Gilbert Limones and a coworker at a funeral home were among the first people shot at by the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.
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“When tragedies happen, all the enemy needs is a willing vessel,” Limones told his congregation of about 35, meeting for the first time in an old restaurant converted into a worship space.While Limones didn’t suffer any physical injuries, he said he is exhausted and wracked with guilt that he couldn't do something to stop the bloodshed. He has spent hours in tears or prayer, sometimes both at the same time.
Limones, who preaches in both Spanish and English, has salt-and-pepper hair and a smile that’s wide in happy times. He was animated before the congregation, which meets just one right turn and another left away from Robb Elementary School and Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home. The two sit on opposite sides of Geraldine Street, near where 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother in the face at home before the school attack.
Limones said he got away as quickly as he could, cringing at every shot, and calling police as soon as he could. “I was screaming, screaming at 911,” he said.But Ramos turned the gun on the school's exterior and then entered the building through a door that authorities say didn't lock when a teacher pulled it shut. “I saw it all,” said Limones.
Jason Horn, a volunteer funeral director from Longview, Texas, described working in shifts with others at Hillcrest to prepare the young victims for burial.“We had five cases that were extremely difficult cases, and all five families were able to see their babies, and they all decided to go ahead with open caskets,” he said in a video about the effort.
“I have a fourth-grader that was in the room next door that’s terrified. My niece died. I have a 6-year-old that just told me, ‘I don’t want to go to school. Why, to be shot?’ I have one going into junior high. I have a third grader,” Turner said. “We want answers to where the security is going to take place. This was all a joke. I’m so disappointed in our school district.”
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