- The Washington Times - Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Authorities struggled for weeks to find a funeral home willing to dispose of Uvalde shooter Salvador Ramos’ body after his May rampage that killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.

The town’s two funeral homes refused to handle the gunman’s remains, causing Ramos’ body to spend three weeks at a morgue 165 miles away in Lockhart, according to the Houston Chronicle.

“Once they got to [Ramos], the funeral homes in town said, ’We don’t want to deal with him,’” Eulalio Diaz Jr. told the paper. He serves as a Uvalde County justice of the peace and is also the county’s de facto coroner.

That included Hillcrest Memorial and Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary, with the latter holding services for 17 of those killed during the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School.

“Under the circumstances, we did not feel it would be appropriate or in the best interest of the families for which we were caring to take custody of the remains of the individual that caused their pain,” Taylor Michelle Massey, the managing funeral director at Rushing-Estes-Knowles, told the paper.

Ramos wound up being cremated in San Antonio, almost a month after police shot and killed him in response to the mass shooting.

Fighting between Ramos’ family members reportedly bogged down the process of what to do with the shooter’s remains.

A funeral for Ramos was held at Castle Ridge in Crystal City, 40 miles south of Uvalde.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.

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