Uvalde, Texas, May 25 (AP) : In one of the worst school shootings in American history, an 18-year-old gunman has killed 21 people, including 18 children, and rendered several other grievously injured at an elementary school in Texas state, before the assailant was eliminated in police firing.
Gunshots rang out of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde town, Texas, 134 km from San Antonio, at about 11.30 AM on Tuesday. Texas Governor Greg Abbott identified the killer as Salvador Ramos, a resident of the area where the school was located. The shooter’s motive remains unclear.”He shot and killed horrifically, incomprehensibly. Fourteen students and a teacher killed,” Abbott said in the evening; later the toll was raised to 18 children and three adults dead.
It was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. elementary school since the shocking attack in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed, in December 2012.
Hours after the attack, families were still awaiting word on their children. Outside the town civic center, where families were told to gather, the silence was broken repeatedly by screams and wailing. “No! Please, no!” one man yelled as he embraced another man.
“My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, the school district superintendent, announcing that all school activities were canceled until further notice. The attack also came just 10 days after a deadly, racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that added to a yearslong series of mass killings at churches, schools and stores. And the prospects for any reform of the nation’s gun regulations seemed as dim as in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook deaths.
The gunman had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he had been briefed by state police. He noted that the gunman “suggested the kids should watch out.” He killed his grandmother before heading to the school with two military-style rifles he had purchased on his birthday, Mr. Gutierrez said. “That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday,” he 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 community about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio.
The school district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, said that the attacker acted alone. It was not immediately clear how many people were wounded, but Arredondo said there were “several injuries.” Earlier, Uvalde Memorial Hospital said 13 children were taken there. Another hospital reported a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition.
Robb Elementary School has an enrollment of just under 600 students, and Arredondo said it serves students in the second, third and fourth grade. He did not provide ages of the children who were shot. This was the school’s last week of classes before summer break.
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