One Uvalde, Texas father was just a week away from getting to hug his daughter before she was killed in one of the nation’s deadliest school shootings. And now, despite public appeals, he’ll never get a chance to say a proper goodbye.
Eli Torres, who is incarcerated in a Kentucky prison, has been denied temporary release by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to attend the funeral of his 10-year-old daughter Eliahana Torres, one of 19 children killed at Robb Elementary on May 24. Instead, Torres had the option of watching the live stream of his daughter’s service on June 2.
Kim Kardashian, who has been working as a criminal justice reform advocate, along with elected officials like Kentucky State Representative Attica Scott, urged the Federal Bureau of Prisons to reconsider their decision and grant Torres a temporary compassionate release.
“I ask the @officialFBOP to grant Eli Torres temporary release so that he can say his last goodbye to his baby girl. Every parent deserves that right.” Kardashian wrote in a tweet on June 2.
Rep. Attica Scott wrote to President Biden, asking him to step in and allow Torres to attend his daughter’s memorial service. Scott cited Torres’ positive rehabilitation record and behavior, writing, “I can only imagine the depth of the void that these victims’ absences will leave in their family’s lives…Anything you can do to help these families is greatly appreciated.”
The shooting in Uvalde, Texas claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers when an 18-year-old gunman carried two military-style rifles into the elementary school after shooting his grandmother. The gunman spent nearly an hour and 20 minutes inside the school before police outside entered the premises — this after numerous 911 calls from students inside the classrooms and pleas from desperate parents waiting outside the school urging officers to act.
Fourth-grader Eliahana “Ell” Torres was laid to rest on June 2. She played Little League baseball and loved dancing and scrolling for hours on TikTok.
“Eliahna was a master of jests and loved making people laugh,” her obituary reads. At such a young age, she was nurturing and always putting others before herself.”