A Fox News reporter shared a poignant story from the scene of the tragic shooting Saturday that left nearly two dozen people dead at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
A son who dropped his mother off to shop later found her lying dead on the floor in a pile of bodies, Fox anchor Garrett Tenney said.
“It paints a picture for you of what this entire community is going through, including those witnesses that we spoke to earlier at the scene,” Tenney told Fox News.
A heartbreaking story
For the victims and their families, what should have been a routine stop at the supermarket turned into the scene of an unspeakable, senseless tragedy. Tenney recounted the story of a man who had dropped his mother off to shop, only to discover that she was dead moments later.
“Just within moments, a son had dropped off his mother at the front of that Walmart so that she could walk in while he drove to find a parking spot. By the time he parked his car, he heard the gunshots ring out. And he got out, ran inside. By the time he got there, he said he saw his mother laying there on the floor with a dozen or so other people, dead, blood all over the floor, he said,” Tenney recalled.
Tenney, visibly emotional, went on: “And all he could say to me was, ‘My mom is dead. My mom.’ And that gives you a sense of the loss and the depths of loss in this community, for so many people.”
A tragedy, politicized
A 21-year-old man from a suburb of Dallas was taken into custody for the shooting, which left 22 dead and dozens more injured. Texas prosecutors are treating the shooting like a hate crime and terrorism case, and they will seek the death penalty, according to CBS News.
Speaking on Fox, Tenney described the frantic scene painted by witnesses who frantically rushed to the back of the Walmart to hide from the gunman — and others who were desperately searching for loved ones.
“A lot of folks [are] still filled with hope that they’ll be able to find their loved ones,” he said. “There are those also who are filled with desperation, just in the depths of it, searching for answers about their loved ones. There were three women that just came here and they said they are still looking for their [87-year-old] mother… They said she left for Walmart this morning and they have not heard from her since. They are desperate for answers.”
He added: “One of the daughters came up, just sobbing, yelling — saying ‘I just want to know where she is. I want to know if she is alive or if she is dead. Where is her body?’ A lot of folks here are in that situation. Three thousand people inside that Walmart, a lot of folks are still searching for answers to know whether their loved ones are still with them or not.”
The shooting was linked to a white nationalist manifesto that mentioned a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.” Liberals including El Paso native Beto O’Rourke have taken advantage of the shooting to slam President Donald Trump and push for gun control.
But what matters is that human lives were senselessly lost, and their loved ones will never be the same. Horrific events like this call for prayer, not cynical politicking.
No comments: