Deadly shooting at Texas elementary school
An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, killing 19 children, officials said, and the gunman was dead.
The death toll also included three adults, according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he was briefed by state police on the fatalities. But it was not immediately clear whether that number included the assailant.
It was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since a gunmen killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago. And it came just 10 days after a gunman in body armor killed 10 shoppers and workers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in what authorities say was a racist attack.
Federal law enforcement officials said the death toll was expected to rise. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release investigative details.
The gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, with a handgun and possibly a rifle, Gov. Greg Abbott said. Officials did not immediately reveal a motive, but the governor identified the assailant as Salvador Ramos and said he was a resident of the heavily Latino community about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio.
A Border Patrol agent who was 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.
Shooter barricaded himself in classroom, killing 19 children and 2 teachers
All fatalities and injuries took place inside one classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, according to Lt. Chris Olivarez, spokesperson for the Texas Department for Public Safety.
The shooter barricaded himself in one room, killing two teachers and 19 children, he said.
“Just goes to show you the complete evil from this shooter,” Olivarez told CNN’s John Berman and Shimon Prokupecz.
As the shooting was taking place, officers were going around the school, breaking windows and trying to evacuate children and staff. They were then able to force entry into the classroom where the shooter was, he said.
All the victims have been removed, identified and their families have been notified, the lieutenant said. Multiple children were wounded inside the classroom, according to Olivarez, but there is no exact number as to how many at this time.
“It’s a small classroom, you can have anywhere from 25 to 30 students in there, plus there were two teachers in there. … So don’t have exact number of how many students were in that classroom, but it could vary … It was a classroom setting, a typical classroom setting where you have mass groups of children inside that classroom all together, with nowhere to go,” Olivarez said.
Texas school shooter identified as 18-year-old Uvalde resident
The gunman who fatally shot at least 19 children and two adults at a Texas elementary school was identified Tuesday afternoon as Salvador Ramos.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Ramos as the shooter during an emergency announcement.
Ramos, 18, was the person pulling the trigger at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, according to Abbott. The governor said Ramos was a resident of the 15,000-person town about 80 miles west of San Antonio. Law enforcement sources told Abbott that Ramos shot his grandmother before traveling to the school and unleashing terror. Cops responding to the scene shot and killed Ramos during a gunfight, Abbott said. Two of the officers suffered minor injuries.
Local police have not yet named Ramos as the shooter and have provided few details about the horrifying scene. No authorities have publicly speculated on a possible motive for the massacre.
