(UVALDE, Texas) — Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, traveled to Uvalde, Texas, Thursday, to pay tribute to the 19 students and two teachers killed at Robb Elementary School.
Meghan, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and a baseball cap, was photographed laying a bouquet of white roses and kneeling before a cross at a memorial near the school, where on Tuesday a gunman entered through a backdoor and opened fire in a classroom, according to authorities.
Among the shooting victims remembered at the memorial site are two fourth-grade teachers, several sets of cousins, a 10-year-old boy whose family called him “the life of the party,” a 10-year-old girl who loved to play softball and a 10-year-old boy described by his mom as a “very smart and loving child.”
Meghan visited Uvalde in a “personal capacity,” according to her spokesperson.
“She took this trip in a personal capacity as a mother, to offer her condolences and support in person to a community experiencing unimaginable grief,” the spokesperson told ABC News.
Meghan, 40, lives in California with her husband, Prince Harry, and their two young children, Archie and Lilibet.
Meghan and Harry run the Archewell Foundation, described by the couple as an “impact-driven global nonprofit.”
The family is scheduled to travel soon to the United Kingdom, where they will join Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, next weekend for her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The trip will mark their first public trip to the U.K. together since stepping down from their senior royal roles two years ago.
(HOUSTON) — The nation’s largest pro-gun lobby is poised to gather in Texas days after one of the worst mass shootings in recent U.S. history unfolded in the state.
Despite demands to cancel the annual meeting in light of the tragedy, the National Rifle Association’s Annual Leadership Forum is scheduled to take place in Houston from Friday through Sunday.
The pro-gun gathering comes days after authorities said an 18-year-old armed with an AR-15-style rifle opened fire in an elementary school classroom in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers and wounding 17 people.
Groups including the Harris County Democratic Party, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and March For Our Lives plan to rally outside the convention hall Friday, calling for gun reform in the wake of the massacre.
“Every single speaker at the NRA event this weekend bears responsibility for the innocent lives lost to gun violence,” the Harris County Democratic Party said on Facebook. “It is past time for thoughts and prayers.”
The NRA had the option of delaying the convention, particularly as families prepare to bury those killed in the shooting, but “did not choose to do so,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said during a press briefing Thursday. He noted that the city does not have the “legal right” to cancel a convention.
The city will be providing security for those attending the meeting, he said, as officials urged peace from protestors and attendees. Protest barricades will also be set up, according to Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
“We will respect everybody’s right to protest and speak their concerns and their voice,” Finner said during the briefing. “We will not tolerate destruction of property, nor will we tolerate people assaulting individuals.”
The annual NRA meeting typically draws up to 80,000 members, according to the association. Ahead of the convention, the NRA said in a statement that the organization will “reflect on these events, pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members, and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure.”
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at the forum on Friday. Firearms, ammunition, knives, toy guns and other items will be prohibited from that event, per a U.S. Secret Service notice.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday he was unsure if he would attend the meeting.
“I’m living moment-to-moment right now,” he said when asked about his plans during a briefing. “My heart, my head and my body are in Uvalde right now, and I’m here to help the people who are hurting.”
Singer Don McLean backed out of performing at the event in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting tragedy.
“In light of the recent events in Texas, I have decided it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to perform for the NRA at their convention in Houston this week,” he said in a statement. “I’m sure all the folks planning to attend this event are shocked and sickened by these events, as well. After all, we are all Americans.”
ABC News’ Aliyah Thomas contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Days after at least 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, students at schools around the country staged walkouts to protest gun violence.
In Michigan, students at Oxford High School, where a school shooting occurred in November, staged a walkout at 12 p.m. on Thursday. Four students were killed in the shooting.
Students at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, also walked out of class, in support of the national gun safety movement. The school was the site of a shooting in November 2019, in which two students were killed.
Students also staged walkouts at schools in Port Washington, New York, and Falls Church, Virginia.
Student organizers say at least 600 students walked out of Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School in Port Washington earlier this afternoon.
Emma Janoff, an 11th grader at Schreiber and a member of ‘Students Demand Action’, a national organization against gun violence, says she got active on gun control policy and school safety following the 2018 Parkland High School shooting.
“You see news every day about kids getting shot and people your age dying and it’s just incredibly sad and unbelievable, especially to see like kids younger and kids my age,” Janoff told ABC News. “I cant imagine that being me; but it is imaginable because it happens so often.”
The 17 year-old says her school’s administration was in support of the walkout and she hopes the over 200 planned demonstrations across the country send a clear message that students are a “united front.”
A walkout may not necessarily change legislation, Janoff said, but these actions show “students are still united in this.”
She said that although most students aren’t old enough to vote, they still want to see change and are willing to take measures to have their voices heard in politics.
“Students don’t have to be quiet about it just because they’re a kid,” Janoff said.
(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, according to authorities.
Prior to opening fire at the school, the suspect also allegedly shot his grandmother, officials said.
The alleged gunman — identified by authorities 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 26, 6:49 pm
Law enforcement examining if lockdown was audible to students, staff: Sources
The response by school officials and law enforcement is becoming a key focus in the ongoing investigation into the Uvalde school shooting, law enforcement sources told ABC News Thursday.
It is unclear whether any students and teachers heard an official call for a lockdown once the gunman entered the building, the sources said.
Additionally, investigators are looking into whether officers on site could have made other attempts to enter the school to end the gunman’s rampage faster, the sources said. Responding police were met with gunfire and called for tactical teams with proper equipment to enter the classroom and neutralize the gunman, according to the sources.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky and Luke Barr
May 26, 6:19 pm
10-year-old survivor recalls moments after hearing shots fired
A student who was in the classroom next door to the one the gunman entered recounted to ABC News what she did next.
Gemma Lopez, 10, said she heard five to six gunshots and commotion outside her classroom at Robb Elementary School before a bullet whizzed by her arm and into the wall. She recalled seeing a puff of smoke, which is when she knew they were all in danger.
She said she turned off the lights and then ducked under the tables — what she learned to do in the active shooter training she has undergone since kindergarten. There were no locks inside and they did not have a key in the classroom to lock the door from the inside, she said.
Authorities yelled at the gunman to put down his weapon, to which he reportedly shouted in response, “Leave me alone please,” in Spanish, Gemma recalled.
Gemma said her best friend, Amerie Jo Garza, was one of the 19 children killed in the massacre.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Olivia Osteen
May 26, 6:15 pm
Accused gunman sent concerning messages to more than a dozen people before school massacre
The accused Robb Elementary School shooter appears to have sent disturbing messages — including claims about intentions of violence at schools — to numerous young people online in the days and weeks before the shooting, ABC News has found.
Over a dozen people told ABC News that the accused gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, sent them concerning messages across multiple social media platforms in the days leading up to the massacre.
Hours before the massacre, the gunman allegedly messaged a young girl on Instagram warning that he had a secret he wanted to tell her, according to messages reviewed by ABC News, which law enforcement sources say are part of the ongoing investigation into the shooter. He had tagged her in a photo of two guns days earlier.
In another alleged message the morning of the shooting, Ramos sent a photo of a gun laying on a bed, according to a user who shared direct messages from the suspect’s alleged account with ABC News. She replied asking, “Why’d u send me a pic of a gun.”
And moments before the attack, the accused gunman allegedly sent a string of messages to a young girl he met online, detailing that he had shot his grandmother and was heading to the school for his next target, according to messages reviewed by ABC News.
Another young user told ABC News the shooter was on Yubo the day before the massacre and implied something would occur the next day, the day of the shooting.
-ABC News’ Will Steakin and Olivia Rubin
May 26, 4:19 pm
Shooter carried 7 30-round magazines, 15 more found in backpack
The Robb Elementary School gunman had a total of seven 30-round magazines with him in the classroom where the shooting took place, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.
One 30-round magazine was in the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting and six magazines were carried on a tactical vest worn by the shooter, with the potential to hold 210 rounds.
It is unclear how many rounds were expended.
Fifteen additional loaded magazines, potentially holding 450 rounds, were found in a backpack that police said the shooter had when he exited a pickup truck that he crashed near the school.
It is unclear where this backpack was found by police or whether he had it in the classroom.
-ABC News’ Jack Date, Luke Barr, Josh Margolin and Pierre Thomas
May 26, 4:07 pm
Biden, first lady to visit Uvalde on Sunday
The White House announced that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will visit Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday.
They will travel to Uvalde “to grieve with the community,” the White House said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Jon Garcia
May 26, 3:32 pm
Texas official gives updated timeline of shooting
Even though the school doors were supposed to be locked during the day, it appears the door the gunman entered through was unlocked, Victor Escalon, the Texas Department of Public Safety’s regional director for south Texas, said at a press conference Thursday.
Escalon gave an updated timeline of the shooting:
After crashing his car, the gunman got out through the passenger side with a rifle and bag containing ammunition.
The suspect walked around then saw two witnesses at the funeral home across the street from where he crashed his car and opened fire on them. Neither person was struck.
While in the parking lot, the gunman fired shots at the school multiple times. The suspect then walked into the west side of the building, Escalon said.
The Uvalde Police Department and the Independent School District Police Department attempted to enter the school building four minutes later, but they heard gunfire and took rounds so they moved back, took cover and called for additional resources, Escalon said.
Escalon said the officers “don’t make entry initially because of the gunfire they’re receiving. But we have officers calling for additional resources.”
While they made calls to bring in backup, officers evacuated students and teachers.
Approximately an hour later, U.S. Border Patrol tactical teams arrived, made entry and shot and killed the suspect, Escalon said.
Escalon said it then became a rescue operation.
May 26, 2:56 pm
Texas official says gunman not confronted by officer before entering through unlocked door
Texas officials said Thursday that police did not confront the gunman before he entered the school, despite earlier reporting that a school district police officer had confronted the gunman.
Police believe the gunman was able to get into the building through an unlocked door at the back of the school, said Victor Escalon, the Texas Department of Public Safety’s regional director for south Texas.
The gunman was shot and killed by Border Patrol tactical team nearly an hour after the shooting began, Escalon said.
May 26, 2:37 pm
Uvalde police says ‘officers responded within minutes,’ amid criticism of response to shooting
Uvalde police officers responded to the shooting “within minutes,” Uvalde police said in a statement Thursday.
“Our personnel have displayed the upmost commitment to our community during this difficult time as we all are suffering as members of the community, that is the family of Uvalde. It is important for our community to know that our Officers responded within minutes alongside Uvalde CISD Officers,” Daniel Rodriguez, Uvalde chief of police, said in a statement.
“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.”
Rodriguez added, “I know words will never ease the pain that we are all suffering, but I hope you will join me in taking some solace in knowing that the pain comes from the fact that we all have such deep love for all the victims who have been taken from us, those who are recovering, and those who only time and love will continue to heal.”
May 26, 2:11 pm
Husband of teacher killed in shooting dies of heart attack
Joe Garcia, the husband of teacher Irma Garcia who was killed in the shooting, died of a heart attack on Thursday, according their nephew and a close family friend.
The two were set to celebrate their 25th anniversary this year. The couple had four children.
-ABC News’ Alondra Valle
May 26, 1:55 pm
Mother of victim fatally shot says she ‘lost a piece of my heart’
Eva Dulia Orta, the mother of 10-year-old Rojelio Torres, a fourth grader who died in the Tuesday shooting at Robb Elementary, told ABC News that she is trying to stay strong for the rest of her children, but “I lost a piece of my heart,” she said.
The mother of four told ABC News she went to pick up two of her children at the school, but only came home with one.
This has not only devastated her entire family, but the community, she said, speaking with her twin sister.
“We are praying for everyone, all the children and all the families,” she said.
-ABC News’ Maria Elena Salinas
May 26, 1:49 pm
Witness recounts police response to Uvalde shooting: ‘Why aren’t they going in?’
Bob Estrada, who lives across the street from Robb Elementary School, recounted to ABC News the moments he went out on his porch after hearing gunshots, saying he witnessed the police response to the shooting unfold.
Estrada, whose grandson is a second grader at the school who survived the shooting, said he saw “quite a few” officers outside the school immediately, and then police cars started driving up — but “some of them just stood there.”
“Why aren’t they going in?” Estrada told ABC News he wondered at the time.
Estrada said it was not long before parents began to arrive. “They were hysterical,” he said.
“There were parents out there, and they were kinda motioning like they wanted to come in,” Estrada said. “They were motioning like, ‘What are you doing? Go in!'”
Estrada said he did see some officers go in immediately.
Asked if he saw reinforcements heading into the school, Estrada said no. But, he did not know what sort of presence may have already been inside.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Olivia Rubin, Jeffrey Cook and Laura Romero
May 26, 1:24 pm
Young girl who gunman allegedly texted before shooting speaks out
The young girl who allegedly received messages from the Texas gunman moments before his rampage told ABC News she has been asking herself “what if I could change the outcome” since seeing the news that her friend killed 19 students and two teachers on Tuesday.
“Ever since May 24th I have been guilt tripping myself, what if I could change the outcome, what if I could change his mind to not do this. I was too dumb to realize why he bought two Rifles on his birthday May 16th and ordered a package full with ammunitions not knowing what he was going to do with it,” the 15-year-old girl, who asked to be referred to as “Cece,” told ABC News.
The messages are part of an ongoing investigation into the shooter, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Cece, who lives in Germany, said she met the accused gunman on the social media app Yubo where they would “join each others live” streams. The pair met on the app on May 9 before exchanging cellphone numbers, Cece said.
The messages reviewed by ABC News and other outlets appear to show that Cece did not respond to the gunman’s threats until after news of the shooting broke and nearly all the texts are solely from the suspect. It is unclear if the messages were at all edited.
-ABC News’ Will Steakin
May 26, 10:01 am
Texas school district cancels school after receiving ‘credible threat of violence’
The Donna, Texas, Independent School District has canceled classes after it received a “credible threat of violence,” school officials said in a letter posted on Facebook. Donna is about 4 1/2 hours from Uvalde.
The threat is currently under investigation and classes will resume on Tuesday, the district said.
“In light of the recent events and in an abundance of caution we will be canceling school district-wide and staff will be working from home,” the letter said. “The safety and security of our students & staff is our first priority.”
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
May 26, 7:32 am
Bodies of nine victims released to funeral homes, with more expected today
Nine of the deceased victims’ bodies were released to funeral homes in Uvalde on Wednesday evening, Uvalde County Justice of Peace Eulalio Diaz told CNN.
More — possibly all — of the remaining bodies are expected to be released at some point on Thursday, according to Diaz. It will mark the beginning of the funeral arrangement process for many grieving families in the wake of the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. There are two funeral homes in Uvalde, and both are offering free services to families of the victims.
“My job is to try and get them back home as quickly as possible,” Diaz told CNN in an interview early Thursday.
In a county of less than 50,000 people, there is no medical examiner and the justice of the peace in the state of Texas assumes the responsibility of the county coroner, according to Diaz.
Diaz described his job of going in and assessing the bodies of the dead at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting. He said Irma Garcia, one of the teachers who were killed, was a former high school classmate of his.
(UVALDE, Texas) — The widower of a Texas elementary school teacher killed in a shooting has died of a heart attack days just days after his wife was killed.
Joe Garcia, the husband of Irma Garcia, suffered a fatal heart attack on Thursday, two days after his wife died in a mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, the couple’s nephew, John Martinez, and a close family friend confirmed.
The couple, who had known each other since the eighth grade, was set to celebrate their 25th anniversary this year, family said.
Irma Garcia was a fourth-grade teacher who had been with the school for 23 years, according to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s website.
“I love to BBQ with my husband, listen to music, and take country cruises to Concan,” Garcia appeared to have written on the school district’s website.
Irma Garcia had also been co-teaching with Eva Mireles, the other teacher killed in the attack, in the same classroom for five years.
The two faculty were among another 19 children, mostly third and fourth graders, who were fatally shot on Tuesday when suspected gunman Salvador Ramos opened fire on the classroom.
Ramos allegedly used an AR-15 style rifle to carry out the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history — just days after he turned 18 and purchased two firearms. Another 17 people, including three law enforcement officers, were wounded.
Ramos was killed after exchanging gunfire with responding law enforcement officers inside the school.
ABC News’ Alondra Valle contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — In an indication of possible movement on stalled gun control efforts in the wake of the Texas school shooting, a bipartisan group of nine senators – four Republicans and five Democrats – led by Connecticut Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy, met for about a half-hour Thursday to discuss what is possible in reforming gun safety laws.
“This is a good start,” Murphy told reporters afterward, indicating that red flag laws and expanded background checks for commercial gun sales were “on our list” to consider during a weeklong recess.
The group is also looking at a GOP bill that was blocked Wednesday – the School Safety Act – that would codify current practice put in place during the Trump administration that created a clearinghouse of best practices for hardening schools against threats.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the group had broken down assignments and would be meeting via Zoom over the recess.
“I thought the meeting was very constructive and went well. We identified some issues and we’ll continue to work over the recess, and I am hopeful that we can come together on a package that will make a difference,” Collins told ABC News.
In a significant development, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell encouraged the bipartisan negotiations.
ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott confirmed he met with Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn Thursday morning, giving his political blessing for Cornyn, a top ally, to meet with Democrats to see if there is a bipartisan path forward.
Democrats need the support of 10 Republicans to get advance any legislation toward a final vote and possible passage
Cornyn returned to Washington Thursday having seen the horror in his home state and, speaking on the Senate floor, said he is ready to work on finding ways to try to prevent another tragedy.
“I’m not interested in making a political statement. I’m not interested in the same old tired talking points,” he said. “I’m actually interested in what we can do to make the terrible events that occurred in Uvalde less likely in the future.”
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Connecticut Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal emerged from the basement of the Capitol where the group met to tout their bipartisan bill that would incentivize states through federal grants to implement so-called red flag laws,
“The complicating and challenging part of this statute is to set the standard, for example, what kind of showing has to be made to justify separating someone from a gun?” Blumenthal said of the challenge in crafting these types of laws, on the books in 19 states, that permit law enforcement to temporarily seize weapons — via court order — from those individuals who might be a danger to themselves or others.
Those requests typically come from family members, but Maine has a “yellow flag” law that puts the onus on medical professionals to determine when an individual would be a danger that would warrants guns being temporarily taken.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat, said he attended the meeting because as a gun enthusiast, his Democratic colleagues “wanted to include that perspective as we try to figure out if there’s some world of possible.”
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he and GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who also attended the meeting, would look at how they might update their background check bill, “looking at anything that’s happened” between 2013, when the bill failed at the hands of most GOP senators, and now.
Murphy is slated to work with that bipartisan duo.
Toomey called today’s meeting “an organizational meeting,” as the bipartisan group seeks to find common ground. “We’re getting started to try to figure out if there’s a path to getting to a consensus, and we’ll see where it takes us.”
Sounding a positive note as he left the meeting, Toomey said, “There’s a possibility it might work this time.”
The group emphasized that they have set no dates for completion of their assignments, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated Thursday that the group had a finite period of time, roughly 10 days — putting the time for a compromise to emerge at roughly just after the recess ends in a week.
“There is a powerful, emotional element to the red-flag statute that gives it momentum, especially after Uvalde — like Buffalo — where the shooter evidently indicated very strong signs that he was dangerous,” Blumenthal said, adding, “I’m more hopeful than ever before.”
Blumenthal indicated that the group is aware they have limited time to strike a deal.
“There is a real sense of urgency right now in this moment. We simply need to seize it,” said Blumenthal, indicating that this “Sandy Hook moment” was a particular impetus.
(CHICAGO) — A 13-year-old boy remains hospitalized after a Chicago police officer shot him “recklessly, callously and wantonly” during a foot pursuit last week, a new federal lawsuit alleges.
The teen was struck once on May 18 after fleeing from a stolen car, Chicago police said.
The lawsuit, which was filed on the teen’s behalf in U.S. District Court on Thursday, claims the officer chased the boy on an “inherently dangerous” foot pursuit that was unjustified because the boy was unarmed. According to a number of witness accounts, the boy had his hands up when he was shot.
The teen was identified in the lawsuit as a Black seventh grader with the initials A.G.
“A.G. is currently lying in a hospital bed with a bullet still lodged in his body after being shot in the back by an officer with the Chicago Police Department,” the lawsuit states. “A.G. and his family are waiting to learn whether he will ever be able to walk again.”
The lawsuit names the Chicago police officer, whose identity has not been released, and the city of Chicago as defendants.
In a statement to ABC News, the city’s law department said it has yet to be officially served the complaint.
“Upon receipt, the complaint will be reviewed,” Kristen Cabanban, a spokesperson for the law department, said. “We will have no further comment as the matter is now in litigation.”
The lawsuit claims that A.G. was shot through the back and suffered a spinal cord injury, multiple rib fractures and an esophageal injury, among other wounds.
“While A.G. survived the shooting, he has been permanently and catastrophically injured and remains hospitalized,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges the officer used excessive force “in violation of the U.S. Constitution” and that the Chicago Police Department continues to disproportionately use excessive and deadly force against Black people. It also claims that the city has failed to implement a foot pursuit policy as required by a federal consent decree on police reform efforts.
The court-ordered overhaul of CPD policies followed the 2014 fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald and a Department of Justice investigation into the murder. An independent report released last month found that the police department failed to adopt a permanent foot pursuit policy by the consent decree’s September deadline.
“Tragically, the deep-seeded systemic problems that led to the entry of the Consent Decree — implicit bias and failures in training, supervision, and accountability — still exist today,” the lawsuit states. “A.G. is the latest victim of CPD’s systemic failures.”
The family is seeking damages for A.G.’s past and future medical expenses and is demanding a trial by jury.
The shooting is currently being investigated by the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), an independent agency, which said that no weapon was recovered from the scene. The officer involved has been temporarily placed on routine administrative duties, the police department said.
Chicago police officers were attempting to stop a stolen vehicle when the teen got out of the car and fled, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said during a press briefing last week. Authorities allege the teen was involved in two recent carjackings.
Brown said at the time that he was limited in what he could discuss about the shooting.
“This investigation will reveal the facts,” he said, adding that COPA has his department’s full support.
In a statement, COPA said it was “committed to a full and thorough investigation into the officer’s use of force to determine if their actions were in accordance with Department policy and training.”
(NEW YORK) — The mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Tuesday left 21 people dead — including 19 students and two teachers — and 17 additional people injured.
As of Thursday, at least six people remain hospitalized including three children and one adult at University Hospital in San Antonio and two adults at Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston.
And while all gunshot victims receive the same core care, there are differences when it comes to treating pediatric patients compared to adults.
Dr. Michael Rodriguez, a family physician and a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said child patients may require different types of medication, or different doses depending on their weights and heights, as well as different levels of fluids.
“The fact of whether they are adults or children is a major issue,” he told ABC News. “Partially because it requires a different level of expertise so, with children, you need to have some pediatric expertise.”
This means a child gunshot patient will need to be treated by emergency providers who specialize in pediatrics, including pediatric surgeons, pediatric anesthesiologists, pediatric nurses and so on.
All gunshot patients are checked to make sure their airways are clear, that they are breathing on their own and have good circulation, medical experts who spoke with ABC News said.
But one unique aspect of many pediatric trauma centers is the availability of a child life specialist, according to Dr. Katherine Hoops, a pediatric intensive care physician at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
Child life specialists are health care professionals who help children and families handle the challenges of hospitalization, illness and injury, including by psychologically preparing them for certain procedures, offering therapeutic play and coordinating support services.
“They specialize in child development and helping the child to cope with that injury from their early presentation to the hospital,” she told ABC News.
Hoops, who is also core faculty at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, added pediatric patients admitted with gunshot wounds are often some of the most severely ill patients.
“Many of [them] will have the highest rates of readmission to the hospital for complications for their injuries and they do unfortunately have some of the highest mortality rates of pediatric trauma patients,” she said.
According to police, the gunman arrived at the school wielding a Daniel Defense AR-15-style assault rifle.
AR-15s have been used in several mass shootings including at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in 2011; a music festival in Las Vegas in 2017; and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
Doctors explained that, traditionally, injuries from handguns leave clean entry and exit wounds or just become lodged in the skin and, because they are traveling at a low velocity, do not cause life-threatening bleeding unless a major organ or artery is hit.
But bullets from AR-15s exit the barrel at three times the speed that handgun bullets exit the barrel. This means that when AR-15 bullets hit the skin, they often leave huge entry and exit wounds that are not clean.
“When a high-velocity firearm enters a body, it basically creates a wave and a blast,” Dr. Lillian Liao, a pediatric trauma surgeon at University Hospital in San Antonio — treating four patients from the Uvalde shooting — told “Nightline.” “So it looks like a body part got blown up … A handgun may create one small hole, whereas a high-velocity firearm will create a giant hole in the body that is with missing tissue.”
She added all the patients had “large destructive wounds.”
“By that, I mean that there were not only a small hole in the body part, but large areas of tissue missing in various body parts that sustained injuries from the firearm,” Liao said.
Rodriguez said that because assault weapons are designed to shoot more rounds of bullets than handguns, pistols or revolvers, people are more likely to have life-threatening injuries.
“As a result, people don’t just get one wound, they may get numerous wounds and the more bullets that hit a person, the more likely vital organs they could hit or arteries or vessels that could lose greater amounts of blood,” he said.
This can be particularly devastating when it comes to a child with a gunshot wound.
“When you’re talking about a small child, that firearm that’s high velocity will just destroy a significant portion of tissue and is more likely to hit major organs,” Liao said. “And a child or an adult can bleed to death in as little as five minutes.”
While medical and surgical advances have helped lower the number of shootings that result in fatalities, the doctors said they want efforts to focus on driving down gun violence overall.
“We need to take into account that there are things that we know that work and prevent these events … licensing minimum age requirements, large capacity magazine restrictions, safe storage and safe handling requirements,” Hoops said. “We — as clinicians, pediatricians, our surgical colleagues — we support those initiatives that prevent patients from ever coming to our care.”
ABC News’ Lucien Bruggeman and Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.
(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, according to authorities.
Prior to opening fire at the school, the suspect also allegedly shot his grandmother, officials said.
The alleged gunman — identified by authorities 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 26, 1:55 pm
Mother of victim fatally shot says she ‘lost a piece of my heart’
Eva Dulia Orta, the mother of 10-year-old Rojelio Torres, a fourth grader who died in the Tuesday shooting at Robb Elementary, told ABC News that she is trying to stay strong for the rest of her children, but “I lost a piece of my heart,” she said.
The mother of four told ABC News she went to pick up two of her children at the school, but only came home with one.
This has not only devastated her entire family, but the community, she said, speaking with her twin sister.
“We are praying for everyone, all the children and all the families,” she said.
-ABC News’ Maria Elena Salinas
May 26, 1:49 pm
Witness recounts police response to Uvalde shooting: ‘Why aren’t they going in?’
Bob Estrada, who lives across the street from Robb Elementary School, recounted to ABC News the moments he went out on his porch after hearing gunshots, saying he witnessed the police response to the shooting unfold.
Estrada, whose grandson is a second grader at the school who survived the shooting, said he saw “quite a few” officers outside the school immediately, and then police cars started driving up — but “some of them just stood there.”
“Why aren’t they going in?” Estrada told ABC News he wondered at the time.
Estrada said it was not long before parents began to arrive. “They were hysterical,” he said.
“There were parents out there, and they were kinda motioning like they wanted to come in,” Estrada said. “They were motioning like, ‘What are you doing? Go in!'”
Estrada said he did see some officers go in immediately.
Asked if he saw reinforcements heading into the school, Estrada said no. But, he did not know what sort of presence may have already been inside.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Olivia Rubin, Jeffrey Cook and Laura Romero
May 26, 1:24 pm
Young girl who gunman allegedly texted before shooting speaks out
The young girl who allegedly received messages from the Texas gunman moments before his rampage told ABC News she has been asking herself “what if I could change the outcome” since seeing the news that her friend killed 19 students and two teachers on Tuesday.
“Ever since May 24th I have been guilt tripping myself, what if I could change the outcome, what if I could change his mind to not do this. I was too dumb to realize why he bought two Rifles on his birthday May 16th and ordered a package full with ammunitions not knowing what he was going to do with it,” the 15-year-old girl, who asked to be referred to as “Cece,” told ABC News.
The messages are part of an ongoing investigation into the shooter, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Cece, who lives in Germany, said she met the accused gunman on the social media app Yubo where they would “join each others live” streams. The pair met on the app on May 9 before exchanging cellphone numbers, Cece said.
The messages reviewed by ABC News and other outlets appear to show that Cece did not respond to the gunman’s threats until after news of the shooting broke and nearly all the texts are solely from the suspect. It is unclear if the messages were at all edited.
-ABC News’ Will Steakin
May 26, 10:01 am
Texas school district cancels school after receiving ‘credible threat of violence’
The Donna, Texas, Independent School District has canceled classes after it received a “credible threat of violence,” school officials said in a letter posted on Facebook. Donna is about 4 1/2 hours from Uvalde.
The threat is currently under investigation and classes will resume on Tuesday, the district said.
“In light of the recent events and in an abundance of caution we will be canceling school district-wide and staff will be working from home,” the letter said. “The safety and security of our students & staff is our first priority.”
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
May 26, 7:32 am
Bodies of nine victims released to funeral homes, with more expected today
Nine of the deceased victims’ bodies were released to funeral homes in Uvalde on Wednesday evening, Uvalde County Justice of Peace Eulalio Diaz told CNN.
More — possibly all — of the remaining bodies are expected to be released at some point on Thursday, according to Diaz. It will mark the beginning of the funeral arrangement process for many grieving families in the wake of the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. There are two funeral homes in Uvalde, and both are offering free services to families of the victims.
“My job is to try and get them back home as quickly as possible,” Diaz told CNN in an interview early Thursday.
In a county of less than 50,000 people, there is no medical examiner and the justice of the peace in the state of Texas assumes the responsibility of the county coroner, according to Diaz.
Diaz described his job of going in and assessing the bodies of the dead at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting. He said Irma Garcia, one of the teachers who were killed, was a former high school classmate of his.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump and two of his adult children must sit for a deposition as part of the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into how the family real estate business valued its holdings, an appellate court ruled Thursday.
Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump must also testify in the case.
The judges rejected the Trump argument that the subpoena was part of a politically motivated investigation and precluded by a corresponding criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
“The political campaign and other public statements made by OAG about appellants do not support the claim that OAG initiated, or is using, the subpoenas in this civil investigation to obtain testimony solely for use in a criminal proceeding or in a manner that would otherwise improperly undermine appellants’ privilege against self-incrimination,” the decision said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has argued her office has found “significant evidence” of fraud in the investigation into how Trump and the Trump Organization valued real estate holdings in the state. The investigation is reviewing whether the Trump Organization used fraudulent or misleading valuations of its holdings in different ways to obtain a host of economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage and tax deductions.
“Once again, the courts have ruled that Donald Trump must comply with our lawful investigation into his financial dealings,” James said in a statement Thursday. “We will continue to follow the facts of this case and ensure that no one can evade the law.”
The Trumps have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
The former president, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have all ignored subpoenas issued in the case.
The parallel investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has already resulted in charges of tax fraud against the company and Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Donald Trump called those charges a “disgrace” and “shameful” and said Weisselberg, who has worked for the Trump Organization for 48 years, a “tremendous man.”
ABC News’ John Santucci and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
