(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.”
(WASHINGTON) — Experts examine America’s history with guns, the real-life impacts of gun violence and what can be done going forward to mitigate the problem.
As the nation mourns the latest American massacre of 19 elementary school students and two teachers in Texas, the deadliest mass school shooting in nearly a decade, gun control efforts remain stalled in Washington, as they have for almost 30 years.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday night made impassioned remarks expressing outrage at lawmakers who are blocking “common-sense” gun laws and rejected the argument often heard from Republicans that gun violence is a mental health issue.
“These kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency they happen in America. Why? Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” Biden said with outrage. “Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with and stand up to the lobbies?”
Since the National Rifle Association formed its own political action committee in 1977, the organization has used its deep pockets to lobby lawmakers at the federal and state level to stave off gun control efforts.
According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the NRA spent $1.6 million in the first half of 2019 alone lobbying members of Congress to vote against a proposal to expand background checks for gun sales.
With Republicans offering sympathy to the loved ones of victims in the Robb Elementary shooting, several critics on social media called out their contributions from the gun lobby, citing $13.6 million to Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and $1.2 million to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, over their careers.
The last meaningful gun reform legislation passed on Capitol Hill was the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 due to a “sunset” clause in the legislation. In the nearly 30 years since, gun control measures have mostly stalled on Capitol Hill, and in the current Democratic-controlled Congress, that’s due, in large part, to the Senate filibuster rule.
In the current 50-50 Senate, Democrats need 10 Republicans to join them to reach the 60-vote threshold required by the Senate’s filibuster rule in order to end debate on a bill, allowing it to proceed to a final vote. Republicans have warned even a single exception to the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance legislation would be dangerous to the rights of whichever party is in the minority (although both parties have used the so-called “nuclear option” in the last decade — requiring 51 votes to confirm all executive branch and judicial nominees, for example).
Republicans Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn headed back to their home state of Texas on Wednesday to visit Uvalde.
Cornyn has supported bipartisan talks to expand background checks in the past. Cruz has not, and has faced backlash, along with Abbott, for being slated to speak at the NRA’s annual meeting in Houston this weekend, only a few hundred miles away from the massacre in Uvalde. Because former President Donald Trump is also attending, the NRA said Wednesday that firearms would not be allowed at the event, citing Secret Service protocol.
The last time Congress came close to passing substantial gun reform was in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, when a single gunman killed 20 students and 6 adults. Biden was tasked with the White House response on Capitol Hill while serving as vice president, but that effort ultimately failed to garner enough bipartisan support.
In lieu of congressional action, Biden has taken some executive actions aimed at curbing gun violence but conceded last week while in Buffalo there’s “not much” more he can do without congressional support.
Where does gun control stand in Congress?
House Democrats passed two gun control bills last year — one aimed at expanding background check requirements for gun sales, and the second aimed at extending the review period for background checks from three days to 10 days. But Democrats don’t have the votes needed to squash a GOP-led filibuster to pass either bill in the Senate.
Two Senate Democrats — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — have been adamant in their opposition to changing the Senate filibuster rule.
“If we can’t get 60 or 70 or more votes, we’ll talk then,” Manchin said Wednesday, expressing some confidence that senators could find some common ground before ending the rule.
Sinema, asked directly if she could support scrapping the filibuster to pass gun control legislation, told ABC News’ Trish Turner, “I don’t think that D.C. solutions are realistic here.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer moved Tuesday evening to put the two House-passed bills on the chamber’s calendar, but it’s unclear if and when a vote would be held. If Schumer does bring legislation to the floor, it would likely be an effort to put every single senator on the record, as he’s done with failed legislation on abortion and voting rights.
When eviscerating Republicans in a floor speech Wednesday, Schumer signaled he was disinclined to put up that vote.
“I accept the fact that most of my Republicans are not willing to do what it takes to present this needless loss of life. The NRA will have a hold on them. That’s just the reality, unfortunately, but it is unacceptable to the American people to think that there are not 10 of my Republican colleagues just 10 — one out of five over here — would be ready to work to pass something that we reduce this plague of gun violence,” Schumer said. “It’s unacceptable, that there are not 10 members of the Republican caucus willing to save lives, find a way to do it. And yet, that’s where we are.”
Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who has represented his state since the Sandy Hook massacre also questioned his colleagues on the Senate floor Monday night in a speech that quickly went viral on social media.
“What are we doing? Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to gun down African American patrons. We have another Sandy Hook on our hands,” he said. “There are 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?”
Renewed talks but will there be action?
While lawmakers on both sides of the aisle often talk about taking action in the wake of deadly mass shootings, there’s not widespread bipartisan agreement on what action to take.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., pushed for The School Safety Act, which would create a federal clearinghouse database and collect information to establish best practices for school safety nationwide. Rubio will try to force a vote on that legislation Wednesday.Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who has accepted more than $3 million from the NRA in his career, told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott that he does support background checks.
“It’s not just about these horrific mass shootings, it’s also about this broader issue of gun violence, and then what are the actual solutions — what’s actually going to make a difference,” he said. “If we’re passing something to make us feel better here, that doesn’t have any impact on the actual issue.”
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he thinks there could be common ground on red flag laws, noting his bipartisan red flag law bill with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Red-flag laws allow police or family members to petition a court to order the removal of firearms from a person who may present a danger to others or themselves.
But Graham, asked by Scott on Wednesday if he can assure the American people that — this time — something will get done, said, “I can’t assure the American people there’s any law we can pass that would have stopped this shooting.”
With an apparent eye on midterms, Sen. Cory Booker, D-S.C., said he’s urging Schumer to put every senator on the record.
“I’m hoping it comes to the floor for a vote. It will fail. Americans should know that,’ Booker said. “Right now, there are not seemingly 10 senators that want to do the most moderate of things, which is universal background checks supported by almost 90% of Americans, the majority of gun owners, but I do think at this moment its important we put people on the record.”
Americans across party and demographic lines overwhelmingly support expanded background checks (89%) and red flag laws (86%), according to an ABC News-Washington Post poll from 2019.
ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, Trish Turner and Allie Pecorin contributed to this report.
(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.
(WASHINGTON) — On the second anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order on policing reforms for federal law enforcement.
He had made a campaign promise to enact broader reform — but Democrats in Congress failed to overcome Republican opposition to a measure that would hold local police accountable — by making federal funding contingent on departments following congressionally-imposed requirements. The order signed Wednesday will apply to roughly 100,000 federal officers total, administration officials said.
Speaking in the East Room surrounded by Floyd’s family members, relatives of Breonna Taylor and civil rights leaders, Biden celebrated the order as a “measure of what we can do together to heal the very soul of this nation to address profound fear and trauma exhaustion.”
But first, he and Vice President Kamala Harris briefly addressed the shooting that took place Tuesday at a Texas elementary school that left 19 young children and two teachers dead.
“Enough is enough,” Harris said. “We must work together to create an America where everyone feels safe in their community, where children feel safe in their schools.”
Biden, who confirmed he will be traveling to Texas with first lady Jill Biden in the coming days, called for gun control reform.
“We’re here today for the same purpose,” Biden said, “to come together and say enough, to act, we must.”
The executive order signed by Biden will create a new national database that contains records of federal officer misconduct, including convictions, terminations, de-certifications, civil judgments, resignations and retirements while under investigation for serious misconduct.
It also requires all federal law enforcement agencies to revise use-of-force policies, banning chokeholds and restricting the use of no-knock warrants — two tactics that were widely criticized following the deaths of Floyd and Taylor.
Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Taylor, a Black medical worker, was shot and killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police using a no-knock warrant in March 2020.
Vice President Harris said Wednesday it was an honor to be joined by the families, stating she’s been moved by their courage.
“Your loved ones should be with us today,” she added. “You should not have to mourn, should never have had to mourn in order for our nation to feel your pain and to understand what is wrong and to agree that something must be done.”
Harris also criticized Senate Republicans for not supporting the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a package of reforms passed by the House last year, stating the GOP members, “walked away from their moral obligation to address what caused millions of Americans to march in the streets.”
On Wednesday, Biden once again called on lawmakers to pass the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, stating he held off on signing the executive order because he was afraid it would undercut the effort on Capitol Hill to pass reforms. “Today we%u2019re acting,” Biden said. “We%u2019re showing that speaking out matters, feeling engaged matters, that the work of our time — healing the soul of this nation — is ongoing and unfinished and requires all of us never to give up.” Biden invited Floyd’s daughter, Gianna, to come and sit at the desk where he signed the order.
“A few years ago … she pulled me aside and she said, ‘My daddy is gonna change the world,'” Biden said at the ceremony.
ABC News’ Armando Garcia 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.
