Horrific Shooting at Texas Elementary School Leaves 19 Students Dead
In another shocking shooting, an 18-year-old gunman killed at least 19 students and two adults at an elementary school in Texas on Tuesday.
In another shocking shooting, an 18-year-old gunman killed at least 19 students and two adults at an elementary school in Texas on Tuesday.
The suspected gunman Salvador Ramos who is a US citizen is also dead. The shooting is described as the nation’s worst school shooting in nearly a decade.
The attack took place in Uvalde which is a small community about an hour from the Mexican border. The school is an Hispanic school and has approximately 500 pupils enrolled.
The suspect used an AR -15 semi-automatic rifle and was wearing body armour according to CBS news. It has been reported that the suspect shot his grandmother at the beginning of his killing spree.
Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Chief of Police Pete Arredondo said the shooting began at 11:32 local time on Tuesday.
According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the killer abandoned his vehicle before entering the school and opening fire. He shot and killed, horrifically and incomprehensibly," Abbott said.
A teacher named Eva Mireles has also been killed. The Uvalde Memorial Hospital posted on Facebook earlier that 13 children had been taken to hospital "via ambulances or buses".
Rob Elementary teaches second, third and fourth grade students who are in the age group of 7 years to 10 years.
The Associated Press news agency reported that a US Border Patrol official who was nearby ran into the school when the shooting began and killed the gunman. Uvalde is 80 miles from the border with Mexico and houses a Border Patrol Station.
Many children were seen fleeing from the school under police protection. A few blocks away from the Robb Elementary School a vigil was held for the victims and survivors.
US President appeared terribly shaken after the incident. He said that he was “sick and tired” of these mass shootings and called for Gun Control.
“How many scores of little children who witnessed what happened - see their friends die, as if they're in a battlefield, for God's sake," he said. "They'll live with it the rest of their lives.”
He ordered that flags at the White House and other US federal buildings be flown at half-mast in honour of the victims in Uvalde.
"What are we doing? Why are we here?" 💔ðŸ˜pic.twitter.com/0MQUdewqWm
— Nick Splitter (@nicksplitter) May 24, 2022
In Washington DC, Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy begged his colleagues to pass gun control legislation.
"These kids weren't unlucky," he said. "This only happens in this country. Nowhere else, nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day.”
According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last month, guns have become the leading cause of death for US children and teenagers in 2020.
Inputs: BBC