Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez and  Jacklyn Cazares are cousins who were involved in the elementary school shooting tragedy.

Annabelle was in the same fourth-grade classroom as her cousin, Jackie Cazares, 10, when a young gunman barricaded dozens of students and two instructors inside the Uvalde primary school before opening fire on the vulnerable group, her family confirmed to Houston’s KHOU.

Jackie, who had just had her first communion, was the more outgoing of the two 10-year-olds.

Jackie’s father published a heartbreaking Facebook post of his daughter in what appears to be a recent photo from her communion, which took place only two weeks before her terrible death.

“Only a few people will be kissing or hugging our baby tonight. “My newborn girl was snatched from my family and me,” Jacinto Cazares says.

 “We’re devastated in certain ways, and I hope no one ever has to go through what we’ve gone through.” 

So young, so innocent, so full of life and love, taken from arms and lives in this horribly cowardly way. It afflicts our souls.”

Annabelle’s parents had reported her missing and had been searching for her late into Tuesday night, with her father enlisting the support of local law enforcement by giving a photo to the Texas Rangers, in the hopes of bringing his daughter home safely.

 

Local news reports indicated that a second set of cousins perished in Tuesday’s tragedy.