UVALDE, Texas –
An 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school barricaded himself inside a classroom, “shooting anyone in his path,” an official said Wednesday, describing the last of a horrifying series and lasting a few years. mass killings in churches, schools and shops.
Police and others who responded to Tuesday’s attack shattered windows at the school in an effort to allow students and teachers inside to escape, Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday. Texas Public Safety on NBC’s “Today” program.
Olivarez told CNN that all the victims were in the same fourth grade classroom at Robb Elementary School. Eventually, the shooter was killed by law enforcement.
Tuesday’s assault on the Latin city of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at an American school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
Families have waited hours to find out about their children. In the civic center of the village where some gathered, the silence was repeatedly broken with shouts and groans. “No! Please, no!” shouted one man as he hugged another.
“My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, the school district’s superintendent. “We are a small community and we need your prayers to overcome this.”
Gov. Greg Abbott said one of the two adults killed was a teacher.
Adolfo Cruz, a 69-year-old air-conditioning repairman, was still out of school when the sun set, looking for news of his 10-year-old granddaughter, Eliajha Cruz Torres.
He drove to the scene after receiving a terrifying call from his daughter shortly after the first reports of the shooting. He said other relatives were at the hospital and civic center.
The wait, he said, was the hardest moment of his life.
“I hope she’s alive,” Cruz said.
The attack was the last sad moment for a country marked by a series of massacres, which occurred just 10 days after a racist and deadly attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. And the prospect of any reform of the nation’s arms regulations seemed as faint, if not fainter, than after the deaths of Sandy Hook.
But U.S. President Joe Biden seemed ready for a fight, calling for new gun restrictions on an address to the nation hours after the attack.
“As a nation we must ask ourselves, when in the name of God will we face the gun lobby? When in the name of God will we do what needs to be done?” Biden asked. “Why are we willing to live with this butchery?”
It was not immediately known how many people were injured, but the school district police chief Pete Arredondo said there were “several injuries”.
The attack on the school began at around 11.30am. The gunman had already shot his grandmother, Olivarez of the Department of Public Security reported. After fleeing that scene, he crashed his car into the school and entered.
Olivarez said when local and state agents responded they heard gunshots and fired at themselves.
“The shooter was able to enter a classroom, barricaded himself inside that classroom and started firing again at numerous children and teachers who were in the classroom without regard to human life. He only started firing at whoever is in his way, ”he said. dit. “It simply came to our notice then [and they] they were able to force their way into that classroom. They were also shot, but they were able to shoot and kill the suspect. “
Earlier, a law enforcement official had said a Border Patrol officer working nearby when the shooting began rushed to the school without waiting for a backup and shot and killed the gunman. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak.
The officer was injured but was able to leave the school, the law enforcement official said.
Jason Owens, a senior regional Border Patrol official, said some area officers have children at Robb Elementary.
“Everyone came home,” he said.
Shrouded staff members and relatives of the devastated victims could be seen crying as they left Uvalde Memorial Hospital, which said 13 children were taken there. Another hospital reported that a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition.
Officials did not immediately disclose the motive, but identified the assailant as Salvador Ramos, a resident of the community about 135 miles west of San Antonio. Law enforcement said he acted alone.
Uvalde, home to about 16,000 people, is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Mexican border. Robb Elementary, which has about 600 second-, third-, and fourth-grade students, is located in a mostly residential neighborhood of modest homes.
The attack took place when the school was counting down to the last days of the school year with a series of themed days. Tuesday was supposed to be “Footloose and Fancy,” with students in nice outfits.
Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could come, according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been informed by state police. He noted that the gunman “suggested that children should be watched” and that he had bought two “assault weapons” after turning 18.
Before going to school, Ramos shot his grandmother, Gutiérrez said.
Other officials said the grandmother survived and was being treated, although her condition was unknown.
Investigators believe Ramos posted photos on Instagram of two weapons he used in the shooting and were examining whether he made statements online during the hours leading up to the assault, a law enforcement official said.
Law enforcement officers were delivering several search warrants Tuesday night and collecting phone and other records, the official said. Investigators also tried to contact Ramos’ relatives and track down the firearms.
The officer was unable to discuss the details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Condolences were received from leaders around the world. Pope Francis advocated that it was time to say “‘enough’ to the indiscriminate arms trade!” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who is at war with Russia after the Moscow invasion, said his nation also knows “the pain of losing innocent young lives.”
The Uvalde tragedy was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history and has been added to a serious story in the state, which has been the site of some of the deadliest shootings in the United States in the last five years. years.
In 2018, a gunman shot dead 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area. A year earlier, a gunman in a Texas church killed more than two dozen people during a Sunday service in the small town of Sutherland Springs. In 2019, another gunman at a Walmart in El Paso killed 23 people in a racist attack on Hispanics.
The shooting came days before the annual National Rifle Association convention in Houston began. Abbott and the two U.S. senators from Texas were among the elected Republican officials who were the scheduled speakers at a Friday-led leadership forum sponsored by the NRA.
WEAPON CONTROL DEBATE
In the years since Sandy Hook, the arms control debate in Congress has grown and diminished. Legislative efforts to change U.S. weapons policy in a significant way have consistently faced Republican blockades and the influence of outside groups such as the NRA.
A year after Sandy Hook, West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin and Pennsylvania Republican Patrick J. Toomey negotiated a bipartisan proposal to expand the country’s background check system. But the measure failed in a vote in the Senate, without enough support to overcome a 60-vote hurdle.
Last year, the House passed two bills to expand background checks on gun purchases. An invoice would have closed a loophole for private and online sales. The other would have extended the background review period. Both languished in the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats need at least 10 Republican votes to overcome objections to obstructionism.
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Eugene Garcia and Dario Lopez-Mills in Uvalde, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas, Ben Fox, Michael Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington, Paul J. Weber in Austin, Juan Lozano in Houston, Gene Johnson in Seattle and Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.