The devastated mother of one of the 14-year-old students killed in the Apalachee High School shooting has recalled her final morning with her son.
“He gave his father and me a hug — I will always carry that in my heart,” Emma Angulo told Univision, at times fighting to maintain her composure, in remembering son Christian Angulo.
She said the Apalachee freshman was a sweet boy with big ambitions for the future.
“He was only 14 years old. They took his whole life, his future and his time with us,” she told the station of his killer.
“He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve to die like this,” she said, adding, “I miss him. For me this is like … I wish it was a dream.”
His friends remembered the teen as “chill” and good at making people laugh, Fox 5 Atlanta said.
One friend, Abner Sanz, told the outlet that he had known Angulo since middle school.
“I started asking other people if it was true that he had passed away because I just wanted to know. I was in denial because you would never believe somebody that you knew would pass away just like that,” he said.
On a GoFundMe page raising money for funeral expenses, Angulo’s older sister, Lisette, paid her brother a loving tribute.
“He was a very good kid, very sweet, and so caring. He was so loved by many. His loss was so sudden and unexpected,” the grieving sibling wrote.
“We are truly heartbroken. He really didn’t deserve this.”
The fundraiser doubled its initial $30,000 goal in less than 24 hours.
Angulo was one of four victims who lost their lives in the massacre at the high school near Winder, Ga., about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta.
Classmate Mason Schermerhorn, 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53 were also killed in the Sept. 4 shooting.
The accused killer, Colt Gray, 14, and his father, Colin, are both being held on murder and manslaughter charges and will make their next court appearance in December.