Two Children, a Burst of Gunfire and the Year That Came After

When a gunman opened fire in two classrooms in Uvalde, Texas, 19 children died. Two fourth graders wounded in the massacre are still trying to recover.

UVALDE, Texas — The better part of a year had elapsed since a gunman entered the classroom where Noah Orona and Mayah Zamora were fourth-grade students in Uvalde, Texas.

One of the 142 rounds he fired inside the school that day had shredded through the slender back of 10-year-old Noah, exiting near his shoulder blade. Mayah was shot seven times, in her chest, arm and both hands.

Their two teachers died that day, as did half their classmates. Noah survived by pretending to be dead, bleeding on the floor for more than an hour as police officers waited to storm the classroom.

Read more of Edgar Sandoval's reporting in the New York Times.