UPDATE: The first victims of a Texas school shooting shooting are identified
Parents of children who attended a U.S. elementary school, where at least 21 people were shot dead, were forced to wait hours to find out where their children were and if they were safe.
Nineteen students – ages six to 10 – and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday (local time) when a gunman stormed campus.
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Several others were injured in the shooting.
It was the worst school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.
Amidst the frantic consequences, parents began arriving at the school to look for their children.
A mother, Maria Garcia, was near the school interrogating a law enforcement officer hours after the shooting because she was still looking for her 10-year-old daughter.
People pray during a vigil for the victims of the mass shooting. Credit: Billy Calzada / APA The woman cries when she leaves the Uvalde Civic Center. Credit: William Luther / AP
Her voice trembled as she tried to get answers to her series of questions, suggesting that perhaps her daughter was hiding in nearby fields after the gunman opened fire on the school.
Rosa and Roland Arizmendia were also looking.
Her daughter was safe because she had been picked up soon after an end-of-year awards ceremony at the school.
But they did not know where his niece was. They hadn’t seen him since they picked up his daughter.
Roland said the whole family was trying to find her by calling hospitals and police and fire departments.
A law enforcement officer talks to people outside of a nearby high school. Credit: William Luther / APA distressed woman seen outside of school. Credit: 7NEWS
“It’s like a horror movie,” Rosa told NBC.
“If he’s not our son, he’s someone we know. They are our neighbors. “
Melissa Arredondo, 38, was working in a convenience store when news of the shooting surfaced on her phones and told her what was going on.
Her 10-year-old son, Jose, was in the classroom next to the room where many of the children and the teacher were shot.
He said his son told him that someone broke the back window and that the students were crawling out to a safe place.
But it was an hour before Arredondo found out if his son was OK.
“I felt like my heart was in my throat,” he said.
The scene at school after the shooting. Credit: ABC News Law enforcement personnel are out of Robb Elementary School. Credit: Dario Lopez-Mills / AP
She said her son had asked to leave after the awards ceremony, but that her husband told her to end the school day.
While they were waiting for news of Joseph, her husband was upset that he would not let her son go home early.
“As soon as I felt like my son was fine, my heart was a little bit, I was still sunken by everyone else, because as a mother who has lost a child, I know the feeling,” Arredondo said.
Arredondo lost a child due to sudden infant death syndrome and had a miscarriage.
Despite the desperation of the parents, people were told to stay away from hospitals treating victims.
Parents waited until late at night at a nearby civic center to see if their children had survived, and some told CNN they had to give DNA samples to help authorities identify the children.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital said from the beginning that it had received 13 children for treatment. Two had died.
“If you are not an immediate relative, we ask that you do not come to the hospital at this time,” the hospital wrote on Facebook.
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What we know about the shooter
Salvador Ramos, who was shot dead by responding officials, was identified as the shooter.
The 18-year-old is believed to have shot his grandmother before going to school with a gun and a rifle. She remains in critical condition.
Ramos, who attended Uvalde High School, is believed to have acted alone.
He crashed his vehicle into a ditch near the school before attempting to enter the compound, Texas Department of Homeland Security Sergeant Erick Estrada told CNN.
Officers confronted Ramos but he was able to enter, where he “entered several classrooms and started firing with his firearm.”
Days before the attack, Ramos sent a text message to a former classmate with photos of a firearm he had and a bag full of ammunition.
Salvador Ramos, now dead, has been identified as the 18-year-old gunman. Credit: Sunrise A state agent walks past the Robb Elementary School sign. Credit: William Luther / AP
The friend, who did not want to be identified by his name, said he was a little “close” to Ramos and that he occasionally heard from him to play Xbox together.
“He sent me a message here and there, and four days ago he sent me a picture of the AR he was using … and a backpack full of 5.56 rounds, probably like seven magazines,” the friend told CNN.
“I said, ‘Brother, why do you have this? and said, “Don’t worry about it.”
“He sent me a text message:” I look very different now. You wouldn’t recognize me.
The friend said Ramos was mocked by others for the clothes he was wearing and his family’s financial situation, and that he was finally seen less in class.
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“I wouldn’t want to go to school … and he left school slowly,” the friend said.
“He barely came to school.”
He said that after his own graduation, he communicated less with Ramos.
But every few months, Ramos would text or ask to play on Xbox, he said.
A photo of two AR15-style rifles appeared on an Instagram account linked to Ramos just three days before Tuesday’s shooting.
Xavier López was one of the students shot dead at the school. Credit: ABC7 / López Family
Her TikTok page only has a single post of a mobile game, but the biography below her profile picture says, “Kids are scared (in real life).”
Ramos worked day shifts at a local Wendy’s store, with a manager describing him as “the quiet guy.”
“He didn’t really socialize with the other employees,” Adrian Mendes said.
“He just worked, cashed in and went in to get his check.”
Teacher, identified student
Eva Mireles has been identified as one of the teachers killed in the shooting.
“She was a beautiful person and a dedicated teacher,” said the father of one of her students.
“No words.”
Mireles was a fourth-grade teacher and had worked in the local school district for 17 years.
Xavier López, ten years old, is the first student identified as a victim of the shooting. I was in fourth grade.
His cousin told ABC7 that Xavier’s mother had attended the award ceremony during school hours before the shooting.
– With CNN / NBC