According to officials, a teenager opened fire at an elementary school in South Texas, killing 18 children and three adults before he was also slain. This is the latest incident of mass shootings to occur in the United States.
Governor Greg Abbott stated that the suspect, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was reportedly killed by responding police officers and that two policemen were injured by gunfire, but their injuries were not considered critical.
According to authorities, the suspect acted alone.
Abbott stated at a news conference hours after the incident that 14 students and one teacher had been killed. However, Texas state senator Roland Gutierrez later reported to CNN, citing the Texas Rangers state police as his source, that 18 children and three adults had perished.
The massacre occurred just ten days after ten people were killed in a predominately Black area in Buffalo, New York. Authorities have charged an 18-year-old guy with opening fire with an assault-style gun.
The motivation for Tuesday’s mass shooting in Texas, the latest in a series of seemingly random mass shootings that have grown regular in the United States, was unknown at the time.
The official circumstances surrounding the late-morning shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, some 80 miles west of San Antonio, remained hazy.
18 children, 3 adults dead in Texas elementary school shooting
Before opening fire, the suspect is thought to have abandoned his vehicle and entered the school with a handgun and maybe a rifle.
CBS News, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, said that investigators suspect Ramos shot and killed his grandmother before entering the school.
“It is being reported that the subject shot his grandmother right before he went into the school,” Abbott told reporters. “I have no further information about the connection between those two shootings.”
According to a tweet from the hospital, a 66-year-old woman and a 10-year-old daughter, both in serious condition, were transported to University Hospital in San Antonio following the shooting in Uvalde.
The White House stated that US President Joe Biden planned to address the nation about the shooting at 8:15 p.m. EDT. In addition, Biden has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until sunset daily until May 28 in honor of the tragedy.
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