Fourteen youngsters and one trainer have been killed at a taking pictures at an elementary college west of San Antonio, Texas, the state’s governor stated on Tuesday.
Texas governor Greg Abbott stated Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old male resident of town of Uvalde, had entered Robb Elementary College and opened hearth earlier within the day. “He shot and killed horrifically, incomprehensibly, 14 college students and killed a trainer,” Abbott stated at a press convention on Tuesday afternoon.
“Texans throughout the state are grieving for the victims of this mindless crime and for the neighborhood of Uvalde,” Abbott stated in a press release.
The shooter was armed with a handgun and presumably a rifle, the governor stated. Abbott stated the shooter was lifeless, believed to have been killed by responding officers. Two responding officers have been additionally struck by rounds of ammunition however didn’t undergo critical accidents.
Abbott stated it had been reported the suspect shot his grandmother earlier than going to the college.
Pete Arredondo, chief of police for Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District, confirmed {that a} “mass casualty incident” occurred simply after 11:30am native time at Robb Elementary, which has youngsters within the second, third and fourth grades.
Arredondo stated that the investigation was nonetheless ongoing and that the police division was nonetheless working to get data to households of the victims. “Let me guarantee you the intruder is deceased, and we’re not actively in search of one other particular person or suspect on this case,” he stated.
Uvalde is a small city in south-west Texas with a inhabitants of about 15,000, roughly 50 miles from the US-Mexico border and 80 miles from San Antonio. About 90 per cent of scholars at Robb Elementary are Hispanic and a lot of the college students are thought-about “economically deprived” by the state, in line with Texas authorities knowledge.
The taking pictures in Texas comes lower than two weeks after a young person shot and killed 10 individuals at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
President Joe Biden had been briefed on the “horrific” taking pictures in Texas, White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wrote in a tweet, and can converse concerning the incident in a while Tuesday when he has returned from a visit to Asia. “His prayers are with the households impacted by this terrible occasion,” she wrote. Biden additionally ordered American flags be flown at half-staff on all public buildings till sundown on Might 28 out of respect for the victims.
The Texas taking pictures triggered quick requires more durable gun management laws from Democrats in Congress, who’ve tried in useless to go stricter measures for years however run encountered steadfast Republican opposition.
“I implore, beg, my Republican colleagues to hitch Democrats in lastly making adjustments to our gun legal guidelines to assist forestall People from re-living this gun tragedy far too usually. We can not proceed to sit down on our palms and permit harmless lives to be misplaced,” stated Dick Durbin, the Illinois senator and chair of the Senate judiciary committee.
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator who represents Connecticut — the state the place a gunman killed 26 individuals, together with 20 youngsters and 6 members of workers, on the Sandy Hook elementary college in 2012 — delivered an emotional speech on the Senate ground criticising his Republican colleagues. “Why are you right here?” he requested. “Why do you spend all this time operating for the US Senate . . . in case your reply is because the slaughter will increase, as our children run for his or her lives: we do nothing?”
Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, expressed no real interest in new gun management measures within the quick aftermath of the taking pictures. “We all know from previous expertise some of the efficient instruments for retaining youngsters protected is armed regulation enforcement on the campus,” he stated.
Further reporting by Justin Jacobs in Houston