Roberto Marquez put crosses up outside the Allen Premium Outlet Mall, one for each person killed.
“We’re going to have eight crosses all along these bushes,” Roberto Marquez told a volunteer on Monday as the pair started digging holes to hold them.
“I like to do it. At the same time, I don’t like to do it,” Marquez said, saying he felt a moral obligation to come. “It would be a disgrace not to come, being so difficult, being this tragic. This is the least I can do.”
Marquez put up the first crosses on Sunday, then returned Monday to build larger, more polished ones. The victims whose names were released, he added to each black cross in stark white paint.
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“I also have a weapon more powerful than yours,” Marquez said with emotion. “I feel a paintbrush is very powerful.”
Marquez has built so many crosses, he’s lost count. He has put them up everywhere from Uvalde to Ukraine.
“I mean, this is the 21st century and we’re still killing each other, and we think we’re civilized,” Marquez said. “I have a feeling, have the hope, one day they’ll come together,” he said pausing to collect himself. “It’s really important because once somebody starts something in a good way, then somebody else follows; and then just as crime grows, people with good feelings, good ideas, good intentions, it grows as well.”
By Monday night, the crosses were surrounded by flowers, stuffed animals, and notes.
“They send a message that since we have a problem, we need to come together,” Marquez said.
