The death toll in a shooting at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday has risen to at least 19 students and two adults. The gunman was also killed, police said.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital initially said 13 children had been taken to the hospital by ambulance or bus. Authorities later called it “dozens injured”. At least a 66-year-old woman, possibly the suspect’s grandmother, and a 10-year-old girl are in critical condition.
Eighteen-year-old Salvador Ramos first wrecked his car on Tuesday and then walked to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. There, he opened fire with a pistol and rifle he had bought on his 18th birthday, a senator informed by police said.
Ramos, a resident of Uvalde, wore a bulletproof vest but was killed by gunfire from the police. His motives and the circumstances surrounding the shooting are not yet known. The man appears to have acted alone.
The man shot his grandmother before the school shooting, the Texas Department of Public Safety said. The woman is in critical condition in hospital.
The school principal of Robb Elementary announced that the rest of the school year, which was due to end on Thursday, has been canceled. The school teaches students from seven to ten years old.
Biden prays for the bereaved families
US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting, White House press officer Karine Jean-Pierre said. “He is praying for the families affected by this terrible event and he will speak tonight when he returns to the White House,” Jean-Pierre said.
Biden learned the news aboard the presidential plane. He is on his way back from a visit to Asia. He has ordered that the American flag be flown at half-mast at the White House and other government buildings “as a sign of respect for the victims” of the shooting.
According to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, there has been an average of more than one mass shooting per day in the US this year, often taking place in schools. The shootings have sparked debate between proponents and opponents of tighter gun controls and Americans’ right to bear guns.
The Texas shooting is the deadliest in a U.S. school since the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. A gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, ages five to 10. In 2018, a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killed 17 students and teachers.