Nineteen young children and two adults died in a shooting at an elementary school in South Texas. The gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School – which serves children ages seven to 10 – in the city of Uvalde before being killed by law enforcement, authorities said.
The 18-year-old suspect had a handgun, an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and high-capacity magazines, investigators said. The teen is suspected of shooting his grandmother before the rampage.
The young man had announced on Facebook that he was going to carry out the attack, state Governor Greg Abbott reported Wednesday.
Salvador Ramos, 18, posted a message saying he was going to shoot his grandmother, then another saying he had done so. “The third message, probably less than 15 minutes before he got to the school, said, ‘I’m going to open fire at an elementary school,'” Abbott said in a news conference. The student, who was killed by law enforcement, used an assault rifle, an extremely lethal weapon, the governor added.
A “predictable” tragedy
Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic figure in Texas, interrupted the Republican governor’s press conference Wednesday. The Democrat, who is running for governor against incumbent Greg Abbott, said the tragedy was “predictable” and blamed the Republican for not doing anything. The mayor of Uvalde, who was present in the room, responded with a volley of insults and said he was “out of line.
