Authorities say the victim death toll from the Texas school shooting now stands at 19 children and two adults. The latest figures come from Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. The gunman also died.
However, Federal law enforcement officials - speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release investigative details - said the death toll was expected to rise. Authorities offered no names or descriptions of the two adults.
It was the deadliest shooting at a US grade school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago.
And it came just 10 days after a gunman in body armour killed 10 black shoppers and workers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in what authorities say was a racist attack. “My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, the school district superintendent, announcing that all school activities were cancelled until further notice. “We’re a small community and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”
The gunman, who was wearing body armour and had hinted on social media of an upcoming attack, crashed his car outside the school and went inside armed, Erick Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN. He killed his grandmother before heading to the school with two military-style rifles he had purchased on his birthday, Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez said. “That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday,” he said.
Federal law enforcement officials said the death toll was expected to rise. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release investigative details.
The gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde with a handgun and possibly a rifle, Governor Greg Abbott said. Officials did not immediately reveal a motive, but the governor identified the assailant as Salvador Ramos and said he was a resident of the heavily Latino community about 85 miles west of San Antonio.
A Border Patrol agent who was nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the gunman, who was behind a barricade, according to a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk about it. The agent was wounded but able to walk out of the school, the law enforcement source said.
Mr Abbott said the gunman was likely killed by police officers but that the events were still being investigated. The school district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, said that the attacker acted alone.
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The massacre of young children was another gruesome moment for a country scarred by an almost ceaseless string of mass killings at churches, schools and stores. And the prospects for any reform in the nation’s gun regulations seemed at least as dim as in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook deaths.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting on Air Force One as he returned from a five-day trip to Asia. “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?,” Mr Biden said at the White House on Tuesday evening.
With first lady Jill Biden standing by his side in the Roosevelt Room, Mr Biden added: “I am sick and tired. We have to act.”
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