'Too many of these': Candlelight vigil held for victims of Uvalde, Buffalo, NY, shootings

Naomi Tey was driving to work last week when she got a phone call from her niece. At the time, what she heard "simply didn't register," she said.

Arriving at her office, the 61-year-old Corpus Christi resident quickly turned on her radio. An NPR report echoed what she'd just heard, detailing that an 18-year-old gunman had stormed into a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school. Nineteen children and two teachers died in what would become the United States' deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade.

A former elementary school teacher, Tey said she immediately thought about her former students and the fear the victims — who were 9, 10 and 11 years old — must have felt before the massacre.

"I was stunned," she said. "I've seen some kids that age around town recently, and I just want to tell the parents to hug them harder because you never know. (The parents in Uvalde) didn't know they'd never see their kids again that day. You just never know."

Tey was one of dozens of people who attended a prayer vigil on Tuesday. Organized by the Corpus Christi chapter of the NAACP, the vigil was held to memorialize the 21 victims of the Uvalde shooting.

The vigil also honored 13 people killed in a hate-fueled shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket earlier this month, just 10 days before the Uvalde shooting. In Buffalo, about 1,700 miles away from Uvalde, an 18-year-old gunman allegedly sought out a predominantly Black neighborhood before specifically targeting Black people in the deadly shooting.

People filing into Stone Rock Church for the vigil were handed candles to light in honor of the victims. During a ceremony, community leaders and elected officials lit 34 candles in total — symbolizing the dead from both Uvalde and Buffalo — as photos of the victims were shown.

In addition, two representatives from the Corpus Christi Independent School District lit candles for two Ray High School students who died in a one-vehicle car crash Tuesday morning.

Afterward, Corpus Christi Police Chief Mike Markle, Corpus Christi Mayor Paulette Guajardo and Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales spoke to attendees. They expressed their condolences to the affected families.

Markle said the department has heightened efforts to monitor the safety of local schools in recent weeks, in part by stationing officers at campuses and in the parking lots every day.

"It's a sad commentary that that has to be, but it's also a good thing that we're able to do," he said. His comments come days after a viral social media post alleging a threat to Veterans Memorial High School.

Canales said local offices of emergency management came together to pen letters of sympathy and fashion quilts to send to Uvalde. Those efforts, she said, could continue later this week. She welcomed anyone in the community to participate.

Guajardo asked attendees to pray for the affected families.

"It's sad because it's what I've said several times since even before the Buffalo incident, but the greatest gift is prayers," she said. "That's the greatest gift you can give to the families, students, brothers and sisters (and) broken parents' hearts."

Though the mood was calm and sober during most of the vigil, some attendees were raring to discuss what action could be taken next. Some voiced their questions about the shifting account from law enforcement in the wake of the Uvalde shooting.

After Guajardo spoke, Sylvia Campos, 65, called on the mayor to "do more" than "just offer thoughts and prayers."

Campos, who unsuccessfully ran for City Council in 2018 and 2020, said she would like the city to implement a firearm buy-back program. Under such a program, the city would obtain firearms from residents in exchange for money or other compensation in an effort to lessen the number of guns in the community.

"I know it can happen if we had the will to do it," Campos said.

Sandra Wilson and Doris Fillmore, both 75, scrutinized Uvalde law enforcement officials, who reportedly did not immediately engage the shooter in the school as children inside were calling 911 and requesting help.

"I believe eventually there will have to be some consequences from the top down," Wilson said. "Now, the officers that didn't go in are saying, well, we were being told to wait. However, we're talking about children here. I don't think they should've waited to go in."

Fillmore said the conflicting accounts from law enforcement about the shooting are "very troubling."

"I think we're still missing a lot of the story," she said.

The Justice Department announced on Sunday that it is reviewing the delayed police response to the school shooting at the request of Uvalde's mayor.

NAACP Corpus Christi President Jeremy Coleman said the organization initially set out to hold a vigil after the Buffalo shooting but changed plans to include the Uvalde shooting because "there is a common denominator in both."

Coleman said the prayer vigil was meant to honor the dead but also to issue a call to action to members of the organization: Contact your local, state and federal representatives to ask for change.

"Whenever you're talking about massive shootings of innocent people, there has to be something that can be done," he said, advocating for stricter regulations on obtaining AR-15-style rifles — which were obtained legally and used for both the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings. "We are going to do what's necessary by pushing, calling, writing and having meetings to vocalize our concerns."

Wilson said the seemingly random nature of the shootings concerns her the most.

"It was older people the first time and at the (Buffalo) grocery store, and now it's young babies in school. ... Too many of these are happening," she said. "It's just kind of random, but it seems like it's always innocent, vulnerable people."

Chase Rogers covers local government and industry in South Texas. Contact him at chase.rogers@caller.com or on Twitter @chasedrogers. You can support local journalism with a subscription to the Caller-Times. 

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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Candlelight vigil held for victims of Uvalde, Buffalo, shootings