Amerie Jo Garza, a ten-year-old girl with beautiful round cheeks and a sweet smile, loved Play-Doh, pizza, and swimming. “She had a generous heart,” the fourth grader’s grandmother, Berlinda Arreola recently told The Daily Beast. “She was always there to lend anybody a helping hand... She was very smart and she was looking forward to making a life for herself.”
Amerie kissed her three-year-old brother goodbye each day as she left for school at Robb Elementary, People reports, where she was among the first of 19 grade school students to be fatally shot while trapped with a lone gunman for 78 minutes. She died while trying to call 911.
On Monday, the Girl Scouts of the United States of America honored Amerie with a rare national award, the “Bronze Cross,” in recognition of her heroism.
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“I just want people to know how brave she was,” Arreola told People. “Unfortunately, it took her life, but she tried to save everyone. That was just the way she was. She tried to save everyone.”
Garza recently celebrated her 10th birthday, CNN reports, and received a cellphone as a gift. Arreola says her granddaughter used that phone to call 911 when the shooting began.
“Instead of grabbing it and breaking it, or taking it from her, he shot her,” Arreola told The Daily Beast. “She was sitting right next to her best friend. Her best friend was covered in her blood.”
Speaking with CNN, Amerie’s father, Angel Garza, broke down as he described telling his three-year-old son “that his sister is now with God and she will no longer be with us.”
“She was the sweetest girl who did nothing wrong,” Garza said. “I just want to know what she did to be a victim.”
In a statement on its website, Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas described Amerie as bright and outgoing, and “proud of the badges she earned.” She had just completed her bridging ceremony last week—advancing within the Scouts from a Brownie to a Junior.
“Our hearts are broken for her family and friends, along with all of those who have lost loved ones during this tragedy,” the statement reads. “Dozens of our girls, volunteers, and staff have now lost friends or family members, and we are hurting alongside them.”
At a small ceremony on Friday, representatives for the Girl Scouts of the United States of America gave Amerie’s family a new green sash affixed with a bronze medallion as well as a framed declaration signed by CEO Sofia Chang. It was an emotional event for her grieving grandmother, especially as representatives read the declaration aloud. “The words that they put into this thing was all Amerie,” Arreola told People. “It was her.”
“She deserved it.”
