The family of Texas school shooter Salvador Ramos has sought help to pay the medical bills of his grandmother, who was the gunman’s first victim on 24 May.
Ramos’s aunt Natalie Salazar sought help for her mother Celia “Sally” Gonzales, who was “shot in the face and left to die alone in her home by her very own grandson”.
Ms Salazar has set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe to raise $30,000 (£23,770) to pay for the expenses of her mother who has already undergone four major surgeries and is expected to go through several more.
Last week, Ramos shot his grandmother after they got into an argument over a phone bill, before going on a killing spree at an elementary school in Uvalde. He barricaded himself in a classroom at the Robb Elementary School where he killed 19 students and two faculty members.
The shooter was eventually killed by Border Patrol agents, but not before responding police ignored the cries of desperate parents asking them to enter the school.
The bullet hit the 66-year-old woman in her cheek and exited under her ear, according to her husband Rolando Reyes.
He said that Ms Gonzales is awake but unable to speak. “She had a notebook where she writes what she’s trying to say, but when we can’t make it out, she gets frustrated,” he said.
Video footage from inside their house, where the shooter was living with his grandparents, showed visible blood strains on the walls.
“It was by the grace of God that she was able to get up off the floor and walk to a neighbour’s home and ask for help,” Ms Salazar said.
“We are deeply saddened with what happened on May 24. It has my family shaken to the core, especially my mom,” she wrote while seeking help. “We’ve been hit from all sides. My mom was shot in the face and left to die alone in her home by her very own grandson.”
She added: “We give our most sincere condolences to all the families that lost a loved one that day, as my children and I have lost my little cousin Layla on my dad’s side of the family too and my nephew [Ramos, the shooter] on my mom’s side.”
Ten-year-old Layla Salazar was one of the victims killed by Ramos last week. Though Layla and Ramos were cousins by marriage, the child’s father said that the relationship was dissolved following a divorce many years ago, according to the New York Post.
She also urged people to forgive her nephew. “God has called his children to come together. We need to change our ways and pray. We can not continue to spew hate. I know it will take time but we have to forgive those who have wronged us. We can not keep judging,” she said.
“Leave that to God. Quit tearing each other down, we can not let evil win. I pray for peace and for God to comfort you in these difficult times as we ourselves [are] also grieving.”
On the fundraiser’s platform, which allows people to share their message with organisers, several people poured support for the family and said their loss had been neglected because of the wrongdoings of the shooter.
“Her pain is deep and multiplied during these days,” a donator, Thomas Sims, said. “She has the pain of being attacked, the sorrow of loss, the grief over how this happened to her, and sorrow and remorse for the many innocent victims.”
“I want her to know God’s grace and love surrounding her in this hour and to know that many of us are praying for her and her family as well as all those traumatized in Uvalde,” he added.
Adriana Reyes, Ramos’s mother, has said her son was not a “monster,” but could be aggressive. “I had an uneasy feeling sometimes, like ‘what are you up to’. He can be aggressive... If he really got mad,” she said.
His father, also named Salvador Ramos, apologised to the town of Uvalde for his son’s act, but added: “I don’t want them calling him a monster... they don’t know nothing, man. They don’t know anything he was going through.”
