An 18-year-old gunman opened fire at a Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, killing at least 19 children as he moved from classroom to classroom, officials said. It is said to be the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade and the latest gruesome moment for a country scarred by a string of massacres.
The assailant was also killed by law enforcement. The motive was not immediately revealed, but the assailant was identified as Salvador Ramos, a resident of the community about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio. According to law enforcement, he acted alone.
Authorities stated that two adults were also killed. Gov. Greg Abbott said that one of the two was a teacher.
The shooting at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest at a U.S. grade-school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
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Uvalde, a town of about 16,000 people, is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Mexican border. Robb Elementary is located in a mostly residential area with modest homes.
Families were still waiting for word on their children several hours after the attack.
Screams and wailing broke the silence outside the town civic center, where families were told to congregate. “No! Please, no!” one man yelled as he embraced another.
“My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, superintendent of the school district. “We’re a small community, and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”
One of the guardians, Adolfo Cruz, a 69-year-old air conditioning repairman, remained outside the school as the sun went down, hoping to hear from his 10-year-old great-granddaughter, Elijah Cruz Torres.
He drove to the scene after receiving a terrifying call from his daughter shortly after the first reports of the shooting. He stated that other relatives were at the hospital and the civic center.
Waiting, he said, was the most difficult time of his life.
“I hope she is alive,” Cruz said.
The attack came just 10 days after a deadly, racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, adding to a years-long string of mass killings at churches, schools, and stores. And the prospects for any reform of the nation’s gun laws appeared blurry, if not more blurry, than in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre.
But, in an address to the nation hours after the attack, President Joe Biden appeared ready for a fight, calling for new gun restrictions.
“As a nation, we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what has to be done?” Biden inquired. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?”
Many of the injured children were rushed to Uvalde Memorial Hospital, where staff in scrubs and distraught victims’ relatives could be seen sobbing as they walked out of the complex.
The attack occurred as Robb Elementary was celebrating the end of the school year with a series of themed days. Tuesday’s theme was “Footloose and Fancy,” with students dressed up in nice outfits and shoes.
Nearly 600 students in the second, third, and fourth grades attend the school, and the vast majority of students are Hispanic.
According to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been briefed by state police, Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack was possible. He mentioned that the gunman “suggested the kids should watch out.”
Ramos murdered his grandmother with two military-style rifles he bought for his birthday, according to Gutierrez.
He explained, “That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday.” Later, other officials stated that the grandmother had survived and was being treated, though her condition was unknown.
According to Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, the attack began around 11:30 a.m., when the gunman crashed his car outside the school and ran into the building. A nearby resident called 911 after hearing the crash, and two local police officers exchanged gunfire with the shooter.
Both officers were shot, though it was unclear where on campus the confrontation occurred or how much time passed before more authorities arrived.
Meanwhile, teams of Border Patrol agents rushed to the school, including 10 to 15 members of a SWAT-style tactical and counter-terrorism unit, according to Jason Owens, a top regional Border Patrol official.
According to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about 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 behind a barricade.
According to a law enforcement source, the agent was injured but was able to walk out of the school.
Owens confirmed that an agent was injured but would not go into further detail about the incident.
He stated that some local agents have children who attend Robb Elementary. “We have Border Patrol kids that go to this school. It hit home for everybody,” he stated.
It was unclear how many people were injured at the time, but Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo said there were “several injuries.” Uvalde Memorial Hospital had previously stated that 13 children had been admitted.
The tragedy in Uvalde was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, adding to the state’s grim tally of some of the deadliest shootings in the United States over the last five years.