Uvalde, Texas — An 18-year-old fatally shot at least 19 children Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
There are also 3 adults dead, according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he was told by state police regarding the victims. The assailant was also killed, but it was unclear if the casualty count included him.
Also read: The worst recent school shootings in America
Federal law enforcement officials said the death toll is expected to rise. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the investigation.
This has been the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, occurring four years following a gunman shot dead 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area. It is also the deadliest shooting at an elementary school in the United States since the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, nearly a decade ago.
The shooter entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde with a handgun and possibly a rifle, Abbott said. Authorities have not disclosed a motive for the shooting. The gunman was identified as Salvador Ramos and said he was a resident of the community regarding 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio. Almost 82% of the population of this city is Hispanic, according to the Census Bureau.
Abbott said the shooter was likely killed by responding officers, but the incident was still under investigation. Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo told a news conference that the shooter acted alone.
“He horribly, incomprehensibly shot and killed 14 students and a teacher,” the governor said, adding that two officers were shot and wounded but were expected to survive.
Also read: Author of the shooting in Buffalo analyzed the population of the place before the attack
It was not immediately clear how many people, in addition to the dead, were injured in the shooting. Previously, Uvalde Memorial Hospital said 13 children were transferred there. Another hospital reported that a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition.
Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County, regarding 85 miles west of San Antonio, was put on lockdown, according to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, when it emerged an active shooter was reported at the school, which has nearly 600 students.
The school was surrounded by a heavy police presence Tuesday followingnoon, with officers in heavy vests diverting traffic and FBI agents coming and going from the building.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting on Air Force One while returning from a five-day trip to Asia and would continue to receive updates. Jean-Pierre said that Biden will deliver remarks Tuesday night at the White House.
The shooting in Texas came less than two weeks following a gunman opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 Black shoppers and workers in what authorities described as a hate crime.
For his part, Senator Ted Cruz said in an interview with Spectrum News that an incident like this is almost immediately politicized and said that pursuing Second Amendment rights “is not effective in stopping these types of crimes. What is effective is targeting criminals and fugitives and those with serious mental illness.”
The tragedy in Uvalde adds to a grim list of mass shootings in Texas that have been among the bloodiest in the United States in the past five years. A year before the Santa Fe massacre, in 2018, a gunman killed more than two dozen people in Sutherland Springs as they attended Sunday mass.
In 2019, a gunman entered a Walmart store in El Paso and killed 23 people in a racist attack.
The shooting comes just days following the National Rifle Association, the powerful gun lobby, holds its convention in Houston. Abbott and the two senators from Texas will participate in the event on Friday.
Uvalde is a town of regarding 16,000 people and is the seat of government for Uvalde County. The town is regarding 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Mexican border, while the school is in a mostly residential neighborhood of modest homes.
Cruz says exact details are still unknown but “it almost immediately gets politicized.” He says going following Second Amendment rights “is not effective in stopping these sorts of crimes. What is effective is targeting felons and fugitives and those with serious mental illness.” pic.twitter.com/3XTCsVBh1W
— Reena Jade Diamante (@reenajade) May 24, 2022
