Angel Garza arrived on the scene as a medic, and learned of his daughter's death from another student.
A father of a 10-year-old girl who had been killed in a
school shooting in Texas on Tuesday (24 May) delivered a heartbreaking interview in the aftermath of the latest tragedy of this nature to hit the United States.
Angel Garza spoke about his daughter Amerie on CNN on Wednesday, while holding a picture of her.
"She was just trying to do the right thing," Garza said.
"She was just trying to call the cops.
"She was so scared of strangers and things like this. She would lock the door when I got out of the car for gas.
"This is literally her worst fear and she was just trying to help everyone."
Amerie attempted to contact police during the shooting, using a phone her parents had bought her for her 10th birthday two weeks prior to the shooting.
Garza works as a med aide, and so was at the scene of the school shortly after the tragic incident to provide first aid and support.
"One little girl was just covered in blood head to toe, I thought she was injured," he said.
"I asked her what was wrong, and she said she's okay. She was hysterical, saying they shot her best friend.
"They killed her best friend, and she's not breathing, and that she tried to call the cops.
"I asked the little girl what her name was and she said - she told me - she said Amerie."
Garza confirmed that this was how he found out his daughter had been killed.
"She was so sweet. She was the sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong.
"She listened to her mom and dad. She always brushed her teeth. She was creative, she would make things for us. She never got in trouble at school.
"I just want to know what she did to be a victim."
https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1529622137174204416?s=20&t=xHBSXh8HqhZoapBta4rSkg
Garza spoke about the rest of his family, saying that Amerie loved being an older sister to three-year-old Zane.
As he talked about Amerie attempting to help her classmates, Garza broke down into tears, clutching the photograph of his daughter.
"How do you look at this girl and shoot her? Oh, my baby. How do you shoot my baby?"
The attack is the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school since a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
