An 18-year-old man on Tuesday opened fire at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom, officials said.
The attacker was killed by law enforcement.
The death toll also included two adults, authorities said.
Photo: Reuters
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that one of the two was a teacher.
The assault at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a US school since a man killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
Outside the town civic center, where families were told to await news about their loved ones, the silence was broken repeatedly by screams and wailing.
“No. Please, no,” one man yelled.
“My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, the school district superintendent. “We’re a small community, and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”
Adolfo Cruz, a 69-year-old air-conditioning repairman, was still outside the school as the sun set, seeking word on his 10-year-old great-granddaughter, Eliajha Cruz Torres.
He drove to the scene after receiving a call from his daughter shortly after the first reports of the shooting.
He said that other relatives were at the hospital and the civic center.
Waiting was the heaviest moment of his life, he said.
“I hope she is alive,” Cruz said.
US President Joe Biden called for new gun restrictions in an address to the nation hours after the attack.
“As a nation we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what has to be done?” Biden asked. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?”
Many of those who were wounded were rushed to Uvalde Memorial Hospital, where staff members in scrubs and relatives could be seen weeping as they walked out of the complex.
Officials did not immediately reveal a motive, but they identified the assailant as Salvador Ramos, a resident of the community about 135km west of San Antonio.
Law enforcement officials said that he acted alone.
The attack came as Robb Elementary was counting down to the last days of the school year with a series of themed days.
Tuesday was to be “Footloose and Fancy,” with students wearing nice outfits and shoes.
The school has nearly 600 students in second, third and fourth grades. The vast majority of the students are Latino.
Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, Texas Senator Roland Gutierrez said, adding that he had been briefed by state police.
The gunman “suggested the kids should watch out,” and that he had bought two “assault weapons” after turning 18, Gutierrez said.
Before heading to the school, Ramos shot his grandmother, Gutierrez said.
Other officials said later that the grandmother survived and was being treated, although her condition was not known.
Investigators believe Ramos posted photographs on Instagram of two guns he used in the shooting, and they were examining whether he made statements online alluding to the attack in the hours before the assault, a law enforcement official said.
The attack began about 11:30am, when the gunman crashed a vehicle outside the school and ran into the building, said Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
A resident who heard the crash called emergency services and two local police officers exchanged gunfire with the shooter.
Both officers were shot, although it was not immediately clear where on the campus that confrontation occurred, or how much time elapsed before more authorities arrived on the scene.
Meanwhile, teams of Border Patrol agents raced to the school, including 10 to 15 members of a tactical unit, said Jason Owens, a top regional official with the Border Patrol.
One Border Patrol agent who was working nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the gunman, who was behind a barricade, a law enforcement official said speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it.
The agent was wounded, but walked out of the school, the law enforcement source said.
Owens confirmed that an agent suffered minor injuries, but would not provide details of that confrontation.
He said some area agents have children at Robb Elementary.
“We have Border Patrol kids that go to this school. It hit home for everybody,” he said.
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