"It was very hard to go from assisting others to being
horribly affected by this tragic event," Recie Tisdale said in a statement
Monday. "There are no words to explain how saddened my family is for
everyone involved.
An off-duty police officer who
responded to the Santa Fe High School shooting discovered his mother was one of
the victims.
Cynthia Tisdale was one of two
substitute teachers killed by a gunman while teaching first period art class
Friday. Eight students also died.
League City Police Department
Detective Recie Tisdale, Cynthia’s oldest son, said a friend called him about
the shooting so he rushed to the scene.
Thankfully, his daughter has late
arrival on Fridays so she was still at home.
Photos: The victims of Santa Fe
High School shooting
Photos: Victims killed in the mass
shooting at Santa Fe High School
Chris Stone, a junior at Santa Fe
High School.
When Tisdale arrived, he was told two
teachers had been killed. Soon after, he learned his mother was one of them.
He had to identify his mother's body
and break the news to his father and the rest of the family.
“It was very hard to go from
assisting others to being horribly affected by this tragic event,” Recie said
in a statement Monday. “There are no words to explain how saddened my family is
for everyone involved. Our prayers and thoughts are with everyone affected.”
Photos: Memorial grows at Santa Fe
High School
Photos: Memorial for victims grows at
Santa Fe High School
The memorial at Santa Fe High School
continues to grow Monday. Now, 10 crosses sit in front for the 10 victims,
hand-delivered by an Aurora, Ill. man who makes them and takes them when
tragedy strikes. Photo: Janel Forte / KHOU 11 News
Recie said his parents had been
married for 46 years and had three children and 11 grandchildren.
His father, William Tisdale, has a
life-threatening illness so his mother spent much of her time caring for him.
“Since my brother has been very ill
the last couple of years, she was a very excellent caregiver and she worked two
jobs for extra income to help,” Brother-in-law John Tisdale told The
Monitor newspaper. “She worked at the school and a second job as a
server at night at an Italian restaurant chain."
After her death, donations on a GoFundMe.com page set
up by the family quickly soared.
Cynthia Tisdale's funeral is Friday,
the day she would have turned 64.
The Santa Fe tragedy also hit home
for Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset.
His granddaughter was in the school,
three doors down from where the shooting started. She was able to escape but
her best friend was killed.
"This tragedy in this community
touches home more than you'd imagine," Trochesset said.
