Tuesday, March 26

Grandfather mourns 10-year-old Jayce Luevanos in Uvalde school shooting


UVALDE, Texas – It’s the morning coffee Carmelo Quiroz will miss.

Every morning, Quiroz’s grandson, 10-year-old Jayce Luevanos, woke up and made his grandparents a pot of coffee. It was his thing about him. And they loved him for it.

Yes, there were other things about Jayce to love. The way he colored and wrote notes saying “I love you Grandpa.” The way he twirled sticks and always brought the neighborhood kids to the family home, a block from Robb Elementary School.

Jayce’s dog, Fifi, would wait for him to get home. Sometimes, there would be 6, 7, 8 kids tumbling around the yard, playing with sticks and roughhousing as Quiroz and his wife looked on, amused. There were sodas and water for all the kids.

Jayce was happy. He was loved. And he died Tuesday, Quiroz said.

Here, on a sunny spring morning in the last week of school, a gunman entered Robb Elementary and killed 19 children and two teachers. Quiroz learned that night that Jayce was among the victims.

“He was our baby,” Quiroz said.

Visitors pay respects at the school sign of Robb Elementary School on the day after a mass shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead in Uvalde, Texas.

More:Families mourn as names of Texas school shooting victims begin to emerge

On Wednesday morning, he was slumped over behind the wrought-iron fence posts in the family’s back yard, looking out into the empty day. A few blocks past there, crowds of FBI agents and other law enforcement officers still flanked the roped-off school.

His family hasn’t been allowed to see their boy. Maybe tomorrow, Quiroz said.


www.usatoday.com

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