A gunman aged 18 killed 19 children in Texas as he moved from classroom to classroom in an attack on an elementary school. Officials said that the rampage also saw two adults die, adding to years of horrific mass murders at schools, churches, and stores.
According to law enforcement officials, the attacker was killed when a Border Patrol agent rushed into school and did not wait for backup.
Tuesday’s attack on Robb Elementary School, a heavily Latino community in Uvalde, was the most violent shooting at an American school since December 2012, when a gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary, Newtown, Connecticut.
Families waited hours for news on their children, even after the attack. The silence at the town civic centre where many gathered was broken by shouts and wailing. “No! “Please, no!” a man shouted as he hugged another man.
Hal Harrell, superintendent of schools, said that “my heart is broken today”. “We are a small community and will need your prayers to get this through.”
Gov. Greg Abbott stated that one of the adults who were killed was a teacher.
Adolfo Cruz (a 69-year old air conditioner repairman) was still outside the school as it set to seek word on Eliajha Cruz Torres, his 10-year-old great granddaughter.
He said that waiting was the most difficult moment in his life.
Cruz stated, “I hope she’s still alive.”
This attack came just 10 days after the horrific, racist rampage that took place at a Buffalo, New York supermarket. The prospects of any reform to the nation’s gun regulations looked dimmer than they were in the wake of Sandy Hook.
However, President Joe Biden looked ready to fight and called for more gun restrictions in an address to nation just hours after the attack.
“As a nation, we must ask: When in God’s Name are we going to stand against the gun lobby?” Biden asked, “When in God’s Name are we going to do the right thing?” “Why aren’t we going to live with this violence?”
Although it was not immediately known how many were hurt, Pete Arredondo (the chief of the school district’s Police) stated that there were “several injuries.”
As they left Uvalde Memorial Hospital’s 13-child hospital, staff members dressed in scrubs and relatives of the victims were seen weeping. A second hospital said that a 66 year-old woman was in critical care.
Officials didn’t immediately disclose a motive but identified the assailant to be Salvador Ramos, who lives in the community 85 miles (135 km) west of San Antonio. Officials from law enforcement said that he was acting alone.
