The stepfather of a 10-year-old girl killed in Tuesday's horrific shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, had originally headed to the school to carry out his duties as a first responder and was unaware that the youngster was one of the victims.
Tuesday's massacre in the mostly Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a school in the US since 20 children and six adults were shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
The 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, entered Robb Elementary School at around 11:32 AM. He was armed with a handgun and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle before "horrifically, incomprehensibly" opening fire, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said.
The teen also shot his grandmother and crashed his car near the school prior to entering the building. He was eventually shot dead by law enforcement officers.
Nineteen children and two adults were killed in the attack. One of those 19 kids was 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza.
Angel Garza, a medical professional, learned that his stepdaughter was killed in the massacre after arriving to help those wounded at the scene.
Speaking to People, Angel's mother, Berlinda Arreola, said that her son rushed to the elementary school after learning that there had been a shooting there.
"He was helping children," Arreola explained, as responding EMTs "were trying to assist with everything going on."
One young girl "ran out and she was covered in blood — covered, saturated in blood. And so he ran to her before she even came out and he's like, 'Are you hurt? Where were you hurt?' And she's like, 'I'm not, I'm not, it's not my blood,'" Arreola said. "And he goes, 'Are you sure?'"
Arreola went on to say that Garza couldn't believe the girl had sustained no injuries, "because the blood was overwhelming — all over her."
It was then that the girl told Garza that the blood on her belonged to her best friend Amerie - Garza's stepdaughter.
Later, as he he looked for Amerie at a nearby hospital, Garza met one of his daughter's classmates, who told him she was shot while trying to dial 911.
"He could have just taken her phone away," Arreola said of the shooter. "He could have just broke it — done something. And he just shot her. Just ... she was one of the first ones that was killed. She was basically shot within probably five minutes."