The coroner who responded to the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has opened up about the painstaking process of identifying the tiny bodies — and what happened to the shooter’s body.
Eulalio “Lalo” Diaz Jr., the town’s justice of the peace and de facto coroner, was on call when Salvador Ramos slaughtered 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on May 24.
“That’s when they tell me there are 16 to 17 victims and most of them are children and that’s just of course not what I wanted to hear,” Diaz told the US Sun.
“I didn’t know what the scene was gonna be like but I knew the children wouldn’t have IDs or name badges so we won’t know who these kids are until we assess the process of what to do.”
To help in the unimaginable process, the coroner called the Bexar County medical examiner in San Antonio before he even entered the classroom where the students and teachers were killed, the US Sun said.
Diaz and the other official then went through the arduous and gut-wrenching process of trying to identify the bodies using photographs and descriptions of the victims.
“We pretty much went person by person, victim by victim, with pictures, just trying to make sure that this person matched the description, and we were able to clear all the names,” he told the news outlet.
Diaz said he also decided to shield the devastated families from the deranged shooter’s body.
“We also had to handle him, so he was separated from the victims immediately there at the location and he was the last one to leave,” he told the US Sun.
“I made sure I signed the order for the victims, sent them to the medical examiner’s office first. I signed a separate order for him. He didn’t leave until all the victims left,” he said.
“He was not going to the medical examiner until all the victims were back in Uvalde. Once all the victims were released back to Uvalde, we sent him to the medical examiner’s office,” added Diaz.
Meanwhile, Ramos’ remains are being held in an undisclosed county.
“As of right now, the family still hasn’t given me instructions, but once they do, then I’ll release him to the family and sign an order allowing the morgue that’s holding him to release him to the funeral home that’s going to handle the shooter,” he told the US Sun.
“The whole town is first of all in shock that this happened to our community, and second of all asking, ‘What happened?’” Diaz added. “That’s the question on everybody’s mind. Hopefully, they can get some answers soon.”
