UVALDE, Texas — The day was May 24, 2022.
Hours before a gunman stepped foot inside Robb Elementary School, a Uvalde grandmother was celebrating. She had a job interview and was hired on the spot.
When she returned home, excitement turned to concern when she heard a startling sound: gunfire.
Leticia Chapa knew something was wrong when sirens filled the air and helicopters hovered overhead as law enforcement began arriving on the scene of what would become the deadliest school shooting in Texas history.
"My little 3-year-old, we were standing in front of the house, looking down the road," she told KENS 5 about that day.
What she witnessed next is an image forever engrained in her mind.
"I noticed, I believe it was Mrs. Connor, she was running and all the children were behind her."
From Robb Elementary, sprinting around the corner and down Chapa's street, were school kids fleeing the shooting.
"They didn't even know where they were going," she says. "They were just running."
Teacher after teacher led their students away from the gunman as Chapa called them over to her house for shelter.
The first group, some "really scared" and crying, hid behind a cobblestone porch next-door. When the rest of the children arrived, they hid in the yard between Chapa's house and her neighbor's.
She estimates that close to 50 children took shelter at her home.
"Zoe had a kitten," she said, referring to a neighbor. "She brought out her kitten and tried to comfort the kids."
Chapa started calling the families of children she knew so they could safely reunited with their kids. She stayed in her front yard until the last child hopped on a bus that was taking the rest to another pickup spot.
"The teachers, their faces... that was something you don't forget."
A quick change
The next day – May 25, 2022 – was Chapa's first shift at her new job.
But, she says, the day was marred by threats. The place where she was hired was the same store the Robb Elementary gunman bought his AR-15, and early on it was a target of community anger.
"Our bosses were literally walking around with their guns," Chapa recalls. "Everybody was attacking the store."
She didn't stay long, quitting a day and a half later.
Now Chapa has a new job and a new frame of mind. She says that, with her youngest now in school, she never goes far without her family.
"Just things you didn't do before," she said about habits born out of the 2022 tragedy.
She learned that her place is referred to as "the safe house" by children who she helped on that day, when they recount the horror and the guardian angel waiting down the street.
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