INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A teenage gunman killed at least 19 children and two adults after storming into a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, the latest bout of
gun-fueled mass murder in the United States and the nation&s worst school shooting in nearly a decade.The 18-year-old suspect, who was
killed apparently by police, also had shot his own grandmother before fleeing from the scene, then crashing his getaway car and launching a
bloody rampage at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde, Texas, about 80 miles (130 km) west of San Antonio.The motive was not
immediately clear.Law enforcement officers saw the gunman, clad in body armor, emerge from his crashed vehicle carrying a rifle and
&engaged& the suspect, who nevertheless managed to charge into the school and open fire, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Sergeant
Erick Estrada said on CNN.Speaking from the White House hours later, a visibly shaken United States President Joe Biden urged Americans to
stand up to the politically powerful United States gun lobby, which he blamed for blocking enactment of tougher &common-sense& firearms
safety laws.Biden ordered flags flown at half-staff daily until sunset on Saturday in observance of the tragedy.Governor Greg Abbott said
that the suspect, identified as Salvador Ramos, was apparently killed by police officers, and that two officers were struck by gunfire,
though the governor said their injuries were not serious.Authorities said the suspect acted alone.After confusing early accounts of the
death toll, the state attorney general&s office in an official statement put the tally of lives lost at 18 children and two adults,
A Texas DPS spokesperson later told CNN that 19 school children and two adults were killed, not counting the shooter.The school&s student
body consists of children in the second, third and fourth grades, according to Pete Arredondo, chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent
School District Police Department, who also addressed reporters
Pupils in those grades would likely have ranged in age from 7 to 10.The carnage unfolded 10 days after 10 people were killed in Buffalo, New
York, in a predominantly Black neighborhood
Authorities have charged an 18-year-old man who they said had traveled hundreds of miles to Buffalo and opened fire with an assault-style
rifle at a grocery store.Tuesday&s bloodshed in Texas began when the suspect shot his grandmother before going to the school, Texas
Department of Public Safety officer Chris Olivarez said on Fox News, a development Abbott mentioned earlier in the day.I have no further
information about the connection between those two shootings,& the governor said.University Hospital in San Antonio said on Twitter that it
had received two patients from the shooting in Uvalde, a 66-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl, both listed in critical condition.Uvalde
Memorial Hospital said 15 students from Robb Elementary were treated in its emergency room, with two transferred to San Antonio for further
care, while a third patient transfer was pending
It was not immediately clear whether all of those students survived.A 45-year-old victim grazed by a bullet was also hospitalized at Uvalde
Memorial, the hospital said.Hours after the shooting, police had cordoned off the school with yellow tape
Police cruisers and emergency vehicles were scattered around the perimeter of the school grounds
Uniformed personnel stood in small clusters, some in camouflage carrying semi-automatic weapons.EPIDEMIC OF GUN VIOLENCEThe rampage was the
latest in a series of mass school shootings that have fueled a fierce debate between advocates of tighter gun controls and those who oppose
any legislation that could compromise the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms.The shooting in Texas was one of the deadliest at a
United States school since a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December
In 2018, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killed 17 students and educators.Firearms became the
leading cause of death for United States children and adolescents in 2020, surpassing motor vehicle accidents, according to a University of
Michigan research letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month.The day&s horrors were reflected on the Facebook page
of Robb Elementary School.Earlier this week, its posts showed the usual student activities & a trip to the zoo for second-graders and a
save-the-date for a gifted-and-talented showcase
But on Tuesday, a note was posted at 11:43 a.m.: &Please know at this time Robb Elementary is under a Lockdown Status due to gunshots in the
The students and staff are safe in the building.A second post was more explicit: &There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary
Law enforcement is on site.& Administrators asked parents to stay away
And finally, a note was posted advising parents that they could meet their children at the small city&s civic center.FACTBOX-Grim chronology
of mass shootings in the United States We have to act,& Biden says after Texas massacre, offers no specificsQUOTES-‘How many more lives?&:
Reactions to Texas school shootingTexas elementary school&s end-of-year plans shattered by shootingThe post Teenage gunman kills 19 children
and teacher at Texas elementary school first appeared on Ariana News.
