Families of El Paso massacre victims will not have to pay for funerals

An organization in El Paso, Texas has pledged to make sure all funeral costs will be covered for families of victims from Saturday’s massacre, ABC News reported Monday.

Angel Gomez of Operation H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Endure) is the man behind the initiative to make sure no family will have to pay for the funeral of loved ones who died in Saturday’s shooting.

Gomez started Operation H.O.P.E. 22 years ago with a friend to help the El Paso community by providing clothing, shoes, and food. He says that they have organized funerals in the past at no cost to families.

Gomez reached out to El Paso funeral directors about financial assistance for the affected families.

They said to him: “It doesn’t matter the number. How high it goes. They will all be covered,” he told ABC News. He said Operation H.O.P.E. would also provide funeral assistance for the Mexican nationals killed in the massacre.

“We’re going to be sending the bodies once they get embalmed to Juarez, Mexico, Torreon and Chihuahua. And this is all done at no cost to the families. None whatsoever, my friend. As I say, this is how El Paso rolls – as one. We are one community,” he told ABC News Live’s “The Briefing Room” on Monday.

“One of the things the funeral homes will do is provide the caskets and embalming and stuff for the victims but one of the things we have to find for them is the cemeteries that we have to go and do the burials and that. That’s something we’ll be tackling later today and tomorrow,” he said.