting African Americans.

Gun regulation faces deep resistance in the United States, from most Republicans and some rural-state Democrats.

But President Joe Biden - who visited Uvalde over the weekend - vowed on Monday to "continue to push" for reform, saying: "I think things have gotten so bad that everybody is getting more rational about it."

Some key federal lawmakers have also voiced cautious optimism and a bipartisan group of senators worked through the weekend to pursue possible areas of compromise.

They reportedly were focusing on laws to raise the age for gun purchases or to allow police to remove guns from people considered a threat to themselves or others - but not on an outright ban on high-powered rifles like the weapons used in both Uvalde and Buffalo.