The shooter, identified by Texas officials as Salvador Ramos of Uvalde, also shot his grandmother before crashing a vehicle near the school, according to a Texas Department of Homeland Security sergeant. said Erick Estrada. She is in critical condition, he said.
The gunman is believed to have acted alone, said Ualde Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo.
• Estrada told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that the gunman destroyed a vehicle while driving near the school after shooting his grandmother. “The suspect crashed near a ditch near the school. There he got out of his vehicle with what I think was a rifle and that’s when he tried to enter the school where he was engaged by the forces of order “.
• The gunman was carrying armor, a rifle and a backpack, Estrada said. The shooter entered several classrooms, Estrada added.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is the largest law enforcement agency in the area due to Uvalde’s proximity to Mexico, had more than 20 officers responding to the shooting, according to a officer of the order. A CBP officer was shot in the head but is in stable condition after the bullet did not penetrate, the official said.
• Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Marsha Espinosa tweeted that officers and other security forces fired at the barricade, which had been barricaded. “These Border Patrol officers and other officers, risking their own lives, stood between the shooter and the children on the scene to divert the shooter’s attention from the potential victims and save lives,” he wrote. • President Joe Biden has ordered U.S. flags on federal land to be flown at half-mast until Saturday sunset to honor the victims of these “senseless acts of violence.” • Uvalde Memorial Hospital spokesman Tom Nordwick previously said 13 children and a 40-year-old man were being treated for injuries. San Antonio University Hospital said in a tweet that they received a child and an adult from the school shooting. The adult, a 66-year-old woman, is in critical condition, the hospital said in a tweet.
• The FBI and the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are assisting local and state authorities with the investigation.
30th shooting at a K-12 school this year
Tuesday’s incident marks at least the 30th shooting at a K-12 school in 2022. So far in 2022 there have been at least 39 shootings at K-12 schools, colleges and universities, which have resulted in at least 10 deaths and 51 wounded.
It is the deadliest shooting at a school since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut that left 26 people dead, including 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7.
Biden calls on lawmakers to have a backbone
President Biden addressed the shooting in an emotional comment from the White House on Tuesday evening, saying: “I was hoping that when I became president I would not have to do it again.”
“There are many things we don’t know yet. There are many things we do know. Parents who will never see their child again, never jump in and hug them. Parents who will never be the same. Losing a child is like having a piece of your soul torn apart, “said Biden, who has previously spoken in deeply personal terms about the family tragedies he has suffered.
On the issue of gun control legislation, Biden urged lawmakers to “turn this pain into action” as he reviewed some of the mass shootings since the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. Connecticut, when he was vice president.
“Why do we keep letting this happen? Where, in God’s name, do we have the backbone to have the courage to face and confront the lobbies?” He said.
The school was two days away from the summer holidays
Robb Elementary teaches second through fourth grade and had 535 students in the 2020-21 school year, according to state data. About 90% of students are Hispanic and about 81% are financially disadvantaged, according to the data. Thursday was supposed to be the last day of school before the summer break.
The school district said it will cancel all school activities after the shooting.
Uvalde County, located about 85 miles west of San Antonio, had a population of about 25,000 according to the 2020 census.
CNN’s Christina Maxouris, Paul LeBlanc, Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz, Joe Sutton, Jennifer Henderson, Jamiel Lynch, Priscilla Alvarez, and Joseph Bonheim contributed to this report.