TEXAS. After the Texas elementary school shooting that killed 21 people, Joe Biden spoke out overnight to point the blame for the gun lobby. The killer was killed. What there is to know.
[Mis à jour le 25 mai 2022 à 07h45] “It’s time to turn pain into action. It’s time to act.” These words seem to be repeated over and over again UNITED STATES, after each shooting that mourns the country. But Joe Biden intends to strike harder this time, the day after the attack in a school in the Texas which killed at least 21 people after an 18-year-old opened fire in the school building. In a speech delivered during the night, the President of the United States clearly blamed the arms lobby, as powerful as it is decried in the country. “When, for the love of God, are we going to face the gun lobby?”, launched the tenant of the White House, vilifying “those who block or delay common sense legislation on weapons”. Overnight, the toll from the shooting, which took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas (read below), increased. According to New York Times and CNN, 19 children were killed, but also two adults. The 18-year-old perpetrator was shot dead by police.
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, spoke during the day delivering more details on this new mass killing as the United States knows dozens each year. Greg Abbott has called the elementary school mass shooting a “horrible tragedy”. “What happened in Uvalde is a horrific tragedy that cannot be tolerated in the state of Texas. Local law enforcement took quick action,” he told reporters. “Texans mourn the victims of this senseless crime. […]. Cecilia and I mourn this horrific loss and urge all Texans to come together,” he said.
Texans are grieving for the victims of this senseless crime & for the community of Uvalde.
Cecilia & I mourn this horrific loss & urge all Texans to come together.
I’ve instructed @TxDPS & Texas Rangers to work with local law enforcement to fully investigate this crime. pic.twitter.com/Yjwi8tDT1v
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 24, 2022
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District said an active shooter was reported at Robb Elementary School midday Tuesday, May 24, in Texas (late afternoon in France). We still know little about the sequence of events: the shooter allegedly abandoned his car, an imposing pick-up, a few meters from the school, then entered the establishment and started shooting at 11:43 a.m. local time, with a handgun and possibly a rifle, before being neutralized by the police. Two officers were hit by bullets, but did not suffer serious injuries.
The police quickly intervened on the spot, setting up a large security perimeter. San Antonio police said they sent SWAT, a helicopter and investigators to the scene of the shooting. U.S. Customs and Border Protection “responded immediately to the scene to provide support, including medical assistance,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. “We are actively coordinating assistance with federal, state and local partners, to provide the department’s full support,” he added.
All school activities, after-school programs and events have been cancelled. Parents were asked to pick up the students at the usual exit time, school transport was stopped. Officers were assigned to escort the children to the parents’ cars.
The shooter was identified as 18-year-old Salvador Romas, according to the governor of Texas (the name of Salvador Rolando Ramos is also used by several media). He was killed by officers during the police intervention. “He shot and killed – in a horrific, incomprehensible way,” said Greg Abbott, no explanation for his action having yet been delivered at the time of writing. The suspect was a high school student in Uvalde and was a US citizen, Abbott also added.
“At this stage, the investigation leads us to say that the suspect acted alone during this heinous crime,” said Pete Arredondo, the police chief of the independent school district of Uvalde. He also confirmed that the suspect was dead.
Salvador Ramos reportedly posted pictures of guns and a gun magazine on Instagram before shooting. Many media also report that he allegedly killed his grandmother before murdering the 14 primary school students and a teacher. Information to be confirmed, however. Several images of the author of the shooting have already been revealed by the local media, including mugshots.
While a first assessment was 14 students and a teacher died in the shooting in the primary school, this assessment, still provisional, rose to 19 children and 2 adults killed during the night in France. It was the Texas Department of Security that delivered these latest figures, relayed by several media.
Initially, fragmentary information on the death toll and the victims of the shooting indicated that two children had died at the local hospital in Uvalde from gunshot wounds and that 13 schoolchildren were being treated at the emergency department of the hospital following this “attack”. “Two children have been transported to San Antonio and another is awaiting transfer,” added the hospital center. San Antonio University Hospital, for its part, said in a tweet that it had received a child and an adult following the school shooting. The adult, a 66-year-old woman, was in critical condition at the time, the hospital said.
The Uvalde school shooting is “at least the 30th in an elementary and secondary school in 2022” in the United States, indicates CNN. It would be the deadliest in the history of Texas according to several media, including CBS Austin. This is the eighth since 2009 in which at least four victims were killed. Eighteen people were killed in the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting. Ten and 13 others were injured southeast of Houston in the 2018 Santa Fe high school shooting.
Robb Elementary, located off US Highway 83 in Uvalde, Texas, has just under 600 students. According to several American media, the establishment teaches second, third and fourth year students, i.e. children aged 7 to 10 (CE1 to CM1 in France). Most of them being Hispanic and considered underprivileged. Uvalde itself is a predominantly Hispanic town. It is located more than 100 km west of San Antonio.