Governor Greg Abbot reported that the attacker, identified as Salvador Ramos, was killed. It is one of the deadliest attacks against educational centers in the United States in recent years
The school in Uvalde, Texas (Google Maps)
At least 19 people died this Tuesday, including fourteen students and two teachers, in a shooting at a school in the town of Uvalde, Texas , USA), where the aggressor also died. The incident occurred around 11:30 in the morning.
This was stated by the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, in a press conference in which he specified that the The attacker was 18 years old and was carrying a pistol and an AR-15 rifle.
The attacker, later identified as Salvador Ramos, “horribly and incomprehensibly shot and killed 14 students and killed a teacher”, Abbott said at a press conference earlier, before the other deaths were confirmed.
Video showing the shooter who killed the 14 students and the teacher
Ramos , was a member of the community, entered the school and opened fireAbbott said. The Texas governor said the shooter was killed by officers responding to the emergency call, but the incident was still being investigated.
Abbott reported the shooter fired to his grandmother just before entering school.“I have no further information on the connection between those two shootings,” he said. “Texans are grieving for the victims of this senseless crime and for the community of Uvalde,” Abbott said, adding that he had given instructions “to fully investigate this crime.”
THE CHANGES OF BRANCHES
A friend of the perpetrator told the Washington Post that The young man lived with his mother and, sometimes, with his grandmother. He also described that in recent times he has noticed several changes in Ramos’ attitude.
As he told the Post Ramos once stopped at a park where they often played basketball with cuts all over their faces. He first said that a cat had scratched his face. “Then he told me the truth, that he was cutting his face with knives over and over again,” Valdez said. “I was like, ‘You’re crazy, bro. Why would you do that?’”
Her response to him was brief but revealing: he did it for fun, Valdez recalled.
Salvador Ramos, alleged perpetrator of the massacre
For his part , the Uvalde police chief reported two officers were injured after exchanging fire with the shooter.
“The suspect parked near the school,” a police officer told CNN. “That’s where he got out of his vehicle with what I think was a rifle and that’s when he tried to get into the school that the police confronted him. Unfortunately, he was able to enter the compound and after that was when he entered several classrooms and began to fire his firearm.”
The police said that the gunman was seen with a “long rifle and a backpack. The gunman was also wearing a bulletproof vest.
Emergency personnel gather near Robb Elementary School following a shooting Tuesday May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
President Biden was briefed on the shooting while returning from Japan, where he was on an Asian tour, according to his spokesman , Karine Jean-Pierre.
“His prayers are with the families affected by this terrible event, and he will speak tonight when he returns to the White House,” said Jean-Pierre.
THE QUESTION FROM BIDEN
Later, the president asked to act before the arms lobby in the US. Biden asked himself in a speech to the nation when his country will stand before the gun lobby, after the death of 18 minors in a shooting at an elementary school in Texas.
“As a nation We have to ask ourselves when in God’s name are we going to stand up to gun lobbyists, when in God’s name are we going to do what deep down we know to do,” Biden said. in a speech at the White House after the massacre in the town of Uvalde, Texas.
“I’m tired. We have to act. We all know what needs to be done”, stressed the visibly affected president, once again sending a message to the legislators of his country to regulate gun control.
Weapons published by Salvador Ramos on social networks
The school was attended by children in the second, third and fourth grades of primary school. This Friday the students began their summer vacation. However, the school authorities reported that the school year was over.
Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas, is a town located between San Antonio and the border with Mexico. . More than 500 children were enrolled in that school during the 2020-2021 school year, according to state data.
This shooting is one of the deadliest attacks on US schools in recent years.
Authorities at the scene of a shooting near Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, USA USA, May 24, 2022. REUTERS/Marco Bello
The deadly violence at this Texas school follows other mass shootings in the United States this month.
On May 14, an 18-year-old man shot and killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. Wearing a heavy bulletproof vest and carrying an AR-15 rifle, the self-proclaimed white supremacist reportedly livestreamed his attack.
He reportedly planned it for months, targeting the store because of the large African-American population that surrounds it.
The next day,A man blocked the door of a church in Laguna Woods, California and opened fire on his Taiwanese-American congregation, killing one person and wounding five.
The shooter , who worked as a security guard in Las Vegas, targeted people out of “politically motivated hatred… (and) he was upset about the political tensions between China and Taiwan,”, according to the county sheriff of Orange, Don Barnes.
Despite recurring mass shootings and a national wave of gun violence, multiple initiatives to reform gun regulations have failed in the United States Congress, leaving it to states and local councils to enact their own restrictions.
The United States recorded 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, nearly 35% more than in 2019 According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the main l US public health agency.