Move over, 'Friday Night Lights': Texas shooting brings together Odessa, Permian teens to help survivors

ODESSA, Texas — They gathered as the children they are near the statue of a cowboy-hat wearing Prairie Dog in Prairie Pete Playland Park.

But they left radiating the best qualities of adulthood — defiance, determination and benevolence.

Nearly 100 teens from two area high schools, Odessa High School and Permian High School, met Monday evening with the simple purpose of deciding how they could help the victims of Saturday’s mass shooting, which has left seven dead and 25 wounded.

School resumes Tuesday after the holiday weekend. Classrooms and hallways will take on a more sober cast. But for tonight, action was in the air.

After a brief prayer circle, up stood Bryce McKenney, 17, a recent Odessa High School graduate who now attends nearby University of Texas-Permian Basin, where on Sunday night hundreds of locals came together for a memorial.

McKenney, who organized the impromptu assembly, announced that the goal would be to stage a massive fundraising event in a few weekends with proceeds going to those in need.

Lending the joint effort more significance is the fact that the two cities have a legendary rivalry, one chronicled in the book, and later fictionalized on TV, "Friday Night Lights."

“The Odessa-Permian rivalry is something crazy," said McKenney. "We don’t get along. But everyone’s together.”

McKenney bellowed his vision to the crowd. ‘I’m talking, softball tournament and car wash and food stands,” he said, freshly dyed blue hair sprouting from beneath his backwards baseball hat. “What else do you have for me?”

An avalanche of suggestions ensued.

“Let’s contact some bakeries, they may donate some food?”

“We’re on the Permian yearbook staff, we can handle the advertising!”

“Hey we are dancers, can we do a dance performance?”

And so it went for an hour. An unquestionably cathartic hour for a group that, brave faces aside, continues to struggle with fear and uncertainty in the wake of an event the likes of which none had ever imagined visiting this tight isolated community on the dusty, oil-rich outskirts of the Texas republic.

“This place will never be the same,” said Cole McNabb, 18, a senior at Permian Basin. “People will be jumpy forever. Someone who you were close to maybe won’t be there forever.”

'I never drove so fast in my life'

McNabb was in his truck Saturday when he approached the Cinergy movie theater complex east of Odessa. Suddenly, he heard gunshots — police had at that moment caught up with and killed the lone suspect in the mass shooting.

“I never drove so fast in my life,” said McNabb. “But after that, I couldn’t stop thinking about whether I could have helped. I was crying, freaking out, thinking ‘what if’ I’d done this or that. So, that’s why I’m here tonight. My only thought now is, how can I help?”

That altruistic sentiment appeared like a fever among all the kids at the park. Helping seemed the only immediate antidote to the pain.

“All day yesterday, I didn’t feel comfortable driving around,” said Evanie Regalado, 18, a senior at Odessa. “But today I wanted to start fresh, I had to.”

Regalado and her brother told McKenney they’d be eager to create a dance concert for the fundraiser. In fact, Regalado’s dancing skills brought her into contact with one of the people killed on Saturday, Leilah Hernandez, who was 15.

“She tried out for a production of ‘Showgirls,’ and I helped her get her kicks higher, mostly by showing her how to keep her back straighter. She was so nice, so kind, so sweet.”

Regalado’s voice trailed off. Her brother came and hugged her. Nearby, one teen wore a T-shirt that read #leilahstrong. A girl had the number 23 etched in black ink on her cheek, Hernandez’s number on her volleyball and basketball squads.

'I just wish I had never seen that'

While most of the meet-up was focused on planning the fundraiser, the fallen teen was never far from many students’ minds.

Mariana Murillo, a 15-year-old sophomore at Odessa High School, had known Hernandez since joining the same sports team as seventh-graders.

Hernandez was known around campus as a great athlete and even better person, Murillo said, adding, “I just want them to like keep her memory alive, how she was, not how her life ended.”

Murillo herself is trying to exorcise an image. She heard about the shooting through social media, and then came across an explicit picture of her cherished friend lying on the ground.

The graphic pictures of victims were eventually removed from social media, Murillo said, but she said she will never be able to get the image out of her head. “I just wish I had never seen that,” she said.

Murillo said her parents were initially hesitant to send her back to school on Tuesday, but said her principal recently told students and parents that security would be ramped up at the school. But she still worries about growing up in a nation where mass shootings frequently happen.

“Seeing these happen just makes the world seem worse than it already is,” she said. “I just keep hoping that it gets better.”

'He said it was at point-blank'

McKenney also has nightmarish thoughts to contend with. Although he was in New Mexico when the shooting happened and just returned to Odessa on Sunday, he received a phone call Saturday from his old friend and football buddy Nathan Hernandez, Leilah’s older brother.

The first thing he said was, ‘I’m OK, but she’s not.’ The story is tragic, the way he told it to me. The fact that he had to watch his little sister bleed out in front of him and not be able to do anything.”

McKenney said both brother and sister were out on a main road when the shooter passed by, firing. “He said it was at point-blank,” McKenney said softly.

Such gruesome reality is tough to deal with at any age, especially a formative one.

“It’s hard to be happy,” said Luz Alvarado, one of a few adults who attended the teen get-together. “It’s hard to say, ‘I want to go to school, I’m excited about going to school, I want to go to the movies tomorrow.’ It’s not that, it’s ‘I don’t know if I want to go.’”

Alvarado said she hopes the community, the nation and the world will pay attention to those advocating for change and trying to prevent future lives from being lost in mass shootings.

“Enough of the violence, enough of the hate, enough of the deaths – how many have to die for this to end,” she asked.

Luis Olivas, 17, an Odessa junior, admitted that “things are going to be far from normal,” he said. “But as long as everybody helps out, if we can have each others’ back like a big family, we can make it through.”

Olivas paused. The sun was starting to set on Prairie Pete and his six-shooter and big Texas hat.

“We’re the next people to be the leaders of this community and of this world. This is one of those tragedies we have to learn the hard way," he said. "We have to learn to stand as one.”

Follow USA TODAY Network reporters Marco della Cava, George Schroeder and BrieAnna Frank on Twitter: @marcodellacava @georgeschroeder @brieannafrank

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas shooting unites Odessa teens 'as one' to make a difference