- The mother of a
Uvalde school shooting victim called on Congress for stronger gun control laws in the wake of her daughter's death. - Kimberly Mata-Rubio recounted the last moments shared with her daughter, Lexi.
The mother of a
Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose daughter, Lexi, was one of 19 students killed at Robb Elementary on May 24, gave tearful testimony before the House's Oversight Committee about seeing her child for the last time that day.
After Lexi's 10:30 a.m. awards ceremony, Mata-Rubio said she snapped a photo of Lexi and her teacher, Arnulfo Reyes, and promised her daughter ice cream to celebrate later that night.
She said she told Lexi she loved her and she'd see her after school. Then, Mata-Rubio said, Lexi turned her head back toward her mother and smiled.
"I left my daughter at that school and that decision will haunt me for the rest of my life," Mata-Rubio said in her testimony.
She recalled how she waited hours for confirmation that Lexi had died in the massacre.
"We don't want you to think of Lexi as just a number," she said to Congress. "She was intelligent, compassionate, and athletic. She was quiet, shy unless she had a point to make."
She continued: "Today we stand for Lexi and as her voice we demand action. We seek a ban on assault rifles and high capacity magazines."
Mata-Rubio described how her daughter wanted to attend St. Mary's University in San Antonio, which has created a scholarship in the fourth-grader's memory, KENS5 News reported.
"if given the opportunity, Lexi would have made a positive change in this world," Mata-Rubio said. "That opportunity was taken from her. She was taken from us."
Mata-Rubio said she was thinking of the parents of future shooting victims as she spoke to lawmakers.
"Somewhere out there there is a mom listening to our testimony thinking 'I cant even imagine their pain,' not knowing our reality will one day be hers," she testified, "unless we act now."