Texas school shooting: 19 Students and 2 adults are dead

Texas school shooting: Robb Elementary teaches 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-grade students at Uvalde, about 85 miles west of San Antonio. Governor Greg Abbott said the shooter was believed to have been killed by responding law enforcement agencies. The shooting started around 11:32 am.

A shooting at Rob Elementary School in Uvalde County killed 19 children and two adults on Tuesday, making the slaughter the most deadly school shooting in Texas history.

“My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, director of the Ubaldi Consolidated Independent School District, in tears at a press conference on Tuesday night. “We are a small community and we need your prayers to overcome this.”

Governor Greg Abbott said the archer was killed. UvaldeCISD police chief Pete Arredondo said the shooter was believed to have acted alone.

“What happened in Uvalde is a horrific tragedy that cannot be tolerated in the state of Texas,” Abbott said.

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President Joe Biden talked with Abbott and provided support, according to White House officials. Biden also ordered all public property and the flag of the US Embassy to be half-masted in memory of the murdered.

“Tonight I ask the people to pray for them. Empower your parents and siblings in the darkness they are feeling now,” Biden said at a press conference on Tuesday night.

Biden also made a renewed call to reform gun laws.

“As a country, we have to ask — when in the name of God do we confront the gun lobby?” He said.

One of the two adult victims was identified as a school teacher, Eva Mireles, by her aunt and parents of students on social media. No other adults and 19 children have been identified. Senator Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, told CNN that a third adult may have died, but authorities have not confirmed it.

Officials and hospital officials said others were injured, but have not confirmed some.

Abbott identified the shooter as Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old Uvalde resident. The governor said the man abandoned his car and entered Rob Elementary School with his pistol and perhaps a rifle.

The shooting began around 11:32 am, Aledondo said. The Uvalde School District reported an active shooter on Twitter at 12:17 pm.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson responded to law enforcement requests for assistance. A law enforcement officer entered the school building and encountered a shooting from a barricaded shooter inside. Border guard agents shot the shooters before waiting for a backup, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

The shooter shot his grandmother before the shooting at school, Gutierrez told CNN. According to the information given to Gutierrez by the Texas Rangers, her grandmother was airlifted to San Antonio and “still held” on Tuesday night.

The Daily Dot reported that the shooter recently purchased a rifle online. According to the outlet, he posted an image of two rifles in his latest Instagram post before the social media platform deleted his account.

Robb Elementary teaches 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade students. The students were scheduled to celebrate the last day of the school year on Thursday.

The school had 535 students in the 2020-2021 school year, most of whom were Hispanic and were considered financially disadvantaged. Uvalde is a relatively small city about 85 miles west of San Antonio. The population of approximately 15,200 is primarily Hispanic.

At the beginning of Tuesday, Uvalde CISD closed all campuses after ammunition was fired in the area. According to Harrell, the school will be closed for the rest of the school year, but students will be offered grief counseling.

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican whose district includes Robb Elementary School, wrote on Twitter, “My heart breaks for the city of Uvalde. Pray for our families.” and cited a Bible verse.

According to the New York Times, the Uvalde massacre is the second deadliest shooting at a US elementary school following the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. The slaughter in Yuvalde was the eighth mass shooting in a public space in Texas since an Army psychiatrist fired at Fort Hood Army Base in November 2009, and later in an act of religious extremism. Thirteen people were killed in a determined incident. Five years later, in April 2014, another Fort Hood soldier killed three people at the base and injured another 12 before committing suicide during a battle with the gendarmerie.