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At least 21 people were killed in a shooting at a Texas elementary school Tuesday morning, 19 of them children.
Here’s wat we know:
Students, teachers killed
Nineteen children and two adults were killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, about 85 miles west of San Antonio.
Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN that all victims were in the same fourth-grade classroom. There were at least two sets of cousins in the class. Olivarez said on NBC’s “Today” show that first responders broke windows at the school to allow students and teachers inside to escape.
The attack was the deadliest school shooting in Texas. It was also the second-most deadly at a U.S. school, trailing the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults.
Those slain in Uvalde include two teachers and 19 students. While officials have not yet publicly identified the victims, the names of those killed in the attack have begun to emerge on social media.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that 17 people were also injured in the attack, and three children and an adult were being treated at a San Antonio hospital, where two of them — a 66-year-old woman and 10-year-old girl — were listed in serious condition.
Gunman was from the area
Gov. Greg Abbott identified the gunman as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who was a resident of the community. Arredondo said he acted alone.
Sgt. Erick Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety said Ramos was wearing body armor and hinted about an attack on social media. He crashed his car outside before entering the school, Estrada said.
Olivarez said Wednesday that the shooter barricaded himself inside a classroom, according to The Associated Press.
“The shooter was able to make entry into a classroom, barricaded himself inside that classroom and again just began shooting numerous children and teachers that were in that classroom having no regard for human life. … Just began shooting anyone that was in his way,” he said.
A Border Patrol agent who was working nearby responded to the school and fatally shot Ramos without waiting for backup, a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press. The agent was injured but able to walk out of the school.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that Border Patrol agents had trouble breaching the room and had to get a staff member to open it with a key. There’s conflicting information on how long Ramos was in the room, but Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said it was around 40 minutes.
Two police officers who responded to the school and exchanged gunfire with the shooter were also wounded, according to The Associated Press.
Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who was briefed by the Texas Rangers, said Ramos shot his grandmother before going to the school with two military-style rifles he bought when he turned 18. Officials said that the grandmother survived and was being treated, though her condition was not known, The Associated Press reported.
Officials have not revealed a motive for the shooting.
Gunman posted online before the massacre
Ramos made at least three social media posts prior to the massacre, one of which indicated that he was going to shoot up a school, Abbott said.
The governor said at a news conference Wednesday that about 30 minutes before the shooting, the gunman posted he was going to shoot his grandmother, then that he had shot her, and then that he was going to shoot up an elementary school.
Abbott said Ramos’ grandmother, believed to be 66-year-old Celia Martinez, was in serious condition.
Abbott said the gunman had no known criminal or mental health history.
Before it was taken down Wednesday afternoon, an Instagram account purportedly belonging to the shooter showed several images of AR-15-style rifles.
The Associated Press reported that rifle Ramos used in the shooting was a DDM4 Rifle, an AR-15 type gun that is modeled after the U.S. military’s go-to weapon.
Onlookers urged police to enter the building
On Wednesday, multiple witnesses told The Associated Press that people were urging police to enter the building as the shooting broke out.
Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the shooting unfold from outside his home across the street, said he heard nearby women shouting “Go in there! Go in there!” at officers after the shooting started.
Carranza said just before that, he saw Ramos crash his car in a ditch, grab an AR-15-type rifle and shoot at two people who were outside at a nearby funeral home. The people ran away uninjured, The Associated Press reported.
Biden’s remarks
In an emotional speech Tuesday evening, President Joe Biden called for more restrictions on firearms.
“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 said. “Why are are willing to live with this carnage?”
Biden spoke at the White House upon returning from a five-day trip to Asia. Days before the trip, he met with the families of the victims killed at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, earlier this month.
Uvalde is home to about 16,000
Uvalde is home to about 16,000 people and is the seat of government for Uvalde County. The town is about 75 miles from the border with Mexico.
Robb Elementary is in a mostly residential neighborhood. The school has an enrollment of slightly fewer than 600 students and serves students in the second, third and fourth grades.
The school’s last day of classes was scheduled for Thursday, according to its website.
“My heart is broken today,” Hal Harrell, the school district superintendent, said Tuesday. “We’re a small community, and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”
Texas school shootings
The shooting at Robb Elementary School was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. Prior to Tuesday, the state’s most deadly school shooting was the 1966 attack at the University of Texas, when a student opened fire from the college’s iconic tower. The gunman killed 16 and wounded an additional 31.
In May 2018, a gunman killed 10 people and injured 13 at Santa Fe High School near Houston. The mother of one victim said her daughter had rejected the gunman’s advances a week before the attack.
The Santa Fe tragedy spurred a series of laws that, among other things, gave money to school systems to “harden” their campuses. Abbott also awarded several million in school safety grants in the aftermath of the Santa Fe shooting.
Texans have been able to carry a handgun in public without a license or training since Sept. 1, 2021, after Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation allowing permitless carry that he called the “biggest and best” gun law of the 2021 legislative session.