19 children, 2 adults killed in Uvalde school shooting; suspect dead

UVALDE — An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom, officials said, in the latest gruesome moment for a country scarred by a string of massacres. The attacker was killed by law enforcement.

The death toll also included two adults, according to Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Gov. Greg Abbott said one of the two was a teacher.

The massacre at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde was the second-deadliest U.S. school shooting on record. A gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., almost a decade ago.

Hours after the attack, families were still awaiting word on their children.

Outside the town civic center, where families were told to gather, the silence was broken repeatedly by screams and wailing. “No! Please, no!” one man yelled as he embraced another man.

“My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, the school district superintendent, announcing that all school activities were canceled until further notice. “We’re a small community and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”

President Joe Biden appeared ready for a fight and 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 are willing to live with this carnage?”

Biden issued a proclamation ordering flags lowered to half-staff through Saturday “as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence” at the school.

Many of the injured were rushed to Uvalde Memorial Hospital, where staff members in scrubs and devastated victims’ 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 85 miles west of San Antonio. Law enforcement officials said he acted alone.

Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been briefed by state police. He noted that the gunman “suggested the kids should watch out.”

Before heading to the school, Ramon killed his grandmother with two military-style rifles he purchased on his birthday, Gutierrez said.

“That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday,” he said. Other officials said later that the grandmother had survived, and was being treated, through her condition was not known.

Investigators believe Ramos posted photos 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.

Law enforcement officers were serving multiple search warrants Tuesday night and gathering telephone and other records, the official said. Investigators were also attempting to contact Ramos’ relatives and were tracing the firearms.

The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The attack began about 11:30 a.m., when the gunman crashed his car outside the school and ran into the building, according to Considine. A resident who heard the crash called 911, and two local police officers exchanged gunfire with the shooter.

Both officers were shot, though 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 SWAT-like tactical and counterterrorism 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, according to a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it. The agent was wounded but able to walk 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.

It was not immediately clear how many people were wounded, but Arredondo said there were “several injuries.” Earlier, Uvalde Memorial Hospital said 13 children were taken there. Another hospital reported a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition.

Robb Elementary School has an enrollment of just under 600 students, and Arredondo said it serves students in the second, third and fourth grade. He did not provide ages of the children who were shot. There were two more days of class before the end of the school year.

Heavily armed law enforcement officers swarmed to the school, with officers in tactical vests diverting traffic and FBI agents coming and going from the building.

Outside Robb Elementary, Petra Juárez eyed the school.

“It’s a sad day. … You never thought it would happen in a small town like Uvalde,” she said.

Juárez knew one of the teachers, whom she believes died. She also knew the grandmother of the suspect.

Her husband, Mario Juárez, pointed to a truck in the ravine behind his house, and said it was the gunman’s.

At the Willie de Leon Civic Center, four clusters of adults held each other as they wept. “It was her,” said one woman as she sobbed into the chest of a man.

Outside the civic center, Jesse Rodriguez pleaded for information on his daughter, a 10-year-old girl. He and his ex-wife were calling hospitals in the area, trying to find her.

Uvalde, home to about 16,000 people, is about 75 miles from the border with Mexico. Robb Elementary is in a mostly residential neighborhood of modest homes.

As night fell, neighbors gathered for an emergency Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

“Life is precious. Everyone is a piece of art,” Catholic Archbishop Gustavo Garcia told mourner.

The tragedy in Uvalde was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, and it added to a grim tally of mass shootings in the state that have been among the deadliest in the U.S. over the past five years.

In 2018, a gunman fatally shot 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area. A year before that, a gunman at a Texas church killed more than two dozen people during a Sunday service in the small town of Sutherland Springs. In 2019, another gunman at a Walmart in El Paso killed 23 people in a racist attack.

The shooting came days before the National Rifle Association annual convention was set to begin in Houston. Abbott and both of Texas’ U.S. senators were among elected Republican officials who were the scheduled speakers at a Friday leadership forum sponsored by the NRA’s lobbying arm.

In the years since Sandy Hook, the gun control debate in Congress has waxed and waned. Efforts by lawmakers to change U.S. gun policies in any significant way have consistently faced roadblocks from Republicans and the influence of outside groups such as the NRA.

A year after Sandy Hook, Sens. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Patrick J. Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, negotiated a bipartisan proposal to expand the nation’s background-check system. But as the measure was close to being brought to the Senate floor for a vote, it became clear it would not get enough votes to clear a 60-vote filibuster hurdle.

Then-President Barack Obama, who had made gun control central to his administration’s goals after the Newtown shooting, called Congress’ failure to act “a pretty shameful day for Washington.”

Last year, the House passed two bills to expand background checks on firearms purchases. One bill would have closed a loophole for private and online sales. The other would have extended the background check review period. Both languished in the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats need at least 10 Republican votes to overcome objections from a filibuster.

Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, called Tuesday’s shooting “every parent and teacher’s worst nightmare.”

”No parent, child, or teacher should ever have to wonder whether it’s safe to go to school,” he said.

At a gala in Washington, Vice President Kamala Harris called for “courage to take action” against gun violence.

”Our hearts break. But our hearts keep getting broken. … Enough is enough,” she said.

Staff writer Dianne Solís contributed to this report.