Elementary School Shooting in Texas: 19 students 2 adults killed, gunman dead

On 24 May, an eighteen-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, opened fire at Robb Elementary School in a Uvalde, a town around eighty miles outside San Antonio.

Details are emerging but so far, reports show that the gunman was armed with a handgun and possibly a rifle. It has also been confirmed by Govenor Abbott, that the shooter has died, possibly by responding law enforcement officers. Officials are still working to identify any possible connection the shooter may have had to the school, but no information has been released to the public. The students at the school range in age from five to eleven years old as the school educates children in second, third, and fourth grade.

According to ABC News correspondent Erielle Reshef, one of the teachers killed was Eva Mireles, who taught fourth grade at Robb Elementary School.

“Texans across the state are grieving for the victims of this senseless crime and for the community of Uvalde. Cecilia and I mourn this horrific loss and we urge all Texans to come together to show our unwavering support to all who are suffering,” said Govenor Greg Abbott.

Gov. Abbott added that “the Texas Division of Emergency Management is charged with providing local officials all resources necessary to respond to this tragedy as the State of Texas works to ensure the community has what it needs to heal.”

A hospital in San Antonio, University Hospital, has tweeted that two people, a child, and an adult were transported to their facility after the shooting. The adult, a sixty-six-year-old woman, was said to be in critical condition.

At least one law enforcement officer, reportedly from the Customs and Border Protection Agency was injured during the incident but is expected to recover. So far, it has been confirmed that two agents were injured.

The tragedy reminds many of the Sandyhook shooting which occurred in 2012 in Connecticut, and tragically ended in the killing of twenty children and six adults. After years of inaction on gun violence, many in the country are already calling on public officials at the federal level, to pass gun safety laws that could prevent the next mass shooting.

Reminders of Sandyhook: almost a decade later

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy took to the “What are we doing? Why are you here? If not to solve a problem as existential as this. This is not inevitable, These kids weren’t unlucky. This only happens in this country. Nowhere else.”

“It is our choice to let this continue,” said the Senator who is one of the many who is frustrated that such little action has been taken at the federal level to protect the population, particularly the most vulnerable members of our society. Since the Columbine mass shooting in 1999, the Washington Post has reported that more than 300,000 children in the United States have experienced gun violence at a school. Students who have had the fortune to never experience such a tragic and horrific event have been trained from a young age, in the case, a shooter entered their campus.

Response from the White House

The White House has released a proclamation to honor the victims of the shooting. President Biden has ordered that flags will be flown at half-staff at the White House, all federal buildings, and military and diplomatic installations around the world.

President Biden, who is still on his international trip in Asia, is expected to address the nation at 8:00 p.m. ET. The president’s trip has been bookmarked by two shootings. Just before departing, a white nationalist targetting a Black community in New York killed ten people at a grocery store in Buffalo.