Mother of slain Houston girl on support for Uvalde families: 'The one thing that I do want to tell them is to fight for their babies'

The family of a nine-year-old Houston girl who was fatally shot on Valentine's Day earlier this year traveled to Uvalde to provide support to the families of the victims of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, according to Houston CBS affiliate KHOU. 

If there's anyone who knows exactly how those families feel, it's Gwen Alvarez, the mother of the late Arlene Alvarez. Her and Arlene's family's world changed when the De Zavala Elementary School fourth grader was shot and killed while they were headed to dinner at her favorite restaurant, Spanky's Pizza.

KHOU reported that the Alvarezes went to Uvalde, a city of 16,000 people just 84 miles west of San Antonio, to give about 2,000 teddy bears and other stuffed animals to the grief-stricken community.

According to the station, the family spent two days collected as many stuffed animals as they could with the hopes the gesture helps the children navigate the trauma.

Gwen Alvarez has some words of encouragement for the parents who lost children in last Tuesday's (May 24) tragedy.

"The one thing that I do want to tell them is to fight for their babies because if all the parents come together, we will create a big force and we will make a change," the mother said, per KHOU. "This has to be enough."

More than a dozen students and two teachers at Uvalde's Robb Elementary School lost their lives in a mass shooting on Tuesday that took place as Texans were casting their ballots in the party primaries, Houston Daily reported.

The alleged shooter, an 18-year-old Uvalde resident named Salvador Ramos, also died, fatally shot by police who responded to the scene.