Odessa rallying around Uvalde following tragedy
May 25—Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis said he still tears up after seeing the news about the horrific mass shooting that took place Tuesday afternoon at an elementary school in Uvalde that left 21 people dead, including 19 students.
Hours after the most recent Texas tragedy Griffis announced on his personal Facebook page that he would collect funds to donate to charity causes in connection to the Uvalde shooting.
Griffis stated in the Facebook post that as of 7:23 p.m. Tuesday evening that he had already collected $1,000 from sheriff's office employees. That number skyrocketed as of Wednesday afternoon to more than $10,000. Griffis said he will continue to collect funds through Thursday as he is going to hand deliver the donation to the Uvalde County Sheriff's Office on Friday.
"This money is never ever going to fix some of the grief and horrible things going through people's minds," Griffis said during a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon. "We felt like we needed to help in some way. This was the quickest way that I could figure out to make that happen.
"If at some other point they need other things or another person down there, we will drive down there and help them. It's such an awful circumstance. It's beyond belief. My heart goes out to them."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, during a Wednesday press conference, says as a state we need to do better with mental health. He also said the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school warned on social media minutes before the attack that he was going to shoot up a school.
Abbott says the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, used an AR-15 in the attack Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
About 30 minutes before the shooting, Ramos made three social media posts. According to the governor, Ramos posted that he was going to shoot his grandmother, then that he had shot the woman, and finally that he was going to shoot an elementary school.
Seventeen people were also injured in the attack.
Abbott says Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history.
"Evil swept across Uvalde yesterday," Abbott said.
Odessans, like Griffis, are just a little over two years away from a mass shooting here that took the lives of seven people and injured 25 others. The Odessa-Midland communities will be forever linked with other mass tragedies throughout the country after Aug. 31, 2019, when Seth Ator took to the streets shooting at random people before law enforcement shot him to death near Cinergy Theatre in Odessa.
On Wednesday morning, Griffis was traveling to the Big Bend Law Enforcement Officer Association Memorial Ceremony at Sul Ross State University in Alpine. Griffis said he reached out to Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco and offered him any help he needs.
Griffis told the Odessa American that he has also communicated with Howard County Sheriff Stan Parker whose department will also be collecting and sending donations for the Uvalde shooting.
Though the Odessa-Midland area experienced its mass shooting event more than two years ago, Griffis said he can't fathom what the community is going through.
"I can't image losing a young child, especially in a violent manner like that," Griffis said. "There were innocent lives lost in such a violent manner by an evil person. I can't image what they are going through. It's horrible."
In his media call Wednesday, Ector County ISD Superintendent Scott Muri said he wasn't sure there were any appropriate words that could capture the feelings and thoughts of educators throughout ECISD.
"But know that we are horrified at having seen that and just cannot imagine the unspeakable trauma that those kids", teachers, parents and the entire community are going through, Muri said.
He added that the district has reached out to people in Uvalde.
"One of the things that is most needed right now is social-emotional support; families and friends, that entire community; the students and staff members at that school need significant support. We have experts in our own system and we've offered their expertise, if needed, to that community and we will continue to support them," Muri said.
He added that they learned from the mass shooting in 2019 that trauma doesn't disappear after a day, a week or a month. "It is sustained for a long period of time, and just as those from other parts of the country continue to support our needs as a community, we will continue to support the needs of that small community here in Texas," Muri said.
In response to the shooting, Muri said ECISD has heightened its security. "School in ECISD ends on Thursday of this week and we have extra officers, not only our own police officers but members of the Odessa Police Department, the Sheriff's Department," ECISD police, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and others who have volunteered their services just to be vigilant over the next several days, Muri said.
"We appreciate the local law enforcement officials that are, in conjunction with our own police department, ensuring that our kids and staff members remain safe on their campuses ...," Muri said.
He added that there will be heightened security at graduations and other events this week.
Additionally, there is information on the ECISD website for parents and guardians to use to start conversations with their children about the tragedy.
"... There is a link on the very front page that will take you to our social-emotional or mental health resources, if you will, and you'll find information about as a parent how do you talk with an elementary, middle or high school student about a situation such as this. We invite all of our parents and others within our community to access that information so that you're equipped to engage in conversations. Your child may not be ready to talk about it today, or even tomorrow, or next week, but at some point ... our children at every age are going to need to have a conversation about what they're hearing and what they're reading and what they're perceiving. It may dredge up memories from our own community's tragedy two years ago ....," Muri said.
He added that security protocols for entry to campuses are still in place. They haven't changed.
State Rep. Brooks Landgraf said the Uvalde murders are a real-life nightmare. "Hearts are broken across Texas, including mine."
He said he reached out to his House colleague who represents Uvalde to provide him "with the contacts and resources that were provided to me as the 8/31/19 Midland-Odessa mass shooting unfolded. Like others did for our community in 2019, I'm committed to work with the people of Uvalde to respond the way they deem fit."
"Schools should be a refuge for students, and campuses should be even safer than the communities they're in. As a parent, I want to be confident that I'll be able to pick up my daughter every day after school."
Landgraf said the people of Uvalde, amid their grief, "have asked for our prayers. As a neighbor, I'm praying for them. As a father, I want to be confident that I'll be able to pick up my daughter after school each day. As your state representative, I'm going to continue to work to further strengthen campus security because schools must be a safe refuge for all students.
"I'm grateful for the brave teachers and first responders who risked — and sacrificed — their own lives to prevent a terrible situation from becoming much worse."
He said now is the time to create viable solutions to prevent mass violence while protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Texans. "We've had some success in doing so, but clearly more needs to be done. I don't have all the answers in this moment, and I don't know anyone who does, but I will be working diligently the way I always do."
The Rev. Dawn Weaks, pastor of Connection Christian Church, said this latest shooting will be addressed at the church's Sunday service.
"I think we're out of words. We have to discern what God requires of us. It's Micah 6:8 that (says) what does the Lord require of you to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. I think of Esther, who was put in a position for such a time as this. These are the things that guide us. We are God's people in our country at this time where gun violence is a national addiction and we have to discern what is God calling us to do," Weaks said.
"A special word to Odessans and (the) Permian Basin to care for yourself and your mental health in consuming the news and the social media around this. It's really OK, and probably necessary, to turn things off so that you're not re-traumatized. It's really important to practice that self-care right now," Weaks added.
In general, she said, you have to monitor how much news you consume.
"But I think specifically as victims of a mass shooting ourselves, and our whole community was (the) victim of a mass shooting, whether you knew someone or not it terrorized us. We really do need to monitor how much we're engaging. It's not that we don't care, it's that we have to take care of ourselves so that we can care for others," Weaks said.
James Archie, founder of the Spirit Family Christian Worship Center in Midland, said he felt pain and sadness in his heart when he heard of the massacre.
"... All I could do was just pray for the victims and for their families and just feel how Satan's pull in people's hearts and in people's lives has really just taken over our country," Archie said.
"In my opinion, I believe that more prayers should be being done by Christian people. There should also be more support for some change in the way that our gun laws are. I'm a gun owner myself and I believe in the Second Amendment that all people have the right to bear arms. ...," Archie said.
"... I just feel like if there was more legislation and more ... politicians who would look at it in a way not about the almighty dollar, but more about the protection of our country and the rights of people who really deserve those rights; just simply change some laws to make it where certain people wouldn't be able to get their hands on guns. It would make it a lot easier and life would be a lot better. ... We never know what's in a person's mind ... but I believe that it could help slow down the processes of these things happening to our young people, because we're supposed to look at our children as the future and someone who has the ability to be able to go into a school and kill 19 children and the people who are trying to teach them, it makes life more difficult than it really has to be," Archie added.
Odessa Mayor Javier Joven on Tuesday during the city council meeting also offered words of support for Uvalde.
"No words can adequately express our sorrow," Joven said. "The City of Odessa stands in unity with our brothers and sisters in the city of Uvalde."
