A week after a gunman ran into a Texas primary school and started shooting, the first of 21 funerals has been held.
The family of Amerie Jo Garza laid the 10-year-old Robb Elementary School student to rest as the focus turns to gun control, with US President Joe Biden meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to discuss her 2019 ban on military-style weapons that followed the Christchurch massacre.
Last week, two teachers and 19 students were killed in the town of Uvalde, about 90 minutes west of San Antonio, when an 18-year-old gunman burst into a classroom on Tuesday, May 24 (local time) and began firing a military-style rifle.
The first two funerals were held exactly one week later, while the pressure on local funeral homes means at least one family still has not seen the body of their loved one.
Mr Biden praised Ms Ardern for her "galvanising leadership" on New Zealand's efforts to curb the spread of extremism online after a white supremacist killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two Christchurch mosques.
Ms Ardern successfully won passage of gun control measures less than a month after the shooting, with all but one of the country's 120 federal politicians voting in favour of banning military-style semiautomatic weapons.
The New Zealand PM offered her condolences to Mr Biden and said she stood ready to share "anything that we can share that would be of any value" from her country's experience.
"Our experience demonstrated our need for gun reform, but it also demonstrated what I think is an international issue around violent extremism and terrorism online," Ms Ardern told reporters after the meeting.
Mourners turned away as church reaches capacity
Hundreds of mourners turned out for an afternoon service to remember Amerie Jo Garza.
Six pallbearers wearing white shirts and gloves carried her small casket into the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, which turned away several mourners after reaching capacity.
The funeral for Maite Rodriguez, 10, was scheduled for later on Tuesday at one of Uvalde's funeral homes.
Visitation for one of the teachers, 48-year-old Irma Garcia, also was on Tuesday, along with visitations for children Nevaeh Bravo and Jose Flores Jr.
A Texas craftsman said he had designed and donated custom coffins for many of the victims.
Amerie loved purple, so Erika Santiago, her husband and their two children all wore purple shirts adorned with images of the victims to Amerie's funeral.
Ms Santiago described Amerie as "a nice little girl who smiled a lot", and who was "so humble and charismatic but full of life".
She said her 10-year-old son, Adriel, watched in horror when the first images came out on the news after the shooting and he recognised his friends Amerie and Maite.
"It affected him so much," she said.
"He told me he did not want to go to school, fearing that could happen. He told me: 'Mom, I just don't feel safe.'"
Funerals for the remaining victims will continue over the next two-and-a-half weeks.
Family yet to see body of slain daughter
Vincent Salazar's 11-year-old daughter, Layla, has the last of the scheduled services — her visitation will be on June 15 with the funeral the following day.
Mr Salazar said the family likely would not see Layla's body until soon before the visitation.
"It's strange because, usually when somebody dies, these things happen in three or four days," he said.
"It's not something that goes on this long. I understand there were other children as well, but we're just waiting to get her back.
"That's all we're focused on right now — getting [Layla] back and being able to put her to rest."
Uvalde County Justice of the Peace Eulalio "Lalo" Diaz Jr said the bodies of all 21 victims were sent to the medical examiner's office in San Antonio for autopsies, which was standard for a major crime.
He said there simply was not enough space at Uvalde's two funeral homes to keep all of the bodies, so many were sent to out-of-town funeral homes until services neared.
"Where do you store that many people?" Mr Diaz said.
Police response under scrutiny
Investigators continue to seek answers about how police responded to the shooting, and the US Department of Justice is reviewing law enforcement actions.
The blame for an excruciating delay in killing the gunman — even as parents outside begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside — was placed on the school district's homegrown police chief, Pete Arredondo, after the director of state police said Mr Arredondo made the "wrong decision" not to breach the classroom, believing the gunman was barricaded inside and children were not at risk.
On Friday, Steven McCraw — head of the Texas Department of Public Safety — said that, after following the gunman into the building, officers waited more than an hour to breach the classroom.
That revelation raised new questions about whether lives were lost because officers did not act faster to stop the gunman, who was ultimately killed by Border Patrol tactical officers.
'Everyone there was doing the best that they could'
On Tuesday, Jacob Albarado — an off-duty Border Patrol agent who rushed to the school with a shotgun borrowed from his barber — said the scene was chaotic when he arrived in search of his daughter and wife.
Both were physically unharmed in the attack, he said.
"To me, I believe everyone there was doing the best that they could, given the circumstances," he told NBC's Today Show.
"I believe everyone there was doing everything in their power."
Authorities have said the gunman legally purchased two guns not long before the school attack: an AR-style rifle on May 17 and a second rifle on May 20.
He had just turned 18, permitting him to buy the weapons under federal law.
ABC/wires
