UVALDE, Texas – The small town of Uvalde, Texas, has come together to pray for the 21 victims and their families after Tuesday’s deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School.
Authorities say Salvador Ramos, 18, armed with an AR-15-style weapon, entered a classroom, barricaded himself and opened fire.
Nineteen children lost their lives in that classroom along with two teachers.
MORE: What We Know About Texas Elementary School Shooting Victims So Far
For the responding agents, this was personal. Many had their own children in danger.
“At all SEM units, on hold. Don’t try to get close. We were shot,” a radio broadcast told rescue workers.
Officials say officers shot and killed the suspect within 40 minutes to an hour of his first meeting with a school resource officer at the entrance to the building.
Authorities say the suspect turned 18 just nine days ago.
READ ALSO: Beto O’Rourke Interrupts Texas Governor Abbott at Uvalde Press Conference and Says Filming “Totally Predictable”
The ATF said that just a day after his birthday, Ramos bought an AR-15-style rifle.
Three days later, he bought a second one.
And four days later, he was in Robb Elementary School.
Ramos’ grandfather told ABC’s Matt Gutman he didn’t know his grandson had guns.
“If I had known, I would have reported it,” said Rolando Reyes.
ABC News messages also reveal a shocking warning just minutes before the shooting.
The alleged gunman sent a text message to a 15-year-old girl in Germany.
First, she described a discussion with her grandmother about paying the phone bill.
He later wrote: “Right now I’m going to shoot an elementary school.”
Researchers are now pouring into their social media.
The school principal finished the course early.
SEE ALSO: The United States is seeing a sharp rise in deadly mass shootings
Dr. Hal Harrell, superintendent of UCISD, said, “My heart is broken today. We are a small community and we need your prayers to make it happen.”
A Customs and Border Protection official told ABC News that there were four border patrol officers, members of elite specialized units, who fought and stopped the shooter along with state and local agents.
ACT: Resources for survivors and victims of armed violence
Since 2013, the year after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, mass shootings in the United States, described as shooting incidents in which at least four people are injured or killed, have almost triplicate. There have already been 213 mass shooting incidents in 2022: a 50% increase over the 141 shootings in May 2017 and a 150% increase over the 84 in May 2013. The graph above shows the number of shooting incidents by state. Mobile users: Click here to see our map of mass shootings in the US from Sandy Hook.
The number of people injured or killed does not include the suspect or the perpetrator. These graphs show the number of victims in all the mass shootings since 20 children and six adults were shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut on December 14, 2012.
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