An 18-year-old boy shot and killed 21 people in a Texas elementary school on Tuesday and was later killed, in a new massacre in an educational establishment that shakes the United States, a country where access to weapons is free.
The governor of Texas, the Republican Greg Abbott, informed in a press conference that In the shooting at the Uvalde elementary school, in central Texas, 14 students and a teacher died, while confirming that the attacker, identified as Salvador Ramos, also died.
Later, however, the Texan senator for Uvalde Roland Gutiérrez raised the number of fatalities to 21 (18 students and three adults), according to CNN television.
Abbott specified that Ramos arrived at the school with a pistol and apparently with a rifle and that he “shot and killed in a horrible and incomprehensible manner.” to more than a dozen children and a teacher.
The attack on the Robb educational center in the small town of Uvalde, located 140 kilometers west of San Antonio, occurred this morning.
Immediately after the massacre, the School District – the body that governs educational centers – issued an alert to all schools in the region to maximize security protocols.
Those in charge had asked the parents not to approach the area until the police could control the situation.
Two hospitals in the city of Uvalde, with a population of 16,000, received the wounded.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital said on Facebook that it was treating “several students” in its emergency room, but provided no information about the severity of their injuries.
For its part, University Health hospital said it was treating a child and an adult patient from Robb Elementary.
A 66-year-old woman was also in “critical condition,” announced another hospital, University Health, located in the nearby city of San Antonio, Texas, which said it had received “two patients,” one adult and one child.
Until this Tuesday night, the Uvalde authorities had not specified the ages or identities of the deceased.
“I was hoping, when I became president, that I wouldn’t have to do this again,” said President Joe Biden. this Tuesday night, in a message to the country on the occasion of what he described as “another massacre”.
The president lamentedhow many scores of little children who are witnesses of what happened, saw their friends die as if they were on a battlefield”, and stressed that he had a “suffocating” feeling because “losing a child is like taking a piece of your soul “.
“As a nation we have to ask ourselves when, in God’s name, are we going to stand up to the gun lobby, when in God’s name will we do what we all know in our guts must be done” to prevent the proliferation of individual use of weapons, Biden added.
Shortly before, the White House said on Twitter that the president “just spoke with the Governor of Texas to offer him any help he needs after the horrific shooting in Uvalde.”
“Enough is enough, our hearts keep breaking, we have to have the courage to act” in favor of gun control, said Vice President Kamala Harris, according to the AFP news agency.
The White House ordered flags to be flown at half-staff for the victims.
The massacre coincided with the publication of a report revealing that shootings multiplied in the United States during 2021.
A count by the FBI, the federal investigative agency, indicated that 61 episodes of this type were recorded last year, compared to 40 recorded in 2020.
Last year, the shootings left 103 people dead and another hundred more wounded. These figures do not include the perpetrators. One in five active shooter situations results in a mass shooting in which at least three people are killed.
Biden was traveling back to Washington, after finishing his trip to Asia, when his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, confirmed on his Twitter account that the president had been informed.
“President Biden has been briefed on the terrible news of the Texas elementary school shooting and will continue to receive regular updates as information becomes available,” the spokeswoman said.
He also assured that “his prayers are with the families affected by this terrible event” and confirmed that “he will speak tonight when he returns to the White House.”
