Two long-time teachers among 21 killed in shooting

UVALDE • On Tuesday, Ms Eva Mireles went to a job she seemed to love - teaching in the small Texas town of Uvalde - but she never came home, murdered along with 19 pupils and another teacher in the latest mass shooting to plague schools in the United States.

Ms Mireles, 44, was trained in bilingual and special education and worked at Robb Elementary School, where a teenager killed them all in a hail of gunfire before being killed by police officers.

Ms Mireles taught fourth-grade children - aged generally nine or 10 years old - her cousin Cristina Arizmendi Mireles said on Facebook. She had been teaching for 17 years. "My beautiful cousin! Such a devastating day for us all! My heart is shattered into a million pieces," Ms Arizmendi Mireles posted.

In a short biography on the school district's website, Ms Mireles had written that she had "a supportive, fun and loving family" comprising her husband, her college graduate daughter and "three furry friends".

Her husband Ruben Ruiz is a police officer at the school district's police force, the agency investigating the massacre.

Ms Mireles wrote on the website: "I love running, hiking, and now you just might see me riding a bike!!"

Her aunt, Ms Lydia Martinez Delgado, grieved for her niece in a Facebook post, asking for prayers for her family and the town of Uvalde.

The second teacher who was killed was Ms Irma Garcia, who was in her 40s and a mother of four children, according to US media reports. She had been teaching for 23 years.

The community, about 130km west of San Antonio, has about 16,000 residents, nearly 80 per cent of them Hispanic or Latino, according to US Census data.

Ms Martinez Delgado said in a statement: "I'm furious that these shootings continue. These children are innocent. Rifles should not be easily available to all.

"This is my home town, a small community of less than 20,000. I never imagined this would happen to especially loved ones."

There were two days left in the school year when the massacre unfolded. The school district cancelled classes for the remainder of the school year.

REUTERS