Fourteen students and a teacher were killed Tuesday after a gunman opened fire on an elementary school in west San Antonio, Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said.
The attack took place at Robb d’Uvalde Primary School, a small town in Hill Country with a population of just over 16,000. The victims were taken to hospitals in Uvalde and San Antonio after the horrific attack.
“Jeans across the state are mourning the victims of this senseless crime and the Uvalde community,” Abbott said in a statement. “Cecilia and I mourn this horrific loss and urge all Texans to unite to show our unwavering support to all who suffer.”
According to Abbott, the alleged shooter, Salvador Romas, 18, has died. He said that “it is believed that the officers who responded killed him.”
Mr. Romas reportedly was a student at Uvalde High School. Abbott said he also allegedly shot his grandmother before carrying a gun and possibly a rifle in elementary school Tuesday morning.
Before Abbott spoke to the media, Uvalde Memorial Hospital told ABC News that two children had died from alleged gunshot wounds. The hospital also said 13 more students were undergoing emergency treatment and added that a 45-year-old man was hospitalized after being scraped by one of the bullets.
San Antonio University Health said they were caring for two people in the shooting, a child and an adult.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin did not confirm the number of casualties, but told ABC News that “this is a very bad situation.”
“There’s an active shooter at Robb Elementary. Law enforcement is in place,” the school wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “Your collaboration is needed right now so as not to visit the campus.”
Uvalde’s parents have been asked not to go to school, but to meet their children at the Uvalde Civic Center for “reunification.”
“Parents are asked to pick up students at the usual check-out times on the child’s campus,” the school wrote in a Facebook post. “There will be no bus transportation. Officers will be on site to accompany students to their parents’ cars. Please parents be patient, as the queues will be long.”
The consolidated independent school district of Uvalde reported for the first time a blockade at 11:43 a.m. local time.
Robb Elementary School was blocked when police responded to an active investigation into the shooter
(Google Maps)
Children board a school bus while law enforcement personnel watch the scene of an alleged robbery near Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, USA, May 24, 2022
(REUTERS)
Law enforcement personnel guard the scene of an alleged shooting near Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, May 24, 2022
(REUTERS)
“Please know that at this time all campuses are in a state of blockade due to gunfire in the area. Students and staff are safe in the buildings,” the district told parents in a message.
The Uvalde shooting is the largest mass shooting of the year to date in the United States, overshadowing the mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York just ten days ago. Ten people were killed in the attack, all black. According to the Arms Violence Archive, there were 43 mass shootings in the United States in May alone. So far this year there have been 27 school shootings.
The shooting is the deadliest ever in a Texas school. It comes four years and six days after a gunman killed ten people, eight students and two teachers, at Santa Fe High School on the outskirts of Houston.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, said that Mr. Mayorkas has been informed of the situation. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden will talk about the shooting when he returns to Washington from his trip to Japan later tonight.
Biden was vice president during the last major push for federal gun control legislation, which came after a gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Abbott, an opponent of stricter gun control measures, signed a law last year that allowed anyone in the state of Texas 21 or older to carry a gun without permission. He is scheduled to attend the annual National Rifle Association meeting in Houston later this week.
In the Senate House on Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut explained the situation bluntly.
“What are we doing?” He said. “A few days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to kill African-American customers, we have another Sandy Hook in our hands.”
More to follow …