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An alleged shooting at a primary school in south Texas killed 19 young children and two adults.
The 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde before being killed by police, according to officials.
The suspect was armed with a handgun, an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, and high-capacity magazines, according to investigators.
According to the BBC, the teenager is suspected of shooting his grandmother at the start of the rampage.
According to local media, he may have been a high school student in the area.
The shooting began at 11:32 a.m. on Tuesday, according to Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Chief of Police Pete Arredondo, and investigators believe the attacker “acted alone during this heinous crime.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the shooter, Salvador Ramos, abandoned his vehicle before entering the school and opening fire “horribly, incomprehensibly.”
One of the adults killed was a teacher named Eva Mireles in the US media. Her profile on the school district’s website stated that she had a college-aged daughter and enjoyed running and hiking.
The predominantly Hispanic school is located approximately 85 miles (135 kilometres) west of San Antonio.
Robb Elementary serves students aged seven to ten in the second, third, and fourth grades.
According to the Associated Press, a US Border Patrol official who was nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school and shot and killed the gunman who was hiding behind a barricade.
Border Patrol is a federal agency responsible for guarding US ports of entry. A Border Patrol station is located in Uvalde, which is less than 80 miles from the Mexican border.
During an exchange with the gunman, two border agents were reportedly shot. According to officials, one agent was shot in the head, and both are now in stable condition in the hospital.
According to CBS News, the attacker carried out the attack while wearing body armour. Another 18-year-old suspect in the May 14 attack on a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, was also wearing body armour and carrying a semi-automatic rifle, both of which are commercially available in the United States.
Earlier, the Uvalde Memorial Hospital announced on Facebook that 13 children had been transported to the hospital “via ambulances or buses.”
According to University Health hospital officials, a 66-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl were in critical condition at a San Antonio hospital.
A small vigil was held for the victims and survivors of the attack just a few blocks from Robb Elementary School.
Karla Bohman’s voice cracked as she told the group about a family friend whose young daughter, a school student, was among those still missing.
“They don’t know if she’s in surgery or one of the fatalities, but they know she’s a victim of some sort because she’s missing,” Bohman cried.
“I can’t believe this.”
Cheryl Juhasz, a lifelong resident of Uvalde, quietly wept during the prayer.
“You can’t comprehend evil like this. No matter where it happens, but it’s harder when it happens at home.”
In a speech from the White House, US President Joe Biden said he was “sick and tired” of responding to mass shootings, as he called for gun control.
“How many scores of little children who witnessed what happened — see their friends die, as if they’re in a battlefield, for God’s sake,” he said.
“They’ll live with it the rest of their lives.”
He ordered that flags at the White House and other US federal buildings be flown at half-mast in honour of the victims in Uvalde.
The last day of classes for students in the school district was scheduled for Thursday. But all classes and activities have now been cancelled for the remainder of the year.
School shootings have become recurring emergencies in the US, with 26 recorded in 2021, according to EdWeek, an education trade publication.
Active shooter lockdown drills are a common part of the school curriculum, from primary to high school.
The 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut was the deadliest such attack. Twenty of the 26 victims were between the age of five and six.
Speaking on the floor of the US Senate in Washington DC on Tuesday, Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy begged his colleagues to pass gun control legislation.
“These kids weren’t unlucky,” he said. “This only happens in this country. Nowhere else, nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day.”
But Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, rejected the calls for gun control. He said restricting the rights of “law-abiding citizens… doesn’t work. It’s not effective. It doesn’t prevent crime.”
Guns overtook car crashes to become the leading cause of death for US children and teenagers in 2020, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in April 2022.
On Monday, an FBI report found that “active shooter” rampage attacks have doubled since the coronavirus began in 2020.
Source:OCN
