UVALDE, Texas — On May 24, Jose Flores Jr. died at just 10 years old. A gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and killed 19 children and two adults. Now, George Rodriguez is preparing for his step-grandson’s funeral Wednesday.
“Yo te amo mucho. I love you a lot. That’s a song,” Rodriguez said. “I was going to sing at his funeral after to all the people. We sing that all the time.”
Rodriguez has visited every memorial for Flores Jr. around Uvalde. Several have popped up: In the park downtown, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, outside of the house where Flores Jr. grew up, and outside of Rodriguez’s former home where he lived for 18 years.
Another memorial lives in Rodriguez’s wallet. He carries a picture of Flores Jr. everywhere he goes. On the back: “To: George, From: Jose.” Rodriguez shows it to almost everyone he runs into.
“Very lovely boy. Very lovely person. Respectful. Just lovable,” Rodriguez said of his step-grandson.
Other people in Uvalde loved Flores Jr. too. Lupe Leija’s 8-year-old son Samuel is a student at Robb Elementary School. He was in a different wing during the shooting. At a baseball tournament on Saturday, the teams donned “Uvalde Strong” tees and prayed for the city together.
“We won some medals,” Leija said. “And [Samuel] would like to give his to Josecito Flores for... you know.”
Rodriguez affectionately calls his step-grandson “Josecito.” Samuel is two years younger than him, but the little boys knew each other through school and baseball.
Rodriguez said Flores Jr. had a hard 10 years of life. He saw his mother get arrested at a young age.
“He had that missing motherly love, that motherly care,” Rodriguez said. “Nobody can replace that. With her feelings, her care, her attention to him. Mom’s love is the best you could have, but mostly he didn’t have it.”
Rodriguez said he could never replicate “motherly love,” but he tried. He helped pick up Flores Jr. after school and took him to activities. He told me they used to sit on the bench, under shade when it was hot, and talk.
“He was a little kid growing up. We bought him a bicycle for Christmas one time, me and his grandma. I think they call them roller blades... you stand on it and you roll on it, and if you fall off, you fall off. Rollerblades,” Rodriguez remembered with a smile. “He was just a nice little happy kid. He was not all sad and crying and missing his mommy. She was just away and not here for him.”
Rodriguez, an avid golfer and two-time winner of Uvalde’s annual tournament, said Flores Jr. loved driving in his golf cart. Sometimes he was allowed to steer the wheel–carefully and only on flat areas, Rodriguez stressed–and laughed like he was on a roller coaster.
Recounting these memories is painful for Rodriguez. On May 24, he rushed to Robb Elementary School after hearing about the shooting. He said police directed the mass of people there to the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center. Buses and Border Patrol vans kept arriving with children, but Rodriguez said, “No Jose.”
“Jose never came by on the school bus, and they wouldn’t give you any status on his condition or whereabouts. You just knew that he wasn’t at the Civic Center,” he said.
Rodriguez has friends who live next to Robb Elementary School. They told him this about the tragic day: After the shooter crashed the pickup truck, they saw him grab a weapon and jump the school’s fence. As he was walking toward the school, he started shooting at neighbors, but missed. All this time, Rodriguez said, the school was on lockdown.
What unfolded after that is too hard for Rodriguez to bear. Police reportedly took more than an hour to kill the shooter.
Rodriguez struggles to understand why President Joe Biden thanked first responders on Sunday.
“They didn’t respond,” he said.
Rodriguez is thankful for the time he had with Flores Jr.
“I keep saying, I thank you for the 10 years I was with you Jose,” Rodriguez said. “My cousin says that God had him here on a mission, and his mission is finished here on Earth. He has another mission up there in heaven for him. All the little angels, I call them all little angels. They are angels, all the children.”
Rodriguez may never have answers to the questions that run through his head. But he’s focused on the past, remembering his step grandson as the happy little boy he was.
“I want the whole state to know Josecito. And the nation. And the whole world to know who he was, not who he is, you know,” Rodriguez said with teary eyes. “Why would they take that away from us?”