The photo with this story was the only photo captured at the El Paso morgue on the morning of Nov. 9 by El Paso Times visual journalist Briana Sanchez that the newspaper saw fit to publish last week, wrote Editor Tim Archuleta in a column published in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
"Sanchez’s other images of the COVID-19 victims are too heartbreaking to share with our readers online or in print," he wrote.
He said the staff was "deliberate in our discussions about the ethics of publishing this photo today. We apologize to those who might be offended by this work. The photos were taken because it is important to accurately depict what is happening in our community."
In those deliberations, he said Sanchez shared what it was like to sit alone in her car after doing her job at the mobile morgue.
“To see the physical toll it has taken on our community, it just hit me so deeply that all I could do was sit in silence and cry," Sanchez said. "Cry for the way things used to be and cry for the people we have lost.”
She said: “Some images throughout history are horrific and hard to see. Historically, those images have caused change. As much as it broke my heart to see bodies being moved into the mobile morgues, I also knew it was equally important to accurately depict what was happening in hopes it’ll cause change.”
