Hundreds are paying their respects at a packed Houston-area mosque in the first funeral for a victim of a school shooting that killed 10.
An overflow crowd sat in folding chairs in a breezeway outside the main area of worship at Brand Lane Islamic Center in Stafford, Texas, to watch Sunday’s service for Pakistani exchange student Sabika Sheikh on TV monitors. Sheikh was one of eight students slain Friday at Santa Fe High School outside Houston. Two teachers were also killed.
Islamic Society of Greater Houston imam Tauqir Shah said a prayer before Sheikh’s body was carried in a casket wrapped in a Pakistani flag to a hearse. Her body is expected to be returned to her family in Karachi.
Abdul Aziz Sheikh told The Associated Press he had been expecting his daughter to return home in a few weeks at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
WATCH: Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said in his Facebook account it’s time to do something different to address gun violence in America.
.@ArtAcevedo, Houston Chief of Police, says vast majority of Americans – and gun owners – support “gun sense;” calls on lawmakers to listen to constituents and law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/H7h15bNdb4
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) May 20, 2018
Sadly, more lives have been lost, but there is a silver lining and that is local leaders like @SylvesterTurner who are inspired by the great awakening that is taking place among or youth. Rather than dismiss pain & anguish he embraces & lifts them up. #RelationalPolicing https://t.co/O8xA7usOIM
— Chief Art Acevedo (@ArtAcevedo) May 20, 2018
"People at the state level and the federal level in too many places in our country are not doing anything other than offering prayers." Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo slams elected officials for inaction in response to repeated school shootings. https://t.co/Jn7KKy8Xxy pic.twitter.com/wDbmcKLVbB
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 20, 2018
Hundreds of Muslims from the Houston area gather at the Brand Lane Islamic Center to pray and remember the lost life of Pakistani exchange student Sabika Sheikh who died in Friday’s #SantaFeHighSchool shooting. @HoustonPubMedia pic.twitter.com/7BYh80hqZF
— Elizabeth Trovall (@elizTrovall) May 20, 2018
We must put our prayers to work, changing laws and policies to protect schools. Otherwise more children will die. #SantaFe #SabikaSheikh pic.twitter.com/JVmr4n6Jlz
— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) May 20, 2018
.#SabikaSheikh wanted to be a diplomat so she came to the @HoustonTX area to learn. Well now she will be one, bringing the world together even in tragedy. pic.twitter.com/fkh3kT8shW
— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) May 20, 2018
I am grateful to Pakistan consul general Aisha Farooqui for inviting me to this solemn observance and to the Muslim community of grater Houston for its welcome. https://t.co/HnQEDiLyBE
— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) May 20, 2018
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The National Rifle Association’s incoming president is blaming the latest deadly school shooting on youngsters “steeped in a culture of violence.”
Retired Lt. Col. Oliver North tells “Fox News Sunday” that authorities are trying “like the dickens” to treat symptoms instead of going after the disease.
He said the disease isn’t the Second Amendment and that depriving law-abiding citizens of their constitutional right to have a firearm won’t stop shootings like Friday’s near Houston that left 10 people dead.
North identifies the “disease” as youngsters growing up in a culture where violence is commonplace.
Incoming @NRA President Oliver North says: "If school shield had been in place, far less likely that would have happened. "The disease in this case isn’t the 2nd amendment, the disease is youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence, they've been drugged in many cases," pic.twitter.com/TrFFG0jHK0
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) May 20, 2018
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#SantaFe high school student tells @GovAbbott a change in gun laws won’t prevent school shootings, a change in school construction/security will. She says doors at some @SantaFeISD schools can be yanked open. #khou11 Listen here: pic.twitter.com/g2m3arMZiC
— Melissa Correa (@MCorreaKHOU) May 20, 2018
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has arrived at Arcadia First Baptist Church in Santa Fe, where he hugged grieving parishioners reeling two days after a teenage gunman killed 10 people in his high school.
Monica Bracknell, an 18-year-old senior who survived the shooting, told the governor Sunday morning that she doesn’t think the shooting should be turned into a political battle over gun control.
The teenager was surrounded by dozens of television cameras, photographers and reporters, as she shook her governor’s hand and said she didn’t believe guns were to blame for the shooting she survived.
She arrived at church a day after returning to her school to collect belongings left behind in the chaos of the shooting. She said she and her classmates are “shaken up” but coping.
The governor spoke privately to worshippers as they arrived but did not speak to the media.
Took a step back, to see the backdrop people in #SantaFe are walking up on. @GovAbbott is at a church this morning. Right after I took pic, I found a woman in the hall, afraid to face the cameras. I held her, we cried and I escorted her in, behind the chaos. #PeopleFirst #khou11 pic.twitter.com/4lO690h3iU
— Melissa Correa (@MCorreaKHOU) May 20, 2018
RT ABC "Texas governor Greg Abbott lays flowers at Santa Fe High School in honor of the victims of the deadly shooting Friday. https://t.co/fOZ6W6T2iq pic.twitter.com/O28GVebgaA"
— WLEN Radio (@WLENRADIO1039fm) May 20, 2018