Angel Garza, the father of Amerie Jo Garza, who was killed in Tuesday’s school shooting in Uvalde, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper this evening that his daughter was trying to help her classmates as the attack was unfolding.
“She was just trying to do the right thing,” he said. “She was just trying to call the cops, that’s all.”
The father noted that his daughter had received a phone for her birthday two weeks ago.
“She just got her phone. She’d been wanting a phone for so long, and we finally got it for her. She just tried to call the police,” he told CNN.
“I just want people to know that she just died trying to save her classmates. She just wanted to save everyone,” he later added.
Garza, who works as a med aide, learned this information while arriving on the scene to help the shooting victims. He stated that two students in the classroom confirmed that she was trying to call police when she got shot.
“One little girl was just covered in blood head-to-toe,” Garza said. “I asked her what was wrong, and she said ‘she was ok.’ She was hysterical saying they shot her best friend. ‘She’s not breathing, and she tried to call the cops.’ I asked her what’s her name and she said, she told me ‘Amerie, she said Amerie.’”
The father described his daughter, calling her “the sweetest little girl.”
“She was the sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong. She listened to her mom and dad. She always brushed her teeth. She was creative. She made things for us. She never got in trouble in school,” he said.
Watch the interview:
