Uvalde's Darkest Hour

by Craig Garnett

Overview

When the police scanner announced an active shooter at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022, Uvalde Leader-News staff writers held their collective breath. In those confusing and terrifying moments, these journalists embarked on coverage that no community newspaper should ever have to undertake. Among that five-person staff was Kimberly Rubio, whose 10-year-old daughter Lexi was killed in her classroom along with 18 classmates and two teachers. The trauma of that loss and the second tragedy—the 77 minutes that law enforcement waited to rescue children from an 18-year-old mass murderer—shattered faith in the community’s most trusted institutions. Craig Garnett, owner and publisher of the Uvalde Leader-News, has compiled first-hand accounts that follow the community’s halting steps toward healing and Kimberly Rubio’s simultaneous plunge into activism.

This chilling story, told with both clear-eyed journalistic integrity and gripping emotional intensity, chronicles the horrific chain of events, introduces readers to the principal actors, and relates the aftermath as the community tries to heal, to make sense of the incomprehensible, and to seek meaningful change on the local and state level. As readers follow this journey, there will be moments when the sheer tragedy may cause them to put the book aside. But the people whose lives are revealed here have no such luxury. This is their story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781648433009
Publisher:	Texas A&M University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

CRAIG GARNETT has owned the Uvalde Leader-News, the local newspaper, since 1989. He moved to Uvalde in 1982 to begin work with the Leader-News, where his weekly editorials and columns have won dozens of awards from the Texas Press Association and South Texas Press Association. Garnett received the 2023 Tom and Pat Gish Award for courage, integrity, and tenacity in rural journalism for his coverage of the 2022 Uvalde school shooting.

Editorial Reviews

Bearing witness to the impacts of mass violence on the human spirit is a harrowing task. Doing so while in grief is unimaginable. Craig Garnett and the Leader News team did just that and more in the aftermath of the mass school shooting at Robb Elementary. Garnett captures powerfully the enduring quest by Uvalde families to honor the nineteen students and two teachers killed at Robb, to seek the truth, to care for survivors, and to seek healing for themselves and the city. Uvalde’s Darkest Hour is written with the respect and care that Uvalde families deserve. This book provides urgent lessons for journalists, leaders, communities impacted by mass violence, and for those pursuing a world free of violence. Uvalde’s Darkest Hour will leave readers inspired to do their part to ensure a more just future.”—Monica Muñoz Martinez, Uvalde native, MacArthur Fellow, and author of The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas

Monica Muñoz Martinez

It's incredibly challenging to write about a tragedy, but Craig Garnett has done so admirably—with empathy, nuance, care, and, when warranted, outrage. So much of the coverage of what happened in Uvalde has focused on institutional failures. Garnett addresses these, but he also finds surprising moments of great tenderness and humanity, even in the face of great grief. This is the story of the Robb Elementary victims, but also so much more: we are let into a mother’s political awakening, a father’s desperate search for his child, and a community reeling in the aftermath. It’s a book that could only have been written from the heart of the tragedy. At a time when journalism is in crisis, Garnett demonstrates why local news sources are so vital to the communities they serve.”—Rachel Monroe, author of Savage Appetites: True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession

Rachel Monroe

It’s the nature of journalism for reporters covering a war, a natural disaster, or a tragic event, to parachute in, stay long enough to get the story, and then move on to the next assignment. When an unimaginable tragedy tore apart his small town, journalist Craig Garnett stayed. This superb book is the product of a seasoned journalist’s thorough and readable reporting combined with his deep knowledge and affection for his community. For years to come, Uvalde's Darkest Hour will be an invaluable resource for researchers—for all Americans—seeking to understand the mass-shooting phenomenon that afflicts this nation today.”—Joe Holley, author of Sutherland Springs: God, Guns, and Hope in a Texas Town

Joe Holley

"An essential, up-close view of the tragedy in Uvalde."—Publisher’s Weekly

Publisher’s Weekly