Kim Kardashian is hoping to help the father of a Uvalde, Tex., school shooting victim attend his child’s funeral “so he can say his last goodbye.”
On Thursday, the reality TV star and prison reform advocate made a plea to the Federal Bureau of Prisons that Eliahana “Ellie” Cruz Torres’s dad be temporarily released to attend her funeral.
She wrote that the family of the 10-year-old, who was one of the 19 students killed last week, was “desperately hoping” that Eli Torres, who’s incarcerated at USP McCreary in Kentucky for “a non-violent drug offense, be granted temporary release so he can be at her funeral. So far the requests have been denied.”
This is Eliahana ‘Ellie’ Cruz Torres, 10 years old, and one of the 19 victims of the shooting in Uvalde, TX. Her family are desperately hoping that her father, who is incarcerated for a non violent drug offense, be granted temporary release so that he can attend her funeral. pic.twitter.com/RJbSAomyuC
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) June 2, 2022
The mom of four asked for BOP’s decision to be reconsidered “so he can say his last goodbye to his baby girl. Every parent deserves that right.”
So far their requests have been denied. I ask the @officialFBOP to grant Eli Torres temporary release so that he can say his last goodbye to his baby girl. Every parent deserves that right.
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) June 2, 2022
Eli is in prison for drug trafficking. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, he obtained and sold cocaine in Uvalde between 2009 and 2011. He was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to 25 years prison with an expected release date of Feb. 2033, according to BOP records.
Kentucky Rep. Attica Scott has been active in trying to get him temporarily released for the funeral. She posted a letter she sent to President Biden and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear asking for their help.
A spokesperson for the BOP told Yahoo Entertainment, “For privacy, safety and security reasons, we do not provide information on any individual inmate’s conditions of confinement, to include a request for temporary release.”
On May 24, an 18-year-old who had legally obtained AK-15 assault rifles entered Robb Elementary School and fatally shot 19 students and two teachers. Many others were injured. Earlier in the day, the shooter — who was killed by authorities — shot his grandmother in her head.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Eliahana’s distraught grandfather Adolfo Cruz spoke to the media, in Spanish, about trying to find the child amid the chaos. He heartbreakingly explained they contacted hospitals and checked the civic center, but said he was still hoping to find her.
Kardashian has dreams of becoming an attorney, like her late dad, and passed her “baby bar” exam (officially called: First-Year Law Students’ Examination, or FYLSE), last year.
The TV star and beauty mogul’s path to law has been untraditional. Kardashian, who does not have undergraduate nor law degrees, has been apprenticing with a practicing lawyer for several years. The program requires four years as an apprentice, at a law office or for a judge, and also passing the actual bar exam.
Her mentorship is with Van Jones’s Oakland, Calif.,-based prison reform organization #cut50, and she has actively been trying to help non-violent offenders get out of jail, have their sentences reduced or help them to get them off of death row.
