Warning: This article contains references to gun violence and may be triggering for some readers.
At Robb Elementary School in Texas on May 24, 21 people were murdered in a mass-shooting event. According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, 19 children, two adults, and the shooter have been killed. The shooter was an 18-year-old male from the Texas city of Uvalde. CNN reported that Abbott said, “It’s believed that he abandoned his vehicle and entered into the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde with a handgun and he may have also had a rifle, but that is not yet confirmed according to my most recent report.”
“It is being reported that the subject shot his grandmother right before he went into the school. I have no further information about the connection between those two shootings,” Abbot also commented. “The subject is reported to have been a student at Uvalde High School and is a US citizen.”
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s chief of police, Pete Arredondo, noted that this individual didn’t receive any outside help. He said, “At this point, the investigation is leading to tell us that the suspect did act alone during this heinous crime.”
University Health, a hospital in the area, has confirmed that they are treating two victims. In a Facebook post, they wrote, “We have received two patients from the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. One patient is a 66-year-old woman. The other patient is a 10-year-old girl. Both patients are in critical condition. Our hearts are breaking for the people impacted by this senseless tragedy.”
After this shooting took place, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy made an emotional speech on the Senate floor, calling on his colleagues to do something about this issue. NBC News detailed that he said, “I’m here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues. Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.” CBS News explained that Murphy is a lawmaker from the Sandy Hook district, a place where a school shooting event killed more than 24 people in 2012.
Murphy also expressed, “This only happens in this country and nowhere else, nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day. Nowhere else do parents have to talk to their kids as I have had to do about why they got locked into a bathroom and told to be quiet for five minutes just in case a bad man entered that building. Nowhere else does that happen except here in the United States of America.”
Other politicians have also called out America’s lacklustre gun regulations. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “There is no such thing as being “pro-life” while supporting laws that let children be shot in their schools… It is an idolatry of violence. And it must end.”
In an article published by NPR, they detailed that there have been 27 school shootings in America this year.
More Info About the Shooter Has Been Revealed
As per reporting by The Guardian, the Texas school shooter posted three times on Facebook about the murders he committed. Thirty minutes before entering the school, he stated that he would shoot his grandmother. In the second update, he wrote, “I shot my grandmother.” Fifteen minutes before he went on his murder spree, he went, “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.”
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said these posts were “private one-to-one text messages.” He also said that Facebook found out about them after the mass-shooting event had taken place and that the company was cooperating with the appropriate investigators.
As of Tuesday, it was believed that the shooter’s grandmother was still alive but remained in serious condition. Public Safety Sergeant, Erick Estrada, said to CNN that she had been airlifted to a hospital.
More information about his weapons has also been confirmed. USA Today detailed that the Texas Department of Public Safety’s director Steve McCraw said that on two different days, this teenager had bought two semi-automatic rifles. State Senator John Whitmire noted that he had 375 rounds of 5.56 ammunition and potentially seven 30-round magazines. Let’s just remember that an eighteen-year-old was able to acquire such weaponry.
Did the Police Do a Component Job?
The Uvalde police’s response to this tragedy is now being called into question. This is because the shooter was in the school for between forty and sixty minutes before he was killed. Javier Cazares rushed to the school when he heard that his daughter Jacklyn Cazares was in danger, only to discover that the police hadn’t entered the premises yet. The Associated Press reported that he said, “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to.” He additionally stated, “More could have been done.” Javier Cazares’ daughter was murdered in the shooting.
Moreover, The Wall Street Journal reported that another parent named Angeli Rose Gomez was handcuffed and arrested for urging law enforcement to go into the school. After convincing the local Uvalde police officers to let her go, she jumped one of the school’s fences, grabbed her two sons, and ran out of the school with them.
How You Can Help
If you want to support the families and communities impacted by this shooting at the Robb Elementary School, then GoFundMe has developed a resource that can assist you in doing so. They have created a page where you can directly donate to those who have been impacted by this devastating event. Additionally, GoFundMe’s website states, “Our Trust & Safety team will continue to update this hub with more as they are verified.”
Read more stories from The Latch and subscribe to our email newsletter.