Officials claimed an 18-year-old gunman walked from classroom to classroom at a Texas elementary school, killing 19 children and two adults in the process, adding to a horrible, years-long pattern of mass shootings at churches, schools, and malls.
According to a law enforcement official, the attacker was killed by a Border Patrol agent who raced into the school without waiting for assistance.
The massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, was the bloodiest school shooting in the United States since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
Families were still waiting for information about their children hours after the incident. Screams and sobbing pierced the calm at the town civic center, where some had assembled. “No!” Please, no!” shouted one man as he embraced another.
“Today, my heart is broken,” said Hal Harrell, the superintendent of the school system. “Because we’re such a tiny community, we’ll need your prayers to get through this.”
One of the two adults slain, according to Governor Greg Abbott, was a teacher.
As the sun fell, Adolfo Cruz, a 69-year-old air conditioner repairman, was still waiting for word about his 10-year-old great-granddaughter, Eliajha Cruz Torres.
After receiving a frightening call from his daughter shortly after the first reports of the shooting, he drove to the scene. Other relatives, he claimed, were at the hospital and municipal center.
He claimed that waiting was the most difficult part of his life.
“I hope she’s still alive,” Cruz expressed his hope.
The incident came just 10 days after a fatal, racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, bringing the country’s sad tally of massacres to a new low. And the prospects for any reform of the country’s gun laws appeared as bleak, if not bleaker, as they had been in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre.
In his address to the nation hours after the attack, President Joe Biden sounded ready for a fight, pushing for additional gun restrictions.
“As a country, when in the name of God are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” When are we going to do what needs to be done in the name of God?” Biden inquired. “How come we’re willing to put up with this carnage?”
It was unclear how many people were injured in all, but Pete Arredondo, the school district’s police chief, said there were “many injuries.”
Staff in scrubs and bereaved families of the dead could be seen crying as they walked out of Uvalde Memorial Hospital, which reported 13 youngsters were admitted. A 66-year-old woman was reportedly in severe condition at another hospital.
Officials did not immediately provide a reason, but Salvador Ramos, a resident of the village 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio, was identified as the assailant. He acted alone, according to authorities.
Uvalde, which has a population of roughly 16,000 people, is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Mexican border. Robb Elementary, which serves almost 600 second, third, and fourth-grade kids, is located in a primarily residential neighborhood with modest residences.
The attack occurred as the school was holding a series of themed days to mark the end of the academic year. Tuesday’s theme was “Footloose and Fancy,” with students dressed up.
According to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been briefed by state police, Ramos had intimated on social media that an attack could be imminent. He said the gunman “advised the students to be careful,” and that after turning 18, he bought two “assault guns.”
Ramos shot his grandmother before going to school, according to Gutierrez.
Officials from other agencies stated the grandma had survived and was being treated, though her status was unknown.
Investigators believe Ramos posted photographs of the two firearms he used in the shooting on Instagram, and they’re looking into whether he made any statements online in the hours leading up to the attack, according to a law enforcement official.
Multiple search warrants were served Tuesday night, with officers obtaining phone and other records, according to the official. Investigators were also tracing the firearms and seeking to reach Ramos’ relatives.
The official talked to reporters on the condition of anonymity because he could not discuss the investigation’s details publicly.
According to Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, the incident began at 11:30 a.m., when the gunman smashed his car outside the school and went into the building. Two local police officers fired gunfire at the shooter after a homeowner heard the crash and contacted 911.
Both officers were shot and killed. It was not immediately apparent where the altercation occurred on campus or how long it took for more authorities to arrive.
According to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it, one Border Patrol agent who was working nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the gunman who was hiding behind a barricade.
According to the law enforcement official, the agent was wounded but was able to walk out of the school.
Meanwhile, teams of Border Patrol agents, including 10 to 15 members of a SWAT-like tactical and counterterrorism force, rushed to the school, according to Jason Owens, a top regional Border Patrol official.
Some local agents’ children attend Robb Elementary, he said.
He stated, “It hit home for everyone.”
Leaders from all across the world expressed their condolences. It was time to say “enough” to the indiscriminate trade of weapons, according to Pope Francis. Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba claimed that his country, which is at war with Russia after Moscow invaded, understands “the anguish of losing innocent young lives.”
The tragedy in Uvalde was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, adding to a tragic record in a state that has seen some of the country’s bloodiest shootings in the last five years.
In 2018, a gunman opened fire at Santa Fe High School in the Houston region, killing ten people. A gunman opened fire at a Texas church during a Sunday service, killing more than two dozen people in the small community of Sutherland Springs. In a racist attack targeting Hispanics at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019, another gunman killed 23 people.
The shooting occurred just days before the start of the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Houston. Abbott and both of Texas’ U.S. senators were among the elected Republican figures set to appear at the NRA’s lobbying arm’s Friday leadership conference.
The gun control debate in Congress has grown and waned in the years since Sandy Hook. Republicans and outside groups like the National Rifle Association have continually thwarted attempts by Congress to reform US gun policy in any substantial way.
Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania devised a bipartisan proposal to expand the nation’s background check system a year after Sandy Hook. However, the bill was defeated in the Senate because it lacked the necessary 60 votes to overcome the filibuster.
The House passed two proposals last year to extend background checks on gun purchases. A bill was introduced that would have closed a loophole for private and internet transactions. The other would have prolonged the review period for background checks. Both bills stalled in the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats require at least 10 Republican votes to overcome filibuster challenges.
