The Associated Press Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2022 8:12 AM EDT Last Updated on Thursday, May 26, 2022 8:12 AM EDT
UVALDE, Texas (AP) – A gunman broke into a primary school in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, killing 19 children and two teachers in the deadliest shooting at a U.S. school in nearly a decade.
Law enforcement officers killed the shooter, identified as an 18-year-old local who had shot and injured his grandmother and explained his violent plans in online messages shortly before the Robb Elementary massacre. Investigators say they do not yet know the motive for the shootings.
A look at what we know so far:
WHAT HAPPENED TO UVALDE?
The attacker, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face at his home in Uvalde and then fled in his truck while calling for help, according to Gov. Greg Abbott, the director of Texas Public Safety, Steve McCraw. and other officials.
A short distance away, Ramos crashed the truck outside the school, came out with a rifle and approached a back door, officials said. They said an officer assigned to the school “hooked” Ramos, but the gunman entered the building and went down a hallway to a classroom. After closing the classroom door, he opened fire at about 11:30 a.m. with an AR-15-style rifle, which was carrying several magazines.
A team that includes local officers and Border Patrol agents eventually forced open the door and shot and killed Ramos after he shot them, police said.
Other officers and lifeguards broke some of the school’s windows so that teachers and students could escape.
Ramos was wearing a tactical vest, though not body armor, according to state senators who said they had been informed of the shooting. There was another AR-15-style rifle in his truck, and near the school entrance he found a backpack with several magazines loaded with ammunition.
WHO WERE THE VICTIMS?
Authorities have not yet released the names of the victims, but some information about them has emerged from their families.
Eliahna Garcia was a 10-year-old extroverted girl who loved to sing, dance, play sports, and be with her family, according to Aunt Syria Arizmendi. Uziyah Garcia was only 8 years old and “the sweetest kid I’ve ever met,” said Grandpa Manny Renfro, recalling how the young man was already able to master the passing patterns of football.
Xavier Javier López, 10, was waiting for a summer of swimming. Exciting and loving, “I was enjoying life, not knowing that this tragedy would happen today,” said cousin Lisa Garza.
Layla Salazar, a fast-paced 10-year-old, had won six races on the school field day.
“It was a lot of fun,” said his father, Vincent Salazar, recalling how he danced to TikTok videos and sang the Guns N ‘Roses song “Sweet Child O’ Mine” with him every morning on his way to school.
Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10, had refused to go to school on Tuesday, seeming to think something bad would happen, her mother, Veronica Luevanos, told Univision. A Jailah cousin was also killed.
Eva Mireles, 44, had been teaching for 17 years, according to a student welcome letter she wrote last fall. She and her husband, a school police officer, had an older daughter.
Mireles wrote that she loved running and hiking, and family member Amber Ybarra said she had an adventurous spirit.
WHO WAS THE PISTRO?
Ramos lived in Uvalde itself, a predominantly Latin town of about 16,000 people in an agricultural area about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the border with Mexico and 85 miles (135 kilometers) from San Antonio.
Abbott said Ramos, who dropped out of high school, had no criminal record or a history of mental health problems.
In the half hour before the school’s murders, Ramos used Facebook to say he would shoot his grandmother, after he had done so, and after he would shoot an unspecified elementary school, officials said.
Facebook said Ramos’s posts were private messages that came to light after the killings.
Investigators have also been examining an Instagram account that appears to belong to Ramos. In the days leading up to the shooting, the posts showed a photo of one hand holding an ammunition magazine and another photo of two AR-15-style rifles. The account asked another Instagram user to share this last photo with their 10,000 followers; she refused, saying she was “scared” and barely knew him.
On the morning of the massacre, the account linked to Ramos sent him an ominous message: “I’m about to do it.”
Instagram declined to answer questions about posts.
WHERE DID THE GUN COME FROM?
The gunman legally bought his weapons shortly after his 18th birthday and days before the attack, law enforcement officials told state lawmakers.
He bought a rifle from a federally licensed gun dealer in the Uvalde area on May 17, according to a state police conference with State Sen. John Whitmire. On May 18, the gunman bought 375 rounds of ammunition. Then, two days later, he bought a second rifle.
WHAT DO WE NOT KNOW?
Authorities have not disclosed the full list of victims. Many important details about the attack have not been made public either.
Among them: what happened between Ramos and the school official who first found him; who saw the online posts attributed to him; what story, if any, he had with Robb Elementary; and why he went into a rage.
“We don’t see any motive or catalyst right now,” McCraw said Wednesday afternoon.
HOW MANY MASSES HAVE YOU DONE IN US SCHOOLS?
There have been 14 shootings that have claimed the lives of four or more victims in U.S. schools and universities since 1999, when two students killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher at Colorado Columbine High School in 1999. This is according to a database compiled by The Associated. Press, USA Today and Northeastern University and other AP reports. These massive attacks have killed a total of 169 people.
The Ubalde massacre was the deadliest since December 2012, when 20 first-graders and six educators were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut by a gunman who had just killed his mother.
In 2007, a Virginia Tech student shot and killed 32 people.