Authorities said a shooting took place at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of 19 children as he moved from class to class, the bloodiest shooting incident in almost a decade and the grimmest event for a country traumatized by a run of atrocities. Law enforcement officers shot and killed the attacker.
Two adults were also killed, according to officials. One of the two, said Governor Greg Abbott, was a teacher.
The massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was the bloodiest school massacre in the United States since a shooter massacred 20 children and six grownups at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
Relatives were still waiting for information about their kids hours after the incident.
Wails and crying interrupted the calm outside the local civic center, where relatives were ordered to wait for news of their loved ones. “No! “Please, no!” shouted one man as he hugged another.
“Today, my heart breaks,” said Hal Harrell, the school system superintendent. “Because we’re such a small population, we’ll need your prayers to get through this.”
As the sun fell, Adolfo Cruz, a 69-year-old air conditioner maintenance man, was waiting to hear back from his 10-year-old great-granddaughter, Elijah Cruz Torres.
Immediately after the first news of the shooting, he received a frightened phone from his child and drove to the site. Other families, he claimed, were present at the hospital and municipal center.
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Cruz said, “I hope she’s still alive.”The hardest part of his existence, he said, was waiting.
The incident happened just ten days after a murderous, racist spree in a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, which contributed to a yearlong string of mass shootings at churches, schools, and supermarkets. And the chances for any change of the country’s gun laws appeared to be as bleak, if not more so than they had been the following the Sandy Hook massacre.
In his address to the nation hours after the incident, President Joe Biden sounded ready for the fight, pushing for additional gun regulations.
“As a country, when in the word of God are we willing to rise up to the gun lobby?” When are we going to do what needs to happen in the name of God?” Biden inquired. “How come we’re willing to put up with this death and destruction?”
Several of the injured were brought to Uvalde Memorial Hospital, where personnel in scrubs and bereaved families of the fatalities could be seen crying as they went out.
Authorities didn’t initially divulge the attacker’s purpose, but they did identify him as Salvador Ramos, a resident of the village 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio. He operated himself, according to authorities.
Robb Elementary was celebrating the end of the school year with a sequence of themed days when the attack took place. The theme for Tuesday was “Footloose and Fancy,” with students dressed up in great clothes and shoes.
Nearly 600 pupils in the second, third, and fourth grades attend the school. The students are overwhelmingly Latino.
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As per state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he’d been informed by state police, Ramos had intimated on social networks that an assault could be approaching. The shooter “recommended the kids keep an eye out,” he said. Ramos murdered his grandma with two military-style weapons he bought for his birthday before coming to school, according to Gutierrez.”On his 18th birthday, that’s the first thing he did,” he stated. Several authorities later confirmed that the grandma had recovered and was receiving treatment, though her status was unknown.
Authorities suspect Ramos uploaded photographs of the two firearms he used in the killing on Instagram, and they’re looking into whether he made comments online in the hours leading up to the incident, according to a law enforcement official.
Various search warrants were served Tuesday night, with officers obtaining cellphones and other information, according to the official. Authorities were also tracking the firearms and seeking to reach Ramos’ family.
The source talked to The Associated Press on the requested anonymity since he could not disclose the inquiry’s details openly.
As per Travis Considine, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, the attack began at 11:30 a.m., when the shooter smashed his car outside of the school and went into the school. Two local police officers fired gunfire at the gunman after a homeowner heard the crash and contacted 911. Both cops were injured, but it was unclear where in school the altercation took place or how long it took for other officials to respond.
Simultaneously, teams of Border Patrol agents, comprising 10 to 15 officers of a SWAT-like tactical and counter-terrorism force, rushed to the campus, according to Jason Owens, a top regional Border Patrol official.
A law enforcement official who spoke on the asked to remain anonymous as he was not supposed to debate it, one Border Patrol agent who was operating nearby when the shooting began raced inside the school before looking for assistance and shot to death the gunman who’d been hiding behind such a barricade.
As per the law enforcement source, the operative was seriously injured but able to leave the school.
Owens affirmed that one of the agents was injured, but he declined to elaborate on the incident.
Some local agents’ children attend Robb Elementary, according to him.
“This school has youngsters from the Border Patrol.” “It was a hit with everyone,” he remarked.
The number of those injured was not immediately identified, but Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo has said there are “many wounds.” Uvalde Memorial Hospital had previously stated that 13 children had been admitted. A 66-year-old woman was reportedly in severe condition at that other hospital.
Uvalde, which has a population of roughly 16,000 people, is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Mexican border. Robb Elementary is located in a primarily residential neighborhood with affordable houses.
“This school has youngsters from the Border Patrol.” “It was a hit with everyone,” he remarked.
The disaster in Uvalde was the worst school massacre in Texas history, adding to a tragic record in a state that has seen some of the country’s deadliest shootings in the last five years.
In 2018, a gunman shot at Santa Fe High School in the Houston region, killing ten people. A shooting occurred at a Texas church throughout a Sunday service, killing more than two dozen individuals in the small community of Sutherland Springs. In a racist attack against Hispanics at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019, other gunmen massacred 23 people.
The gun issue in Congress has grown and faded 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 plan to enhance the nation’s background check system the year after Sandy Hook. However, the bill was defeated in the Senate because it lacked the necessary 60 votes to overcome the filibuster.
After the Newtown massacre, then-President Barack Obama made gun control a top priority for his government, calling Congress’ inability to act “a pretty terrible day for Washington.”
The House approved two proposals last year to extend background investigations on gun buyers. A bill was introduced that would have closed a gap between private and internet transactions. Others would have prolonged the review process for background checks. Both bills stalled in the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats require at least 10 Republican votes to resolve filibuster challenges.
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