(UVALDE, Texas) — The Connecticut lawyers who successfully sued the maker of the rifle used in the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, shooting filed a letter Friday seeking documents and records from Daniel Defense, maker of the rifle used in the Uvalde, Texas, shooting May 24.
This petition was filed on behalf of the father of Amerie Jo Garza, one of the 19 children killed in the rampage by the alleged gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.
Alfred Garza, Amerie Jo’s father, is being represented by attorneys Josh Koskoff, who obtained a $73 million settlement to nine families of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting victims, and Texas-based attorneys Mikal Watts and Charla Aldous, according to a press release.
“We have to honor her and make sure we do good. From this day forward, I want to live my life for my daughter,” Garza told David Muir in a recent “World News Tonight” interview.
“My purpose for being now is to honor Amerie Jo’s memory,” Garza also said in the statement. “She would want to me to do everything I can so this will never happen again to any other child. I have to fight her fight.”
“Daniel Defense has said that they are praying for the Uvalde families. They should back up those prayers with meaningful action,” said Josh Koskoff of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. “If they really are sincere in their desire to support these families, they will provide the information that Mr. Garza has requested without delay or excuse. Either way, we will do a complete and thorough investigation, leaving no stone unturned.”
The petition letter is a precursor to a lawsuit that could seek to hold the gunmaker liable despite a federal shield for gunmakers that President Joe Biden asked the nation to repeal in his Thursday night speech.
A similar petition was filed Friday by Robb Elementary teacher Emilia Marin, whose lawyer spoke this week to ABC News.
In February, the families of five children and four adults killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School announced a landmark victory in their long-running case against Remington, the company that made and marketed the AR-15 weapon used in the Newton massacre.
(NEW YORK) — In the immediate aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott praised the “amazing courage” of law enforcement, saying the incident that left 19 students and two teachers dead “could have been worse” if the officers hadn’t run toward the gunfire and eliminated the shooter.
But as the investigation has unfolded since the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School, allegedly committed by an 18-year-old wielding an AR-15-style rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, law enforcement and government officials have come under scrutiny for the twisting narrative about crucial elements of the police response.
In his press conference the day after the rampage, Abbott and officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety framed the response from police as being swift. But as more evidence has been uncovered, the timeline has been stretched from a rapid response to one that took 77 minutes from the time the shooter entered the school to when he was killed by officers.
“It’s a mess,” said Robert Boyce, retired chief of detectives for the New York Police Department and an ABC News contributor.
Boyce said that in a fluid investigation like the mass shooting in Uvalde, preliminary information is constantly changing.
“When I would do my press conferences, I would always say, ‘This is what we have right now’ and ‘it’s subject to change,'” Boyce said. “So, yes, it’s not unusual for that to happen at all. Things change all the time, or you go back and look at the video and say, ‘Alright, that didn’t match up,’ and people sometimes make assumptions that aren’t true.”
But Boyce said what has not changed is the basic tenet of the active shooter doctrine created after the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado and shared by police departments across the country.
“The bedrock issue is to immediately go in and neutralize the threat,” Boyce said. “People might say, ‘Well, the cops weren’t wearing the proper vests.’ My response to that is those kids had no vests on. So, I don’t want to hear that either.”
Here are three major issues of the Uvalde shooting in which the official narrative from law enforcement and elected leaders has dramatically changed in the 10 days since one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history occurred:
Did a school police officer engage the shooter?
In his press conference the day after the shooting, Gov. Abbott said the alleged gunman, Salvador Ramos, shot his grandmother in the face, leaving her critically injured, before fleeing in her truck and crashing into a ditch outside Robb Elementary School.
“Officers with the Consolidated Independent School District … approached the gunman and engaged with the gunman at that time,” Abbott said.
But one day later, Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, contradicted Abbott’s statement.
Escalon said the school police officer wasn’t at the scene when the suspect crashed outside the school. He said the gunman fired at two witnesses from a funeral home across the street.
“He continues walking towards the school,” Escalon said of the suspect. “He climbs a fence. Now he’s in the parking lot shooting at the school multiple times.”
Citing security video outside and inside the school, Escalon said the suspect entered the school building unabated through a door on the west side of the campus.
He said numerous rounds were fired inside the school as officers were responding to the scene.
Escalon said the suspect walked 20 to 30 feet down a hallway, made a right and walked into a second hallway, made another right, walked roughly 20 more feet and turned left into a classroom that is adjoined to another classroom by a Jack-and-Jill restroom area. Police said that the children and teachers were killed in classrooms 111 and 112.
“Four minutes later, local police departments, Uvalde Police Department, the (Consolidated) Independent (School) Police Department are inside making entry,” Escalon said. “They hear gunfire. They take rounds. They move back, get cover.”
He said the officers tried to approach the locked classroom door where the shooter was, but the gunman fired at them through the door, hitting two officers. He said the officers called for additional resources, body armor, tactical teams and other equipment needed to take on the suspect.
Was the back door of the school left propped open?
On Friday, Col. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the door the gunman used to access the school building was left propped open by a teacher prior to the shooter entering the school.
“The teacher runs to the room, 132, to retrieve a phone, and that same teacher walks back to the exit door and the door remains propped open,” McCraw said during a press conference.
On Monday, Texas Department of Public Safety press secretary Ericka Miller confirmed to ABC News that investigators have now determined that the teacher closed the door, but that the door did not automatically lock as it was supposed to.
Don Flanary, a lawyer for the teacher, told the San Antonio Express-News that the teacher had propped the door open with a rock to carry food in from her car. He said that while the teacher was outside, she “saw the wreck” the suspect was involved in and “ran back inside to get her phone to report the crash.
As she went back out while on the phone with 911, the lawyer said, the men at the funeral home across the street from the school yelled, “He has a gun!” Flanary said.
“She saw him jump the fence and (that) he had a gun. So, she ran back inside,” the lawyer said. “She kicked the rock away when she went back in. She remembers pulling the door closed while telling 911 that he was shooting. She thought the door would lock because that door is always supposed to be locked.”
Law enforcement is looking into why the door did not lock, DPS confirmed to ABC News.
It took 77 minutes before the suspect was killed
The timeline on how quickly police responded to the shooting has changed several times, from a rapid response to about 40 minutes, to eventually 77 minutes before a SWAT team entered the classroom where the shooter was located and killed him, authorities said.
McCraw admitted on Friday that mistakes were made on the ground in response to the active shooter incident.
The missteps began before the shooting erupted at the school when a Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police officer responding to a 911 call of a man with a gun on the school campus drove past the suspect, who was “hunkered down” behind a car in the school parking lot, McCraw said.
The gunman fired at the school multiple times before entering through the unlocked door. Police officials have given various times for when the shooter entered the school building, saying in one press conference that he gained access at 11:33 a.m., while in a different press conference they said 11:40 a.m.
McCraw said the shooter walked into a classroom and began firing more than 100 rounds.
McCraw said that by 12:03 p.m., there were as many as 19 officers in the school hallway. As the officers were outside the door, the incident commander — Chief Pete Arredondo of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police — wrongly believed the incident had transitioned from an active shooting to a situation where the suspect had stopped firing, barricaded himself in a classroom and no longer posed a risk to children, McCraw said.
“He thought there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with the equipment to go ahead and breach the door and take on the subject at that point,” McCraw said. “That was the decision, that was the thought process.”
McCraw added, “Of course it wasn’t the right decision. It was the wrong decision.”
Arredondo, who was sworn in this week as a Uvalde City Council member, has yet to offer a public statement on his response to the shooting.
But Escalon said last week that children trapped inside with the killer, who was freely walking back and forth between adjoining classrooms, made numerous 911 calls pleading for help.
Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies in the area converged on the school and began evacuating children from other classrooms and away from the two rooms where the gunman was holed up. Video and photos from the scene, showed children being pulled through broken windows and running out of harm’s way.
Escalon said in one of the 911 calls from the classrooms where the mass murder was occurring, a dispatcher heard three shots in the background.
McCraw and Escalon cited numerous 911 calls coming in from students and teachers from 12:03 p.m. to 12:47 p.m., reporting that multiple students were dead, but others were alive. Escalon said at 12:47 p.m., a child called 911, begging, “Please, send police now.”
It remains unclear whether information from the 911 calls was immediately passed on to Arredondo.
At 12:50 p.m., the SWAT team from Customs and Border Protection used a key they got from a janitor, entered the classroom and killed the gunman.
Meanwhile, video has surfaced showing frantic parents outside the school as the shooting was unfolding pleading with police to go into the school and being held back by officers, some who appeared to be armed with semi-automatic rifles and wearing bulletproof vests.
“I think the biggest issue that I see is that (classroom) door,” Boyce said of the investigation into law enforcement’s response to the shooting, which is being handled by the Department of Justice. “When did it get breached? When did they get that key?”
He said most patrol cars aren’t equipped with forcible entry tools like rams, or anything to go through a locked door. But he said the officers should have asked for a sledgehammer or tools within reach to get through the door, or break windows to get into the classrooms.
“You take an oath as a police officer, there are days when you’re going to have to put yourself on the line,” Boyce said. “You do what’s necessary to end the threat.”
Citing the ongoing investigation, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has not issued a statement on its police department’s response.
Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodriguez issued a statement on his department’s Facebook page last week, saying, “It is important for our community to know that our Officers responded within minutes alongside CISD officers. Responding UPD Officers sustained gunshot wounds from the suspect. Our entire department is thankful that the Officers did not sustain any life-threatening injuries.”
Rodriguez added, “I understand questions are surfacing regarding the details of what occurred. I know answers will not come fast enough during this trying time. But rest assured, that with the completion of the full investigation, I will be able to answer all the questions that we can.”
(UVALDE, Texas) — A teacher at Robb Elementary School has been traumatized and heartbroken since Texas officials incorrectly made initial statements claiming she left a door propped open that the Uvalde gunman used to enter the building before carrying out last week’s mass shooting, her lawyer told ABC News in an interview Thursday.
“It’s traumatic for her when it’s insinuated that she’s involved, the door open,” attorney Don Flanary, who represents the Robb Elementary School teacher, told ABC News correspondent Marcus Moore in an exclusive interview. “She’s heartbroken.”
Flanary told ABC News that prior to the shooting, the teacher walked out the door to retrieve food from a colleague outside, where she saw the gunman crash a gray Ford pickup truck, then exit the vehicle and head her way, toward the school, armed with a gun.
“She sees him throw a bag over the fence and he has the weapon, the gun, around his chest,” Flanary said. “He hops the fence and starts running at her.”
Flanary said the teacher then “immediately turns and she runs inside, kicks the rock out, slams the door.”
Back inside the school, Flanary said, she heard gunshots.
“She thought she was going to die herself. She was waiting for him to come in,” Flanary said. “Obviously she’s heartbroken with all the lives lost.”
At a press conference after the shooting, Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that the teacher had left the door propped open prior to the gunman entering the school.
“The teacher runs to the room, 132, to retrieve a phone, and that same teacher walks back to the exit door and the door remains propped open,” McCraw said at a press conference last Friday.
But just days later the claim was walked back. Texas Department of Public Safety press secretary Ericka Miller confirmed to ABC News that investigators had determined that the teacher had closed the door — but the door did not lock.
Law enforcement is looking into why the door failed to lock, DPS confirmed to ABC News.
In the meantime, the teacher’s attorney told ABC News that his office is filing a petition for information about Daniel Defense, the company that made the assault weapon used in the attack.
“We can’t bring the kids back, but we can find out who’s responsible. We need to find the people who put the guns in his hands responsible,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — A tropical storm warning is in effect in Miami, Fort Myers and West Palm Beach as South Florida braces for its first storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
This tropical system is expected to strengthen to Tropical Storm Alex as it moves toward Florida on Friday.
Alex is forecast to land near Florida’s west coast overnight.
The biggest threat from this storm is flash flooding. Rainfall rates could reach a whopping 3 inches per hour Friday night into Saturday.
Most of South Florida is forecast to get 5 to 10 inches of rain, but some areas could see 10 to 15 inches of rain.
Gusty winds of 40 to 55 mph are also expected.
But this storm should be fast-moving, leaving Florida by Saturday afternoon.
(UVALDE, Texas) — This week has been filled with funerals in Uvalde, Texas, to honor the 21 victims killed in the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history.
The funeral services for Irma Garcia, one of the teachers killed in the shooting, and her husband, Jose Garcia, who died of a heart attack two days after the shooting, took place Wednesday at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde.
Amerie Jo Garza and Maite Rodriguez, both 10 years old, were laid to rest Tuesday following funeral services in the afternoon.
The last photo ever taken of Garza, at this year’s award’s day, was featured inside the Hillcrest Funeral Home where her visitation took place, one mourner told ABC Houston station KTRK.
Nineteen students and two teachers were murdered on May 24 when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos allegedly opened fire at Robb Elementary School with an AR-15 style rifle he purchased days before.
Memorial services are expected to take place in the small Texas town through June 16.
The funeral for Jose Manuel Flores Jr., 10, was Wednesday.
A funeral for 10-year-old Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo took place Thursday.
Maranda Gail Mathis, 11, and Eliahna Torres, 10, were also laid to rest Thursday.
The funeral for cousins Jailah Nicole Silguero, 11, and Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10, will take place Friday at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. The cousins were “full of life” and “always had a smile on their face,” their family said in a statement to ABC News.
Jacklyn Cazares, 10, will be remembered at Sacred Heart on Friday. She “had the biggest heart,” her mother, Jacinto Cazares, told ABC News.
Annabell Rodriguez, 10, Cazares’ cousin who was in the same fourth-grade class, was also killed in the shooting. Her funeral will take place on June 8 at the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary.
Makenna Elrod’s funeral will take place at First Baptist Church on Saturday. The 10-year-old’s “smile would light up a room,” her aunt, Allison McCullough, told ABC News.
The funeral for Rojelio Torres, 10, will take place at Rushing Knowles on Saturday. Rojelio Torres’ mother, Evadulia Orta, described her son to ABC News as a “very smart and loving child.”
Alithia Ramirez, 10, will be buried Sunday after her funeral takes place at First Baptist Church. Her grandmother, Rosa Maria Ramirez, described her to ABC News as a “very talented little girl” who loved to draw.
Ellie Garcia, 9, will be laid to rest on June 6 after a funeral at Sacred Heart.
Xavier Lopez, 10, will be buried at the Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery after his funeral on June 7. He was always the “life of the party,” his grandmother, Amelia Sandoval, told ABC News.
The funeral for fourth grade teacher Eva Mireles will take place on June 10 at Sacred Heart. Miresles’ cousin, Amber Ybarra, described her as a “hero” and an “amazing mom.”
Alexandria Rubio, 10, will be remembered on June 11 at First Baptist Church. The straight A student received a good citizen award from her school on the day she was killed, her family said.
The funeral for Tess Mata, 10, will take place on June 13 at Sacred Heart. Her mother, Veronica Mata, told ABC News she never believed a school shooting could happen in their small town.
Layla Salazar, 11, will be laid to rest on June 16 after a service at Sacred Heart. Her brother, Julien Salazar, described her as “positive” and “energetic.”
The memorial service for Uziyah Garcia, 10, will take place on June 25 at Immanuel Baptist Church in San Angelo. Uziyah, who is not related to Irma and Jose Garcia, was described by his grandfather as “the sweetest little boy that I’ve ever known.”
ABC News’ Emily Shapiro and Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.
(JOURDANTON, Texas) — A Texas inmate suspected of murdering five people after he escaped from a prison bus was killed by authorities on Thursday, officials said.
A massive manhunt was underway for 46-year-old Gonzalo Lopez when an adult and four children were found dead Thursday evening inside a residence in Leon County in east-central Texas, near where the inmate had escaped three weeks prior. Lopez was believed to have broken into the home and committed the murders, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Authorities said at the time that Lopez may have stolen clothes, firearms and a 1999 white Chevrolet Silverado from the residence.
The house was believed to be a weekend home for the victims, whose primary residence was in Houston. Authorities said the family had been seen Thursday morning and were found murdered around 6 p.m. local time, after an individual contacted law enforcement because they had not heard from an elderly relative inside the home and were concerned. Authorities had initially said that two adults and three children were discovered dead there.
“We will not rest until Gonzalo Lopez is in custody,” Jason Clark, chief of staff for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said at a press conference Thursday evening.
Later that night, deputies from the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office spotted the stolen pickup truck that Lopez was believed to be driving and followed it. They laid out spike strips that flattened all four tires of the vehicle on a street in Jourdanton, just south of San Antonio and some 250 miles southwest of Leon County. The suspect then pointed a rifle out of the window and fired several shots at the deputies, who returned fire, according to authorities.
The suspect was killed in the shootout and was confirmed to be Lopez, who authorities said was armed with an AR-15 and a pistol.
“We received additional information from the U.S. Marshals Service that he may be in the San Antonio area. So then we heightened our alert and, sure enough, we spotted him,” Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward said at a press conference Thursday night. “This dangerous individual is off the street and no officers were injured.”
Reward grows to $50,000 for arrest of escaped inmate serving life for murder
Lopez, who was serving a life sentence for a capital murder in Hidalgo County and an attempted capital murder in Webb County, managed to break free from his shackles, overpower a bus driver and escape from custody near Centerville on May 12, while being transported from Gatesville to Huntsville for a medical appointment. He was added to Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Fugitives List and a $50,000 reward was issued for his capture.
Authorities had said Lopez was allegedly affiliated with the Mexican Mafia.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso, Marilyn Heck, Emily Shapiro, Flor Tolentino and Jennifer Watts contributed to this story.
(TULSA, Okla.) — Two doctors, an employee and a patient were gunned down at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical building on Wednesday after the gunman allegedly targeted his doctor, blaming him for pain.
Here is what we know about the four people who died in America’s latest mass shooting.
Dr. Preston Phillips, 59
Dr. Preston Phillips was an orthopedic surgeon at Saint Francis Hospital. He had “an interest in spinal surgery, joint reconstruction — including joint replacement and the treatment of fractures,” according to the hospital website. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1990 and also earned advanced degrees in organic chemistry and pharmacology, as well as theology from Emory University, police said in a statement on the victims.
Dr. Cliff Robertson, president and CEO of Saint Francis Health System, described Phillips as a “consummate gentleman,” telling reporters, “he is a man that we should all strive to emulate.”
Phillips was the target of the mass shooting, authorities said.
Phillips performed surgery on the suspected gunman on May 19, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said.
The suspect was released from the hospital on May 24, and after his release, he called several times over several days complaining of pain and wanting additional treatment, the chief said.
On Tuesday, Phillips saw the suspect again for additional treatment, the chief said. Then, on Wednesday, the suspect called the doctor complaining of back pain and wanting additional help, the chief said.
A letter found on the gunman, who died by apparent suicide at the medical facility, made it clear “that he came with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way,” Franklin said. “He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery.”
Dr. Stephanie Husen, 48
Dr. Stephanie Husen, a sports medicine specialist, was working at the medical office when she was killed.
She graduated medical school at Oklahoma State University in 2000 and completed her internship and residency at Greenville Memorial Hospital, according to her hospital profile.
She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Oklahoma and was a member of the Chi Omega Sorority.
“Our hearts are with the family and loved ones who lost such an incredible woman,” the chapter said in a statement on social media. “She was known and loved by so many and will always be remembered.”
Amanda Glenn, 40
Amanda Glenn was an employee who had a “supervisory role” at the medical facility, officials said.
She leaves behind a husband and two teenage sons, The Oklahoman reported, citing her Facebook page.
“Amanda Glenn was a devoted wife, mother and friend,” the Sandite High School baseball team posted on Facebook. “She was on our Booster Club Board and served the baseball boys and coaches selflessly. She was the biggest cheerleader for both of her sons and all of our boys.”
Glenn worked in the medical field for over 18 years and had a “true servant’s heart” in that she “always put everyone else first,” the Tulsa police said in their statement on the victims.
William Love, 73
William Love was a patient receiving care when the gunfire erupted.
Officials said Love held a door closed to help someone else escape the shooting. That person appears to be his wife of nearly 55 years, Deborah Love, according to a police statement.
“William Love’s family would like us to share that at the time of shooting, William heard the gunshots and knew his wife would not be able to escape the building on her own,” the Tulsa Police Department said in its statement on the victims. “He sacrificed his life for her.”
Love was a retired Army first sergeant with 27 years of service who served one tour in Vietnam, police said.
He is survived by his wife, brother, two daughters and their spouses, eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, police said.
(CONCORD, N.H.) — New Hampshire police investigating the unsolved shooting deaths of a retired couple said Thursday that they are looking to speak to the owner or operator of a car that was parked near a hiking trail where the bodies of the victims were discovered in April.
New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella and Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood released photos of a dark green 2006 to 2012 Toyota RAV4 that was parked near the March Loop trailhead in Concord on April 18, the day Stephen Reid, 67, and his wife, Djeswende “Wendy” Reid, 66, were last seen alive.
Authorities emphasized that the person who owns or was driving the car is not a suspect in the case, but investigators are eager to speak to them about what they might have seen on the trail that day.
The Marsh Loop trail is part of the Broken Ground Trails system where the bodies of the couple were discovered on April 21, a day after relatives reported them missing, police said.
The FBI has joined the investigation and a $33,500 reward is being offered for information that leads to the arrest and indictment of the person or persons responsible for the killings.
Autopsies revealed the Reids were both shot multiple times.
The development comes about three weeks after authorities released a sketch of a man authorities described as a person of interest. The man was seen in the vicinity of where the bodies were found the day the Reids went missing, officials said.
A spokesperson for the New Hampshire Department of Justice, which released the sketch, told ABC News Thursday that the person of interest has not been located.
During a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Formella said there is no connection between the person of interest and the vehicle being sought in the case. The person of interest is not currently a suspect in the case, he said.
The Reids left their home in the Alton Woods apartment complex in Concord around 2:22 p.m. on April 18 and went for a walk in the Broken Ground Trails area, Formella and Osgood said in their joint statement on Thursday.
The couple was reported missing on April 20 when Stephen Reid failed to show up at a planned event, authorities said. Their bodies were discovered a day later, officials said.
Homicide investigators and the couple’s children, Lindsay and Brian Reid, have asked the public to report any information that could possibly help crack the case.
The couple’s family released a statement after the murders, describing Stephen and Wendy Reid as soulmates who traveled the world and shared a “mutual love of adventure and fitness.”
The Reids moved to Concord about three years ago when Stephen Reid, who grew up there, retired from a more than 30-year career as an international development specialist working on humanitarian projects around the world through USAID, their family said. The couple met while Wendy Reid, who was from West Africa, was studying in Washington, D.C., on an athletic scholarship, the family said.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Teachers in Ohio are frustrated after lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that would allow them and other school staff to carry guns in school safety zones, with little training.
The bill overrules an Ohio Supreme Court decision from last year that required teachers to receive gun training equivalent to the training police officers receive. If signed into law by the governor, it would create a minimum training commitment of 24 hours for teachers who voluntarily choose to carry guns in schools.
“I think that the idea to arm teachers is a way for lawmakers to pass the buck on much bigger issues,” Tate Moore, a seventh-grade English teacher in Ohio, told ABC News.
Moore said he is worried about the “unintended consequences” of teachers carrying guns in schools, saying something bad could happen.
“It seems like more things are getting added to our plate. And nothing is being taken off,” Moore said. “I’m just not sure how much more teachers can take.”
Moore said it is not a teacher’s job to stop a school shooter.
“I have yet to find one teacher who thinks it’s a good idea for teachers to carry firearms,” he said.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he will sign the bill into law, with his office telling ABC News he had been working for several weeks to get this bill passed.
Ohio police go through over 700 hours of police training. A representative for the governor’s office said more than 600 hours of that training is related to policing and would not be appropriate for teachers.
“My office worked with the General Assembly to remove hundreds of hours of curriculum irrelevant to school safety and to ensure training requirements were specific to a school environment and contained significant scenario-based training,” DeWine said in a statement to ABC News.
Another Ohio teacher said the bill is scary to her.
“I love to teach and, to me, that is my primary job. So to have this layer added to it is quite terrifying,” Lauren Alberti, a sixth-grade teacher, told ABC News.
Alberti said she is worried this bill would deter people from going into education and result in more teacher shortages, a crisis felt in schools across the U.S.
Alberti also said she is concerned about it becoming teachers’ responsibility to shoot a gunman and worries what would happen to teachers if they were to shoot and miss.
“If you really want to eradicate the issue, I don’t think that fighting fire with fire is the answer,” Alberti said.
She later added that she would feel “on edge all the time” if there were guns in her school. She said other teachers she’s spoken with have also told her they are not comfortable with what this bill allows.
Alberti said it would be better to work on the root problems that cause shootings, like working on mental health programs and anti-bullying campaigns or even increasing the number of security guards.
Asked about teachers’ criticism of the proposed rule, Joe Eaton, the program director of pro-gun group FASTER saves lives, told ABC News this bill is important to allow teachers to protect themselves in schools.
“If they’re already in the school buildings, they are in danger so they deserve the right to protect themselves and the students they’re responsible for, right now,” Eaton said. He also said it is a voluntary program and there is no requirement for schools to implement it.
Eaton said teachers and staff willingly put themselves between shooters and students to protect them, saying “we owe it to them” to allow them to defend themselves. He also said the cost of bringing in school police officers is high and it may not be a good solution for schools with large campuses.
Eaton also pushed back on claims this could fuel teacher shortages saying, there is “no indication that that could ever happen.”
Sara DeMuch, a volunteer with the Ohio chapter of gun control group Moms Demand Action, told ABC News she is “continuously disappointed” in Ohio legislators for repeatedly making decisions that “put students and teachers at risk.”
“We have done enough. And it is time for us to get back to just being students and teachers and do what we do in schools. And it’s time for our politicians to step up and tackle the problems that are going on,” DeMuch said.
DeMuch said there is no data or research that supports arming teachers in schools and called on legislators to stop putting extra work on teachers.
“It’s unrealistic, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible. And I think the way that they fast-tracked this bill is reprehensible,” DeMuch said.
“As an Ohio public school teacher, I’m afraid, going forward, for our schools, I’m afraid for our students, I’m afraid for other teachers,” DeMuch added.
(TULSA, Okla.) — The suspected gunman in a mass shooting at an Oklahoma medical office Wednesday bought an AR-15-style rifle just hours before the massacre, police said.
Five people were killed in the shooting at a medical complex at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, according to the Tulsa Police Department. The alleged shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
Among those killed was Dr. Preston Phillips, who had performed back surgery on the alleged gunman last month, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said at a news conference Thursday.
A letter recovered on the suspect — identified by police as Michael Louis of Muskogee, Oklahoma — “made it clear that he came with the intent to kill Dr. Phillips and anyone who got in his way,” Franklin said. “He blamed Dr. Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery.”
The three others killed were Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Green and patient William Love, Franklin said.
As police continue to investigate the incident — the 233rd mass shooting in the U.S. so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive — this is what is known so far.
“This information is fluid and can still change but it is the most accurate information that we have at this point,” Franklin said.
All times Central.
May 19
Louis goes into the hospital for back surgery performed by Dr. Phillips.
May 24
Louis is released from the hospital. After being released, he “called several times over several days complaining of pain and wanted additional treatment,” Franklin said.
May 29
The suspect purchases a semi-automatic handgun, a 40-caliber pistol, from a local pawn shop, according to Franklin.
May 31
Phillips sees Louis again for additional treatment.
June 1
The suspect “calls again complaining of back pain and wanting additional assistance,” Franklin said.
2 p.m.: The suspect purchases an AR-15-style rifle from a local gun store, according to Franklin.
4:52 p.m.: A patient who was on a video chat with a doctor at the medical office calls 911, saying “the doctor told her to call 911 saying there has been a shooting,” Franklin said.
4:53 p.m.: The Tulsa Police Department receives a 911 call reporting a shooter in a building.
4:55 p.m.: A 911 caller identifies the shooting location as the Natalie Building, a five-story medical office building on the hospital’s campus. Other calls report a shooting on the second floor of the building.
4:56 p.m.: Police arrive on the scene.
4:58 p.m.: As police advance toward the suspect’s location, they hear a gunshot, which is believed to have been the suspect taking his own life, Franklin said.
Police conduct a search of the building and find a victim in an exam room, Love, who later died at the hospital, Franklin said. He was shot while holding a door closed to allow someone else to escape out of another door, according to Franklin.
A woman was found unharmed hiding under a desk in the lobby area of the office at the suspect’s foot and witnessed the suspect take his life, Franklin said. An additional victim is found dead next to the suspect, he said.
Phillips is found dead in an exam room and a fifth victim is found dead in an open area near a nurse’s station, Franklin said.
5:24 p.m.: The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office calls Tulsa police to report receiving a call from a woman “saying that her husband had killed multiple people at Dr. Phillip’s office,” Franklin said. The suspect appears to have contacted his wife either before or during the shooting, he said.
A letter was found on the suspect that “told us the story,” Franklin said. “This was something that was planned.”
6:33 p.m.: The Muskogee Police Department reports a possible bomb threat inside a residence in Muskogee, about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa. Muskogee Police Chief Johnny Teehee later updates that the incident may be tied to the Tulsa shooting suspect and that officers have cleared the house and are obtaining a warrant to search the residence.
9:06 p.m.: Muskogee Mayor Marlon Coleman updates on Facebook that the “bomb squad has cleared the location of the potential bomb threat.”
The home is believed to be the suspect’s residence, but police are still working to determine what happened, Franklin said Thursday.
ABC News’ Jenna Harrison Esseling contributed to this report.
