(UVALDE, Texas) — The accused mass shooter who carried out the deadly attack at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, allegedly committed animal abuse and displayed videos of the cruelty to users on a social media platform, according to two users who spoke to ABC News.
In some instances, the alleged animal abuse was committed in public and then posted for online viewing, and the 18-year-old suspect, Salvador Ramos, allegedly boasted about how he and his friends did it “all the time,” according to one user.
Ramos was killed in a shootout with law enforcement officers inside the Robb Elementary School after he allegedly killed 19 students and two faculty members. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that 17 other people were injured in the episode, including three law enforcement officers.
Abbott said the rampage started when the suspect shot and critically wounded his grandmother at her home before driving several blocks to the school, where he crashed a vehicle and engaged in a gunfight with law enforcement officers outside the school before going in and allegedly committing the massacre.
The allegations of animal abuse are similar to what authorities have learned about Payton Gendron, the white 18-year-old suspect who allegedly committed the May 14 racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York supermarket that left 10 Black people dead.
According to a document authorities said the Buffalo suspect allegedly posted online and obtained by ABC News, Gendron allegedly detailed taking part in animal abuse in which he killed a cat, according to the document. Within the writings reviewed by ABC News, Gendron alleged that his mother gave him a box to bury the cat he said he killed.
The two users familiar with online posts attributed to Ramos told ABC News the suspect aired his alleged acts of animal abuse on the social media platform Yubo. They said an account they believed belonged to the accused gunman would go on live video on the platform and play videos of him abusing animals, including cats.
One of the users identified herself to ABC News as Maya Xenokostas, while the other did not share their name.
A law enforcement source told ABC News that investigators are aware of the Yubo profile and are looking at it but can’t definitively confirm the account belongs to the suspect. ABC News has not independently confirmed that the alleged account belonged to the accused shooter.
Yubo describes itself as “a social live streaming platform,” according to its website.
In a statement, a Yubo spokesperson said, “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the families of the victims of the tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Due to privacy regulations, we are not able to release specific user information outside of direct requests from law enforcement.”
One Yubo user graphically described to ABC News how Ramos would allegedly publicize the abuse, and would “put cats in plastic bags, suspend them inside, throw them at the ground and throw them at people’s houses.”
The user, who did not share their name with ABC News, said the alleged gunman “would display these videos while laughing and boasting about how him and his friends did it ‘all the time.'”
(UVALDE, Texas) — The Texas school district where 19 children elementary school children and two adults were killed appeared to have security measures in place in the event of a school shooting, records show.
Included in the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District preventative security measures plan were lockdown protocols, a system in place to report threats and bullying, threat assessment teams, as well as the monitoring of social media, according to school district documents featured on the school district’s website.
The school district also has its own police force with four officers and partners with local law enforcement, according to the document. Secondary campuses have staff who patrol door entrances, parking lots and perimeters of campuses.
The standard response plan to reunify parents with students after an incident was provided in a handout for parents with pickup instructions as well as a “Reunification Information” form for parents to complete that identifies the student and the person who is to pick them up, the documents show.
Other preventative measures include motion detectors and alarm systems, a classroom door policy that requires keeping doors locked at all times, and staff training for emergency protocols. In addition, case managers, social workers and licensed professional counselors are on hand to support students and families, according to the documents.
The suspect, 18-year-old Uvalde High School student Salvador Ramos, allegedly shot his grandmother at a separate scene before crashing a car outside of the Robb Elementary School and emerging from the vehicle with an AR-15-style rifle, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News. His grandmother was airlifted to the hospital and is in critical condition, authorities said.
As Ramos approached the school, he was engaged by a school district police officer, who was then allegedly shot by Ramos, sources said.
At one point, students heard banging on a window before their teacher saw the shooter with a “big gun,” a fourth-grade student who was inside the school at the time said in an interview with ABC News, describing the “nonstop” gunshots that followed.
Ramos then entered the school, barricaded himself in a classroom and opened fire, killing 19 students and a teacher, law enforcement sources said.
There, Ramos was shot and killed after trading gunfire with an Uvalde ISD officer and Border Patrol Tactical Unit agents, sources said. Investigators are going through ballistics to determine who fired the shot that killed the suspect.
Authorities have not detailed how Ramos was able to enter the school and classroom despite the security measures in place. Ramos entered the school through a back door, officials said during a press conference Tuesday.
Every door around the building of the school should be locked, and visitors should only be able to access the building from a single point of entry through a secure vestibule that remains locked until they are authorized, security expert Paul Timm, vice president of Facility Engineering Associates, told ABC Chicago station WLS-TV.
Timm said that all classroom doors should remain locked as well, but added that schools often resist that measure because it gets in the way of operations, such as students needing to use the restroom.
Two responding police officers were also injured, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a press conference on Tuesday.
The students killed were mainly third and fourth graders, according to law enforcement sources.
The father of a 10-year-old Jackie Cazares, who was killed in the shooting, blamed the school district for not having locked doors and lacking training and protocol and police for not responding fast enough.
“There was at least 40 lawmen armed to the teeth, but didn’t do a darn thing till it was far too late,” Jacinto Cazares told ABC News in a statement.
A 2017 to 2020 school district audit by the Texas School Safety Center found that only 200 of the districts reviewed had viable active shooter plans. Of the remaining 822 districts, 626 districts in the state did not have a policy in place, and 196 districts had an insufficient policy, the audit found.
The report did not list specific school districts in Texas and what they ranked.
“Significant appropriations” are provided to ensure that the local school systems around the state have resources for the school safety allotment under Texas Senate Bill 11, Mike Morath, commissioner of education for the Texas Education Agency, said during Tuesday’s press conference.
The Texas School Safety Center and the Texas Education Agency provide technical assistance and training to school district leaders to ensure that the threat assessment protocols and these procedures, including threat response plans of the operational multi hazard plans, are practiced on recurring basis, Morath said.
“There have been, essentially, fairly significant efforts to bolster those managerial practices and these detective or preventative practices in schools all over the state of Texas,” Morath said. “And we will continue to do more.”
The shooting in Uvalde, a small town about 90 minutes west of San Antonio, comes just days after a deadly mass shooting in Buffalo, New York and amid a rapid rise in active shooter incidents in the country.
Ramos legally purchased two AR-style rifles just days after his 18th birthday, law enforcement officials said.
(NEW YORK) — The alleged suspect in the unprovoked fatal shooting of 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez on a Q train in New York City was ordered held without bail on Wednesday.
Andrew Abdullah, 25, of Brooklyn, was arrested Wednesday after arranging a surrender through his pastor to officers at the 5th precinct, according to law enforcement sources.
During a court appearance Wednesday, prosecutors described Abdullah as a man with an extensive criminal history who, after allegedly shooting Enriquez in the chest, told the other passengers to put their cell phones away, according to ABC New York station WABC-TV.
Abdullah’s attorney, Kristin Braun of Legal Aid Society, told the judge that only one of six witnesses in a lineup could identify the suspect, whom officials have said was wearing a mask on the train, WABC reported.
Abdullah did not speak during the arraignment, according to WABC. His next court date is scheduled for Friday.
Abdullah has about 20 prior arrests, including an outstanding gun charge from last year, according to sources. He also has prior arrests for assault, robbery, menacing and grand larceny, sources said.
Abdullah has three cases that are still pending, including an April arrest for fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property for allegedly being found with a stolen motorcycle, as well as a June 2021 arrest for violating a protective order and March 2021 arrest for assault.
“We moved over 2,900 illegal guns off our streets,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a Tuesday press conference on the arrest. “As soon as we placed them on, more return with bad guys who feel comfortable enough even after we arrest them, that they can come back out and wreak havoc on our city. The industry pumps guns into the community faster than we can take them out. The rest of the shooter doesn’t change what is going on every day in this industry.”
Detectives have also recovered the gun used in the shooting.
It is believed the suspect handed the gun to a homeless man as he fled the Canal Street station. The homeless man then apparently sold the gun for $10 to a third person, who reported it to police, the sources said.
The New York Police Department released surveillance photos Monday of the suspect believed to have shot Enriquez taken shortly after he exited the subway.
The motive for the shooting is still unknown.
In January 2020, Abdullah was arrested as part of a gun-related case and in May 2017 he was charged with second-degree attempted murder as part of an 83-count federal indictment of the Harlem-based street gangs Fast Money and Nine Block. Abdullah was sentenced to three years in federal prison, but served just four months before being released in 2019.
Witnesses say the suspect, alleged to be Abdullah, was pacing back and forth in the last car of a Manhattan-bound train around 11:45 a.m. when he pulled out a gun and fired it at Enriquez unprovoked, according to NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey.
The shooting comes a little over a month after a Brooklyn subway rider opened fire on a train car, wounding 10 people. The suspect in that shooting, Frank James, was arrested one day later in lower Manhattan.
Transit crime is up 62.5% in the city year-to-date from 2021, according to NYPD statistics.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Police will be barred from wearing their uniforms at the June 26 Pride march in San Francisco, one of the biggest Pride celebrations in the world. Instead, officers are being advised to march in T-shirts that represent their local law enforcement agency.
The decision has caused a heated debate in the city. However, the discourse stretches across the country, as cities reconsider the presence of police at LGBTQ-led events.
Last year, New York City’s Pride parade organizers banned officers from marching in the parade for the first time in decades.
Police presence was reduced at the event, as organizers say they are reckoning with the legacy of police brutality and abuse against LGBTQ people that the community says continues today.
The heated relationship between San Francisco police and others in the LGBTQ community came to a head in 2019 when a protest on the parade route ended with people being arrested, shoved and allegedly injured by police.
“Some members of our community, the presence of the police in the parade is difficult for them, given their history with the police department,” San Francisco Pride Director Suzanne Ford has said on the impact of the march on the community. “So we want to honor and make sure that we protect and make people feel safe.”
The difficult relationship between police and members of the LGBTQ community has a longstanding history. In 1969, a police raid on patrons at The Stonewall Inn in New York City led to an uprising that gave rise to the gay-rights movement. The bar is now a National Historic Landmark. However, that raid was just one of many examples of police violence against the LGBTQ community, according to historians.
There was a time when every state in America criminalized same-sex sexual behavior. That changed in 1962 and, in 2003, the landmark case Lawrence v. Texas led to the nationwide decriminalization of sexual activity between same-sex couples.
San Francisco officers have responded to the uniform ban by collectively refusing to march in the parade, which will take place on June 26, 2022.
In a statement, the San Francisco Police Department said it “supports the decision of our LGBTQ+ officers” but will still be in attendance for security reasons.
“The San Francisco Police Department is committed to not only serving the diverse communities of San Francisco, but to embracing the diversity of our members,” the statement read. “We recognize the struggles that our LGBTQ+ members have overcome, both within the department as well as outside the department.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed denounced the event organizers’ decision to bar police uniforms from the parade. She said she loves the parade, but will refuse to join the festivities if parade organizers don’t reverse their decision, according to a statement sent to ABC News
“I’ve made this very hard decision in order to support those members of the LGBTQ community who serve in uniform, in our Police Department and Sheriff’s Department, who have been told they cannot march in uniform, and in support of the members of the Fire Department who are refusing to march out of solidarity with their public safety partners,” Breed said.
(NEW YORK) — Nineteen children and two teachers are among those killed Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, a small rural town. The gunman, who has been identified as an 18-year-old who attended the local high school, is also dead, according to authorities.
As the country is left reeling in the wake of another mass shooting, Manuel Oliver, father of Joaquin Oliver, who was killed in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, and Mary Ann Jacob, who survived the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut in 2012, speak on the surge of deadly gun violence.
“I think we all thought after the shooting at Sandy Hook School when 20 first-graders died and six teachers, that would drive change and if that was true, then Manuel wouldn’t be on TV with us tonight losing Joaquin, and these parents wouldn’t be going through what they’re going through today,” Jacob told ABC News Live Prime.
It is nearly 10 years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. On that day, Jacob saved 19 children by barricading them in a closet.
Since then, there have been nearly 980 active and non-active school shooting situations, according to data from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security Naval Postgraduate School.
“It is shocking to me really that after seeing all the different communities it has happened in, we still don’t believe that it can happen in our own community and if we’re not willing to do something,” said Jacob. “Our legislatures are not going to do anything, unless we push them to do something. So vote for people who care about what you care about and make sure that they are going to drive change.”
Jacob said there is no way to shield American children from gun violence, but there is a way to make change through legislative and political action.
“There really is no way to protect your kids from it. I mean your kids are affected just like every kid in the country by watching on TV, knowing other kids who have died, hiding under their desks during active shooter drills,” said Jacob. “But there is a way to change it and that’s by electing people and making sure that the people you elect are accountable for what we need to be doing and every single person in America ought to be doing that.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., delivered an impassioned argument on the Senate floor late Tuesday afternoon. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are among the political leaders who have spoken out and are demanding change.
Oliver lost his son Joaquin in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead and more injured. The gunman, Nikolas Cruz, was 19 years old at the time.
Oliver said it shouldn’t have taken another school shooting for a national debate on gun laws.
“The myth behind the ‘good guy with the gun’ is just broken after what happened today in Texas. Where there are a lot of ‘good guys with guns,’” said Oliver.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns are the leading cause of death among American children and teens. Nearly 1 out of 10 gun deaths are among those 19 and younger.
Oliver said he cannot offer any comforting words for parents who have lost a child to gun violence.
“There is no comfort possible here,” said Oliver. “You need to take advantage of those cameras today to expose your anger, your sadness, your frustration. Not only to our leaders, we’re talking about corporations here that allow this to happen… This is something that happens only in America. We are known all around the world for this.”
He added that other parents should realize that the same thing could happen to their own child.
“I don’t need to worry about losing my kid because I already lost him – but you do. It’s not about one person, or your kids, in particular, but everyone in America,” said Oliver. “We provide those guns. We provide those inactions. [Children] should go to school like I went to school, have fun, enjoy the day and go back home. Make them stay safe.”
Rolando Otero/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — On Feb. 14, 2018, Sari Kaufman was a 15 year old high school student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when a gunman opened fire and killed 17 people, a majority of whom were her fellow classmates.
Four years later, she says she continues to relive her trauma through the growing number of others like her who are personally affected by gun violence. Most recently, the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, when authorities say an 18-year-old high school student opened fire and killed at least 21 people, including 19 children.
“It’s just really upsetting, especially to see young students, elementary-aged students, have to go through what I went through,” said Kaufman on the Start Here podcast. “And I know from a personal level how difficult it is to deal with that trauma.”
Kaufman said that not only will these children grieve the loss of their classmates and teachers today, but will wake up for the rest of their life with the belief that they can be murdered while at school.
“It forces you to become an adult before you need to be and it takes away your innocence to know that you go to school and that there’s a possibility,” said Kaufman.
“These students are not just going to be affected today, it’s not just going to be tonight. That’s difficult. It’s going to be every day afterwards. And I think that’s what hurts me the most, because I know on a personal level that it’s really difficult to deal with the aftermath and to be this young and have to deal with that the rest of their lives,” Kaufman added.
Over the past five years, there have been 94,057 deaths and 183,926 injuries due to gun violence in the United States, according to a Gun Violence Tracker a part of ABC News’ multimedia series “Rethinking Gun Violence,” which partnered with the independent, nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.
As a growing number of American students have been affected by active school shooters, parents who have lost their children to gun violence will have to continue to live without their child.
Nelba Marquez-Greene lost her six-year-old daughter Ana Grace in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Now, she is watching other parents go through the same thing she went through nearly a decade later.
“Right now, the families are surviving, but I would say to anyone who wants to help, if you really want to help a family, find out ways to help them directly,” said Marquez-Green on “The View.” “Show up now. Show up 10, 15, 20 years from now. We will need you for a lifetime.”
Marquez-Green said there is more work to be done than just sending thoughts and prayers to the suffering community.
“We must not be unserious in our faith. Thoughts and prayers, faith without work is dead,” she said.
Marquez-Green also urged the country to force change from the lawmakers.
“It is grotesque abdication of duty, abdication of their responsibility to American families, to fail us in this way and we see them,” she said. “Let’s call out the bull crap. Let’s say we see them.”
(UVALDE, Texas) — The mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Tuesday has put the spotlight back on recent data showing that firearm injuries are the No. 1 cause of death among children and adolescents in the United States.
A total of 19 children, mainly third and fourth graders — as well as two teachers — were killed at Robb Elementary, in what President Joe Biden referred to as an act of “carnage.”
It’s an all-too-familiar story in which communities are left wondering in the aftermath how to best keep children safe.
“It’s a senseless act of violence,” Dr. Jason Goldstick, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan, told ABC News. “You shouldn’t be expected to be exposed to violence when going to school like that.”
And it comes just a month after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing guns were the No. 1 killer of children and adolescents in 2020.
The agency found that 4,368 Americans under the age of 19 died from gun violence in 2020, a 29.5% jump from 2019.
That’s equivalent to 5.4 out of every 100,000 kids and teens in the U.S. dying from a firearm injury and a 63% jump from the 3.3 per 100,000 recorded one decade ago.
It’s unclear what’s behind the spike, but the data is consistent with other recent studies showing the increase in firearm-related injuries at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If you look at the trajectory over the last several years, that should raise alarm,” said Goldstick, who is also a member of the university’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. “The fact that this is the leading cause of death among kids is obscene.”
It also marks the first time since the CDC started recording leading causes of death among children that firearm-related injuries overtook motor vehicle crashes as the No. 1 cause.
For the last 21 years, gun deaths were second to motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents; however, the gap between the two categories has been narrowing since 2016, the CDC said.
By comparison, motor vehicle accidents killed about five per 100,000 Americans aged 19 and younger in 2020.
That is a more than 50% decline in the rate of children and adolescents being killed by cars since 1999.
There has been significant progress in reducing the fatality rate of motor vehicle crashes, including increased use of seat belts and safety technology, including automatic emergency braking systems and airbags.
“A lot of the political rhetoric around reducing firearm-related deaths center around gun control and the Second Amendment,” Goldstick said. “But we were able to accomplish huge reductions in motor vehicle crash injuries without banning cars ever. There’s no reason an analogous approach can’t work for firearms.”
He added there are several evidence-based approaches that can help drive down firearm fatality rates including investments in organizations and programs aimed at curbing community violence, safe storage campaigns and firearm training courses.
“Tracking these kinds of trends is really sort of step zero,” Goldstick said. “It’s not a solution … It tells you it’s a worsening problem and points us in a direction to focus on to reduce mortality among children and teens.”
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez offered a poignant message to families Wednesday, one day after a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers.
“Go hug your babies before you send them to school,” he said, visibly holding back tears. “There are 19 parents here in Uvalde that aren’t gonna get to hug their babies anymore.”
Gutierrez, who represents the district where the shooting occurred, told ABC News Live that “we need to do anything that’s possible to stop this paradigm that keeps happening over and over again.”
Gutierrez discussed his frustration with Republican colleagues in the Texas State Senate and his desire to see a federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, reinstated at the federal level.
“At the local level,” he said, “our state government and my Republican colleagues seem to be opening access to these types of weapons.”
State legislation H.B. 1927, which was passed last year, allows anyone over 18 to carry a weapon openly without a license. The gunman, who opened fire at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, purchased two AR-15-style rifles just days prior to the shootings, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Striking another personal note, Gutierrez said, “I’m a hunter. There’s no one in this district that goes hunting with an AR-15.”
“We need people in the Senate to break the filibuster and act immediately on legislation,” Gutierrez said, noting that he received a call from the White House yesterday. Two bills that would require more intensive background checks on gun sales, named H.R. 1446 and H.R. 8, are currently stalled in the U.S. Senate.
There have been 213 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2022, according to figures from the Gun Violence Archive.
The shooting in Uvalde, a city of a little more than 16,000 people in southern Texas, comes less than two weeks after a shooting in Buffalo, New York, which left ten people dead.
“At the federal level,” Gutierrez said, “we need to be talking about an assault weapons ban.”
In addition to urging action from federal lawmakers, Gutierrez said he is committed to continuing to seek gun reform on a state level. Gutierrez voted against the open carry law last year and filed a “red flag” law in the state senate last year without success. The law would prohibit the sale of guns to individuals who could pose a threat to themselves or others.
“We don’t need these types of militarized weapons on our streets anymore,” he said. “I feel comfortable saying that.”
(UVALDE, Texas) — A small town in rural Texas is reeling after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school on Tuesday, killing 19 children.
Two teachers were also among those killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, authorities said.
Prior to opening fire at the school, the suspect also allegedly shot his grandmother, authorities said.
The suspect — identified by officials as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School — is dead.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 25, 4:24 pm
Accused shooter purchased guns at local store: Sources
The accused gunman in Tuesday’s deadly school shooting purchased two AR-15-style rifles at Oasis Outback, a federally licensed store located in Uvalde, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
A general manager at Oasis Outback told ABC News that he is working with law enforcement but would not comment on whether the alleged shooter did or did not purchase his guns there.
Oasis Outback is located approximately 3 miles from Robb Elementary School.
According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the alleged shooter made his gun purchases on two separate days: May 17 and May 20. That means he bought the first AR-15-style rifle one day after he turned 18 and the second four days before the shooting.
Both weapons were purchased at that same store, Steve McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, confirmed during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
The guns were purchased legally.
-ABC News’ Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky, Laura Romero and Olivia Rubin
May 25, 4:09 pm
Rep. Hoyer to bring ‘red flag’ bill to House floor next month
The House will move on a bill to create a national red flag law, according to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland.
The bill would allow family members or law enforcement officers to “petition for an extreme risk protection order with respect to an individual who poses a risk to themselves or others.”
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., whose 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was fatally shot in 2012.
Hoyer said on Twitter Wednesday that he plans to bring the bill to the floor when the House returns from recess next month.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa
May 25, 2:48 pm
Gunman warned about shooting in Facebook messages minutes beforehand, Meta says
The gunman warned about the shooting in private messages on Facebook minutes beforehand, a spokesperson for Meta said Wednesday. The warning on Facebook was made in “private one-to-one text messages that were discovered after the terrible tragedy occurred.”
The gunman sent three messages on Facebook about 30 minutes before the shooting saying: “I’m going to shoot my grandmother,” “I shot my grandmother” and “I’m going to shoot an elementary school,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said at a press conference.
Abbott said the suspect was reportedly a high school dropout. Officials have reportedly not identified a criminal history for the suspect, but Abbott said he may have had a juvenile record, but that is yet to be determined.
Abbott said the suspect did not have a known mental health history.
According to the ATF, the shooter made his gun purchases on two separate days: May 17 and May 20.
May 25, 2:09 pm
Beto O’Rourke interrupts press conference, yelling at Texas governor
Beto O’Rourke, a candidate running for governor of Texas, interrupted a press conference held by current Gov. Greg Abbott Wednesday, shouting at Abbott before being escorted from the building.
O’Rourke protested the current governor’s stance on gun control.
“You are doing nothing!” he shouted.
May 25, 1:13 pm
6 people injured in shooting remain hospitalized
Six people injured in the Texas elementary school shooting remain hospitalized on Wednesday.
Three children and one adult are at the University Hospital in San Antonio, two of whom are in serious condition.
Two other adults are hospitalized at Brooke Army Medical Center, both in serious condition.
All patients treated at Uvalde Medical Center have been discharged. The hospital said it treated 15 individuals, 11 of whom were children. Three of those 11 children were transferred to other hospitals in San Antonio and eight were discharged home.
The four remaining patients were adults, one was transferred to another hospital and three were discharged home.
-ABC News’ Jennifer Watts
May 25, 1:05 pm
Father of victim says he holds school, police responsible for the massacre
Jacinto Cazares, the father of Jacklyn Jaylen Cazares, a 10-year-old killed in the Texas elementary school shooting, told ABC News he blames the school and police for the massacre, not the murder weapons.
“I want to say we hold the school responsible for not having locked doors and no protocol, no training. Also the Police for not having a better and faster tactical response time. There was at least 40 lawmen armed to the teeth, but didn’t do a darn thing till it was far too late,” Cazares told ABC News in a statement.
He added, “The situation could’ve been over quick if they had better tactical training and we as a community witnessed it first hand. I’m a gun owner and I do not blame the weapons used in this tragedy. I’m angry how easy it is to get one and young you can be to purchase one.”
-ABC News’ Miles Cohen
May 25, 1:01 pm
Homeland Security secretary calls shooting ‘callous act of violence’
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said the department is “horrified by this callous act of violence,” in a statement Wednesday.
Mayorkas said one Border Patrol agent was injured in the crossfire.
“We are grateful for the courageous members of our Border Patrol, many of whom are part of the Uvalde and surrounding communities, who immediately responded to the scene along with local and state law enforcement,” Mayorkas said.
He added, “Without hesitation, they put themselves between the shooter and students to end the bloodshed and administer medical aid. Without question, their heroism yesterday saved lives.”
The department will continue to coordinate with local, state and federal partners, Mayorkas said.
“As we pray for the families and loved ones and recognize the bravery of frontline law enforcement personnel, we must redouble our collective efforts to make our communities safer,” Mayorkas said.
May 25, 12:19 pm
Texas state senator urges Congress to pass assault weapons control
Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez called on lawmakers to act on gun control, specifically calling on them to look into an assault weapons ban at the federal level, in an interview on ABC News Live Wednesday.
“We have to make sure that we’re creating laws in the state of Texas, as well as at the federal level, so that we can stop access to these types of militarized weapons,” Gutierrez said on ABC News Live.
“I know my district — there’s nobody in this district that goes hunting with an AR-15,” Gutierrez said, referring to the assault weapon the alleged shooter had purchased two days before the shooting.
Gutierrez called on the U.S. Senate to break the filibuster and pass legislation in order to stop seeing “these types of militarized weapons.”
“We have young, confused men, young men violating lives across this country and violating families across this country.”
He added, “It is high time that we do something. My heart goes out to the people in my community here in the valley, but we’ve got to take that to another level and do something now. Because if we can’t do something, then what are we? What are we sending people off to Washington for? What are we sending people up to Austin for? We’ve got to do more.”
May 25, 11:50 am
Gun violence is a ‘plague upon this nation,’ Sen. Chuck Schumer says
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave a passionate speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, calling gun violence “a plague upon this nation.”
“The problem in the Senate is simple too many members on the other side of the aisle are disconnected from the suffering of the American people, too many members on that side care more about the NRA than they do about families who grieve victims of gun violence,” Schumer said.
Schumer criticized Republicans for their opposition to gun control legislation.
“Republicans don’t pretend that they support sensible gun safety legislation. They don’t pretend to be moved by the fact that 90% of Americans, regardless of party, support something as common sense as background checks,” Schumer said.
Schumer said he aches for the families of those killed in Texas and urged Republicans to act “for the sake of these children.”
“To my Republican colleagues: Imagine if it happened to you. Imagine if this was your kid or your grandkid. How would you feel? Could you ever forgive yourself for not supporting a simple law that would make these mass shootings less likely? Please, please, please dammit. Put yourself in the shoes of these parents for once,” Schumer said.
-ABC News’ Trish Turner
May 25, 10:31 am
6 people injured in shooting remain hospitalized
Six people injured in the Texas elementary school shooting remain hospitalized on Wednesday.
Three children and one adult are at the University Hospital in San Antonio, two of whom are in serious condition. Two other adults are hospitalized at Brooke Army Medical Center, both in critical condition.
All patients treated at Uvalde Medical Center have been discharged. The hospital said it treated 15 individuals, 11 of whom were children. Three of those 11 children were transferred to other hospitals in San Antonio and eight were discharged home.
The four remaining patients were adults, one was transferred to another hospital and three were discharged home.
-ABC News’ Jennifer Watts
May 25, 10:16 am
Texas governor to hold press conference at 1:30 p.m. ET
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will hold a press conference Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. ET to discuss the state’s response to the Robb Elementary School shooting.
The governor will be joined by state officials including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas state House Speaker Dade Phelan, U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez.
May 25, 9:16 am
Gunman’s grandfather says he was unaware the suspect purchased weapons
Rolando Reyes, 72, the gunman’s grandfather, told ABC News he had no idea his grandson had purchased two AR-15-style rifles or that they were in his house.
Since Reyes is a felon, it is illegal for him to live in a house with firearms. Reyes said he would have turned his grandson in.
Reyes said there were no signs the morning of the shooting that anything unusual was going to happen. The suspect had a minor argument with his grandmother over the payment of a phone bill, but nothing significant.
The suspect lived in a front room and slept on a mattress on the floor, according to Reyes. The suspect had been staying with his grandparents after having a falling out with his mother.
Reyes said he took the suspect to work sometimes and that he was very quiet, but he did not seem violent. Reyes also said he tried to encourage his grandson to go to school but the suspect would typically just shrug in response.
Reyes said the suspect did not know how to drive and did not have a driver’s license. Reyes also wondered how his grandson would have even gone to purchase the weapons or if he trained on the weapons, saying someone must have taken him there.
The suspect’s grandmother, who he shot in the forehead, is undergoing surgery on Wednesday. Reyes said he believes she will survive.
May 25, 8:43 am
Shooter purchased two rifles within eight days of turning 18 this month
Salvador Ramos, the suspect in the Robb Elementary School shooting, after turning 18 on May 16, purchased two rifles and carried out the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history within the span of eight days, according to multiple law enforcement officials.
The suspect purchased two AR-15-style rifles on May 22, two days before the massacre and six days after his birthday, multiple law enforcement officials told ABC News. They were legal purchases.
Once the shooter made entry into a classroom he barricaded himself and opened fire, according to the sources.
Officers from the Uvalde Police Department and agents from Customs and Border Protection entered into the classroom and immediately took fire from the gunman before they shot and killed him.
Investigators are going through the ballistics to determine who fired the fatal shot.
May 25, 6:46 am
Ukrainian president offers condolences to families of the victims
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered his condolences to the families of the victims of the shooting on Twitter.
“Deeply saddened by the news of the murder of innocent children in Texas. Sincere condolences to the families of the victims, the people of the US and @POTUS over this tragedy,” Zelenskyy said in a tweet.
Zelenskyy added: “The people of Ukraine share the pain of the relatives and friends of the victims and all Americans.”
May 25, 5:24 am
Matthew McConaughey calls for action after shooting
Actor Matthew McConaughey decried the shooting in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas.
“We have tragically proven that we are failing to be responsible for the rights our freedoms grant us,” he wrote in a statement on Twitter.
“We cannot exhale once again, make excuses, and accept these tragic realities as the status quo,” he said.
May 25, 4:55 am
Amanda Gorman pens poem about shooting
The 24-year-old National Youth Poet Laureate took to Twitter following the tragedy to share a poem.
Schools scared to death.
The truth is, one education under desks,
Stooped low from bullets;
That plunge when we ask
Where our children
Shall live
& how
& if
She also posted a series of tweets on gun violence.
“It takes a monster to kill children,” she wrote. “But to watch monsters kill children again and again and do nothing isn’t just insanity — it’s inhumanity.”
May 25, 4:55 am
Biden addresses ‘horrific’ mass shooting
President Joe Biden addressed the nation Tuesday night following the mass shooting in Texas — not even two weeks after he mourned victims of the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.
“I’d hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this again,” Biden said. “Another massacre. Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, second-, third-, fourth-graders.”
“As a nation, we have to ask when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby,” he said. “I am sick and tired of it — we have to act.”
May 25, 4:55 am
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy pleads with lawmakers after shooting
Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy gave an impassioned argument on the Senate floor to his colleagues late Tuesday afternoon, hours after 21 were killed in the mass shooting.
“What are we doing?” Murphy asked the chamber. “There have been more mass shootings than days in the year.”
“Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing?” he asked.
Sen. Chris Murphy delivers remarks on Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting: “What are we doing? What are we doing?…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.” https://t.co/Zh3OvUaIwmpic.twitter.com/TjJVoaFbRN
May 25, 4:55 am
What we know about the shooting so far
At least 21 people are dead after a gunman opened fire in Uvalde on Tuesday, authorities said.
Most of the victims were children in their last week of school before the summer break. Many other students and adults were injured in the mass shooting.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, interrupted a press conference from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott about the Uvalde shooting Wednesday, shouting at the current governor before being escorted from the auditorium.
He said the response from Abbott and other Texas leaders was “totally predictable,” and did nothing to solve the problem easy access to guns that is plaguing communities across Texas and the nation.
Abbott ordered law enforcement officers to escort O’Rourke, who is running for governor, outside the building.
Several attendees on the stage, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, began yelling back, telling O’Rourke to sit down, that he was “pathetic,” and that this was no place for politics.
Following the outburst, Abbott resumed the press conference, saying, “Every Texan, every American, has a responsibility we need to focus on ourselves and our agendas, we need to focus on the healing and hope that we are providing to those who suffered unconscionable damage to their lives.”
The governor went on to say that state laws that allow 18-year-olds to purchase long-barrel rifles have been on the books for 60 years. He said the only new aspect that is driving mass shooting is “the status of mental health in our society.”
Outside, O’Rourke held an impromptu press conference, railing against Abbott’s record.
“He’s refused to expand Medicaid, which would bring $10 million a year, including mental health care access for people who need it,” O’Rourke said. “He’s refused to champion red flag laws. … He’s refused to support safe-storage laws so young people cannot get their hands on their parents’ weapons.”
Growing angrier with each word, O’Rourke said, the gunman “who just turned 18, bought an AR-15 and took it into an elementary school and shot kids in the face and killed them.”
“Why are we letting this happen in this country? Why is this happening in this state? Year after year, city after city,” O’Rourke said. “This is on all of us if we do not do something and I am going to do something and I’m not alone. The people of Texas are with us, the majority of people in Texas are with us. Well, we’ve got to stand up to this.”
He continued, “We just can’t accept this theater or business as usual, and accept the next shooting.”
“We could have stopped this if we had stood up after Santa Fe High School, if we had stood up after El Paso,” he said of two recent mass shootings in Texas. “We are going to stop the next one. We’re standing up right here in Uvalde, Texas, right now. That’s why I’m here.”
Prior to the interruption, Abbott said the suspected gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, used an AR-15 rifle with .223 caliber ammunition.
He said the suspect appeared to have no adult criminal records, although investigators are looking to see if he had a juvenile record. He also said there was no evidence the suspect was ever treated for mental illness.
“There was no meaningful forewarning of this crime,” Abbott said.
He said the only warning came in a direct message Ramos wrote on Facebook about 30 minutes before he allegedly shot his grandmother at her home. Abbott said the suspect wrote to an individual or individuals, whose names were not disclosed, “I’m going to shoot my grandmother.”
Abbott said the grandmother, who is in a hospital in critical condition, called 911 to report being shot.
Abbott said that a few minutes after the first direct message, Ramos sent another, allegedly writing, “I shot my grandmother.”
The governor said that about 14 minutes before the shooting at Robb Elementary School, the suspect sent out another Facebook direct message, writing, “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.”
He said three law enforcement officers were injured when the suspect crashed a vehicle outside the school and allegedly engaged them in a gunfire before entering the school and committing the massacre.
Abbott also said that in addition to the 19 students and two faculty members killed, 17 people suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the shooting, including three law enforcement officers. He said a deputy sheriff was among the parents who lost a daughter in the shooting.
“It could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officers did what they do,” Abbott said, praising the officers who ran into the school and fatally shot the gunman before he could kill more people.
