At least 19 children were shot to death at Robb Elementary School in Texas, the worst school shooting in U.S. history since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre left 20 children and six adults dead on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut.
At least 19 children and two adults are dead after a gunman opened fire Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Texas, the worst school shooting in U.S. history since 20 children and six adults perished in the Sandy Hook massacre
The shooter was identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a local high school student who had earlier shot his grandmother at her home and then drove to the school, crashed his car, and ran inside, authorities said.
"As soon as he made entry into the school, he started shooting children, teachers, whoever was in his way; he was shooting everybody,” said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivarez.
Ramos was carrying a handgun and possibly a rifle, and was wearing body armor, Olivarez said.
A parent told reporters that Ramos was shooting in a fourth-grade classroom near the school entrance, sending children climbing out of windows. Children hid in a nearby funeral home as the slaughter continued.
Robb Elementary School and the entire district were placed on lockdown Tuesday after gunfire erupted. The school is located in Uvalde, a border town of some 16,000 people about 80 miles from San Antonio.
The school is home to students in grades two through four, Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo said in a brief press conference Tuesday.
The gunman acted alone "during this heinous crime," the chief said.
Families waited hours for word on their children. At the town civic center where some gathered, the silence was broken repeatedly by screams and wailing. “No! Please, no!” one man yelled as he embraced another man, The Associated Press reported.
Families were still being notified late into the night after gunfire erupted at 11:32 a.m. local time.
By Wednesday morning, all relatives had been contacted and bodies inside the school had been removed, according to the Texas Rangers.
Tuesday night, an angry and distraught President Joe Biden addressed the nation, delivering an urgent demand for new restrictions on firearm sales.
"When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” the president said. "Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?" Biden said, his voice heavy with emotion.
"To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away,” Biden said. “There’s a hollowness in your chest. You feel like you’re being sucked into it and never going to be able to get out."
The president ordered American flags at government installations to be flown at half-staff until Saturday in tribute to the victims.
The carnage closely followed the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, when a lone gunman with an alleged racist grudge killed 10 Black people at a grocery store on May 14.
Tuesday's tragic loss of life was the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot to death 26 people, 20 of them children between the ages of 6 and 7. Lanza killed himself as officers arrived.
Lanza shot his mother to death before entering the school.
Late Tuesday, relatives identified Eva Mireles, a fourth-grade teacher, as one of the dead.
“I’m furious that these shootings continue. These children are innocent. Rifles should not be easily available to all. This is my hometown, a small community of less than 20,000. I never imagined this would happen to especially loved ones... All we can do is pray hard for our country, state, schools, and especially the families of all,” her aunt, Lydia Martinez Delgado, said in a statement to ABC 7.
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