Eulalio “Lalo” Díaz Jr. was in charge as justice of the peace of Uvalde the day that Salvador Ramos, a young man from 18 years old, entered Robb Elementary School armed and massacred 19 children , plus two teachers, during the deadliest school shooting in state history.
In fact, the county is so small that the judge on duty also acts as the de facto coroner for Uvalde. “It was my luck…my bad luck,” Diaz told NPR. “But I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
Because there is no local medical examiner’s office, the justice of the peace regularly serves as the county medical examiner, in addition to presiding over felony court cases. minors, minor civil disputes and marriage ceremonies.
The last week, that meant Diaz was the one who was called to school to name the small, ravaged bodies of most of the children between the ages of 9 and 10 years before they could receive an autopsy.
Díaz found a former classmate among the victims
Díaz had to face a chilling discovery: among the dead, lying motionless on the floor of the same elementary school he attended as a child, was a former classmate: Irma García, one of the two teachers who were murdered that day.
“She was a year younger than me in middle and high school, and I met her husband”, he said, referring to Joe Garcia, who died of a heart attack two days later. “She was a year older than me. They had been high school sweethearts. I have known them all my life,” Díaz added to NPR.
With his head in his hands, at the end of a long day, Díaz said that the scene will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Admits that he is probably still running on adrenaline and that the demands of the situation keep him so busy that he has no time to think. But he said that when he gets a chance to get some air, he plans to seek some help to process the trauma of what he has witnessed.
When they entered the school, he and a medical examiner found that first responders had moved the bodies, separating the dead from the injured, to reach those who needed medical assistance. “So, when we got there, there were children in four rooms: the two initial rooms plus two other rooms,” said Díaz, adding that “they went room by room preparing the plan together about what we were going to need to make sure we identify everyone correctly.” Díaz did not describe the scene in detail. Instead, he said, “It’s something you never want to see and it’s something you don’t, you can’t prepare for. It’s an image that will stay in my head forever, and that’s where I’d like it to stay.” Also read: She saw firsthand what a semi-automatic can do to a child
Husband of the teacher who died in the shooting in Uvalde, Joe García, dies of a heart attack after the loss of his partner
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