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Lawsuit alleges Chicago police officer ‘recklessly’ shot 13-year-old carjacking suspect

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(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.”

The difference in treating child victims of gun violence versus adults

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(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.

Texas school shooting live updates: Alleged gunman texted friend before massacre

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(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.

Donald Trump must testify under oath in civil investigation, judges rule

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(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.

How to use books to help kids cope and talk after a school shooting

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Nearly a decade since a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, cut the lives of 20 children and six adults short, American families, parents, caregivers, teachers, and school staffers are grappling with yet another mass shooting. This week, it happened at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and at least 19 children and two adults died in the aftermath.

It’s a subject Andrea Burns has talked about with her fourth grade classes for the last eight years at an elementary school in Kansas City, Kansas.

Burns stepped aside from teaching this year, but she recalls how she and other teachers at her former school would conduct intruder drills with students regularly. She told Good Morning America that she wouldn’t shy away from speaking about a topic such as a school shooting when it was appropriate and timely.

“I’m very up front with my students, even if they’re in fourth grade. I’m like, ‘This is real life and we have to talk about this,” Burns said. “‘I don’t want to scare you, not saying this is going to happen but we have to be prepared in case it ever does.”

“I would bring up this is what happened. This is what we would do if it were us. This is where we would hide. This is what I would do. This is what you guys would do. This is the direction we would go in. This is what you would hear,” Burns said.

The educator-turned-book buyer said she used picture books to guide conversations with students on difficult topics.

“So anytime it happens, honestly, that same conversation gets brought up every single time, unfortunately. But the reason why I’m bringing out these books is because when big topics like this happen, I 100% use literacy to help kids relate to it,” Burns said.

To help adults start or continue conversations with young children about the emotions surrounding a tragedy, Burns suggests using books as a key tool.

Here are her top six book picks as a starting point (especially suitable for kindergarteners through fifth graders):

On grief and sadness

“There Was a Hole” by Adam Lehrhaupt

“‘There Was a Hole’ is incredible because it doesn’t just cover grief. It covers sadness, when you have that emptiness in your heart, whether you’re upset about something, [or] you’re missing someone,” Burns said.

Published last month, Burns added: “It’s all about how there’s a hole in this girl’s heart and her friend teaches her how to patch up the hole. It’s very, very sweet and timely and beautiful.”

On breaking news and mixed emotions

“The Breaking News” by Sarah Lynne Reul

“‘The Breaking News’ is probably the most popular in [this] category, because it’s literally about you hear something on the news and how do you react?” Burns said.

“Catching Thoughts” by Bonnie Clark

“This one is about all your different unwelcome thoughts in your head,” according to Burns. “So whether you’re feeling anxious or you have just a bunch of different feelings, sadness, anxiety. It’s about a girl who has thoughts and simply cannot lose these unwanted thoughts and they’re all represented in these different balloons and she ends up letting go of the balloons. It’s very, very special.”

On worries

“Kids Can Cope: Put Your Worries Away” by Gill Hasson

“This one talks about worrying and anxiety. How do you feel when you’re worried? Getting help with your worries, so it’s really more of a good informational book for either teachers to share with kids or adults,” Burns said.
For finding the good in times of distress

“Most People” by Michael Leannah

“It’s about the people helping people. You always want to find the good people in the bad situations,” Burns said of the 2017 book, published by Tilbury House.

On school shootings specifically

“I’m Not Scared…I’m Prepared!” by Julia Cook

This picture book, published by National Center for Youth Issues, focuses on what happens when a “dangerous someone” enters a school.

When it comes to difficult subjects, Burns recommends that adults talk to children honestly and give them the opportunity to discuss them.

“I think a lot of people try to hide the bad news from kids, but in reality, we have social media these days. They’re going to see this on TikTok. They’re gonna see it on Instagram. They’re going to see it anywhere anyway, so they might as well hear it from a trusted adult first,” Burns said.

“I just think being truthful is the first thing and I know we want to protect our kids, but there’s a way to do it, where you could have those meaningful conversations because this is going to happen throughout life. This isn’t just a one-time deal.”

Across the border from Uvalde, anger, sorrow, calls to action in Mexico after another US mass shooting

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(MEXICO CITY) — In the hours and days after the horrifying school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, foreign governments around the world expressed their condolences to the American people.

But in Mexico, officials added something different — outrage, anger and calls to action.

“The gun lobby has succeeded in selling weapons of war, of a military nature, with the potential to leave victims unrecognizable, to civilians knowing the damage they cause. This failure to foresee, to prevent the damage is negligence, and the gun firms must be held responsible,” said Alejandro Celorio Alcántara, the Mexican Foreign Ministry’s legal adviser, in a tweet.

That vocal criticism is part of a new, more assertive stance by Mexico’s government against American guns, which have flooded into Mexico by the hundreds of thousands and helped fuel waves of violence.

Last year, Mexico sued 10 gun manufacturers and distributors in U.S. court for billions of dollars in damages — an unprecedented lawsuit that accused these companies of all but aiding drug cartels’ acquisition of arms.

Mexico has also pressed the issue repeatedly with U.S. administrations, calling for more frequent U.S. inspections at the border and enhanced technology to conduct them.

“In recent years, the Mexican government has carried out more and better actions to advance an agenda of arms control in the U.S. than the U.S. government can or wants to,” Ximena Medellín Urquiaga, a professor of legal studies at Mexico’s Center for Research and Teaching in Economics, tweeted Wednesday.

The outrage over the Uvalde killings is also fueled by the close ties the city has to Mexico. Some 78% of Uvalde’s 15,000 residents are Hispanic or Latino, according to the 2020 U.S. census, with the U.S.-Mexican border just 54 miles away.

“Just look at the last names” of the victims, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told reporters Wednesday. “They are the children and grandchildren of Mexicans.”

Mexico’s top diplomat at its consulate in nearby Eagle Pass, Texas, was on the scene late Tuesday, offering consular assistance to any Mexican citizens potentially affected by the carnage. The Mexican Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it would wait for U.S. authorities to confirm whether any Mexican citizens were killed or injured in the shooting. Eight Mexican citizens were killed and seven injured in the 2019 shooting at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart.

But while López Obrador declined to answer questions on U.S. gun laws Wednesday, several senior Mexican diplomats did not hold back, including in blaming the U.S. gun lobby for violence on the southern side of the border.

“The horror. This will continue to happen as long as weapons are readily available. Whether it’s the 1st economy in the world, the 15th or the 190th. Parents lose their children. We all lose. The only winner is the gun industry. Let’s hold them accountable,” Salvador Tinajero, the Foreign Ministry’s deputy legal adviser, tweeted Tuesday.

An estimated 200,000 guns are trafficked from the U.S. into Mexico each year, according to the Mexican government — a figure that the U.S. government called “the best estimate available,” according to a February 2021 U.S. government watchdog report.

In its lawsuit last August, Mexico alleged the number is now higher — between 500,000 and 873,000 guns per year.

Approximately 70% of the firearms recovered in Mexico from 2014 to 2018 came from the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Justice — although that number could also be even higher because those are only the firearms submitted for tracing by Mexico’s federal government, not including those recovered by Mexican states, according to that U.S. watchdog report.

Experts say that enormous southern flow of weapons is because access to guns is much easier in the U.S. In contrast, Mexico has strict laws that all but forbid guns from public. While firearms are not illegal to own and keep at home, heavy requirements for ownership usually mean months of paperwork — and guns can only be purchased from the country’s one gun store on a military base in Mexico City.

Despite those restrictions, Mexico suffers from some of the worst gun violence in the world. Between 2015 and 2021, more than 141,000 people were killed with a gun across the country — a rate of homicide by firearm that rose 109 percent, according to the “Mexico Peace Index 2022” report by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a nonpartisan think tank.

Years of working with the U.S. government, including $54 million from the State Department between 2015 and 2019 to boost Mexican law enforcement’s counter gun trafficking, has not eased the problem.

Instead, in its lawsuit last August, the Mexican government took a page from U.S. gun safety groups by going after gun manufacturers like Smith & Wesson.

The companies “sell to any distributor or dealer that has a U.S. license to buy and sell the product, regardless of the buyer’s record of flouting the law and despite blazing red flags indicating that a gun dealer is conspiring with straw purchasers or others to traffic Defendants’ guns into Mexico. Defendants use this head-in-the-sand approach to deny responsibility while knowingly profiting from the criminal trade,” the lawsuit alleged.

The case has little chance at success because U.S. federal law largely protects gun manufacturers from being sued by victims of gun violence, and it’s unclear whether Mexico has standing to sue them in U.S. court.

In November, several manufacturers first moved to have the case dismissed, arguing in court again last month that any connection between their sales and the alleged damage is too far removed to make them responsible. Even more assertively, the National Rifle Association accused the Mexican government in February of “deflect[ing] criticism of their own failures by abusing the legal system to blame law-abiding gun manufacturers.”

But the political message of the lawsuit and another round of vocal Mexican criticism could have a more lasting effect, as the U.S. appears increasingly singular in its gun violence problem.

In remarks Tuesday evening, President Joe Biden noted he learned about the Uvalde massacre while flying back from his first trip to Asia, saying, “What struck me was these kinds of shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world.”

His spokesperson at the State Department went further, saying the shooting has “implications for our standing” in the world. It even potentially makes the U.S. a “source of confusion, a source of disbelief for our closest friends and allies — worse yet, an object of pity,” Ned Price said Wednesday.

But for Mexico, it’s the U.S. as a source of guns themselves that looms largest — a destabilizing neighbor, according to some officials.

“Mexico is standing up to the gun industry in courts. Their negligent and profit-driven practices are wrecking havoc in our communities,” Guillaume Michel, head of legal affairs at the Mexican embassy in Washington, tweeted Wednesday.

Whether repeated incidents of that havoc will lead to any legal changes — in court or Congress — remains to be seen.

Texas school shooting live updates: Bodies of nine victims released to funeral homes

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(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 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.

“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.

How Texas loosened gun restrictions despite recent mass shootings

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Gun control advocates are again calling on Texas lawmakers to restrict access to firearms after at least 19 children and two teachers were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday.

The suspect, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School, is also dead, authorities said. Officials told ABC News that the suspect legally purchased two AR-style rifles on May 17 and May 20, respectively, just days after his 18th birthday.

In Texas, where there are few restrictions on purchasing firearms, individuals who are 18 years or older are legally permitted to purchase long guns, which include shotguns and rifles.

Republican lawmakers, who currently control the State Legislature, have repeatedly loosened gun restrictions even after recent mass shootings in the state.

“You are doing nothing!” Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke said, confronting Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott during a press conference on Wednesday.

In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, Abbott pointed to a “mental health” problem in the community during Wednesday’s press conference and dismissed the suggestion that stricter gun laws could have prevented the shooting.

“I asked the sheriff and others an open-ended question and got the same answer from the sheriff, as well as from the mayor of Uvalde,” the governor told reporters. “The question was, ‘what is the problem here?’ And they were straightforward and emphatic. They said, ‘we have a problem with mental health illness.'”

Abbott echoed a common stance that many Republican lawmakers on both the state and national levels have repeatedly taken amid a nationwide debate on gun violence, which reaches a boiling point following each mass shooting.

According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which advocates for gun control and studies gun laws across the country, seven of the deadliest mass shootings in the history of the U.S. happened in the country over the past decade. And four of those shootings, including the Uvalde shooting, happened in Texas.

Most recently, 25 people were killed in a mass shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2017. And in August 2019, 23 people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso. The gunmen, like the Uvalde shooting suspect, used semi-automatic rifles in the shootings.

In the wake of these shootings, Abbott signed a series of bills into law last year designed to further ease access to firearms. He argued that each piece of legislation strengthens the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms.

“Politicians from the federal level to the local level have threatened to take guns from law-abiding citizens — but we will not let that happen in Texas,” Abbott said in a statement on June 17, 2021. “Texas will always be the leader in defending the Second Amendment, which is why we built a barrier around gun rights this session.”

Among the bills signed by Abbot last year was House Bill 1927, dubbed as “Constitutional Carry” by gun rights advocates. The law made it legal for “law-abiding Texans” to carry handguns without a license or training. The law went into effect on Sept. 1, 2021.

“I’m not here to take anybody’s rifles away. I’m not here to take anybody’s guns away. But as this next legislative session unfolds in January here in Texas, I will seek to provide restrictions on access to these types of militarized weapons,” Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents the district where the Uvalde school shooting took place in Texas, told ABC News Live on Wednesday.

“Again, nobody in this rural community uses that type of weaponry to go hunting,” he added.

Amid criticism from gun control advocates, who argued for more restrictions in the wake of the El Paso shooting, Abbott defended the law, arguing that it “safeguards” the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.

Abbott also signed into law in 2021 an amendment that loosened restrictions on handguns based on age.

In Texas, you had to be 21 years old to get a license to carry a handgun, but the 2021 amendment made it possible for 18-year-olds to receive a license if they meet other requirements, other than age, and if they are protected under various protective orders, including having been a victim of violence, stalking or sexual abuse.

“We have a governor and a Republican-controlled legislature that has chosen to put more guns on the streets, [and] make it easier for young people to access guns and weapons of war without training, without a license,” Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat, told ABC News Live on Tuesday.

Escobar criticized the passage of the legislation loosening gun restrictions after it was signed by Abbott in June 2021 and said that in the wake of the El Paso shooting, Abbott has “chosen to betray the victims of gun violence.”

Following the 2018 mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, which left 10 dead, Abbott asked the State Legislature to consider a so-called “red flag” law that would allow court-ordered removal of firearms from an individual who is deemed to be dangerous.

But the Republican governor faced pushback from gun rights advocates in his own party, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

“It seems like there’s coalescence around the notion of not supporting what’s categorized as a ‘red flag’ law,” Abbott said in July 2018, according to the Texas Tribune. “What is important is … that we work together as a legislative body towards a solution to make our schools safer and to make our communities safer.”

After the Santa Fe shooting, Abbott announced a “school safety” plan and later signed into law bills that would, among other things, strengthen mental health access in schools, heighten police presence, hire more school safety marshals and remove the cap on how many can carry firearms in public schools.

Abbott also signed House Bill 2622 into law last year, making Texas a “Second Amendment Sanctuary State by protecting Texans from new federal gun control regulations.”

A 1994 federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004 — a measure that Democrats and gun control advocates have long fought to restore.

According to the Giffords Center, a study of mass shootings in which four or more people were killed found that more than 85% of these fatalities were caused by assault rifles. Seven states and the District of Columbia prohibit assault weapons. In Texas, assault weapons are legal.

How to help victims’ families, first-responders and Uvalde community after school shooting

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(UVALDE, Texas) — Americans have turned their attention to Uvalde, Texas, after the devastating shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two adults dead on Tuesday.

The mass shooting marked the second-deadliest school shooting in recent U.S. history behind the 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut that left 26 victims dead.

As onlookers search for ways to get involved and help those affected, local and national efforts are in place to support the victims, families and others coping with the trauma of yet another mass shooting in this country.

Blood Drives

Even for people not in the immediate local area, organizations like the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center are able to connect blood donors with those in need at local Uvalde hospitals.

“Thanks to generous blood donors, we were able to send 15 units of blood to Uvalde via helicopter to be available at the site of the shooting and at the area hospitals,” the organization announced Wednesday morning. “Later this afternoon, we received a request and sent an additional 10 units of blood to a hospital in Uvalde.”

The critical need comes on the heels of a months-long blood supply shortage.

With the center’s supply is running low, the organization said, “This tragedy highlights the importance of always having blood available on the shelf and before it’s needed.”

An emergency blood drive was scheduled for Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time at the Herby Ham Activity Center in Uvalde. As of time of publication, all appointments were booked through Saturday but the center stressed that help would still be needed and encouraged people to reserve appointments through Memorial Day.

Verified Fundraisers

Online and virtual donations are highly-visible, immediate ways to financially support victims’ families, first responders and local communities impacted by mass shootings, but it’s vital to ensure the source is trusted, vetted and honestly managing funds.

According to the school’s website, First State Bank of Uvalde has set up a memorial fund account for the victims of Tuesday’s shooting. Those looking to donate may contribute funds at any First State Bank branch or mail checks to P.O. Box 1908, Uvalde, TX, 78802, with checks payable to the Robb School Memorial Fund.

Donors may also contribute using Zelle by sending payments to robbschoolmemorialfund@gmail.com.

VictimsFirst is a nonprofit network of families of the deceased and survivors from the last two decades of mass shootings. It originated in 2012 to protect victims, educate communities and fund first responders and victims.

The VictimsFirst fund created in the wake of the Uvalde tragedy is supported by the National Compassion Fund in partnership with GoFundMe and the San Antonio Area Foundation. The National Compassion Fund is a subsidiary of the National Center for Victims of Crime, and states on its website that it collects donations and is in charge of forming a “local Steering Committee to determine eligibility and distribution of funds.”

Anita Busch, president of VictimsFirst and co-founder of the National Compassion Fund, whose own family has suffered through two mass shootings — the 2012 theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, and the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooting — helped create a new model for charitable giving to ensure that 100% of donations collected for victims of mass casualty crime actually go directly to the victims.

“For Uvalde, we’ll continue to collect and set it up very similar to El Paso,” she told ABC News, referencing the group’s work after the 2019 Walmart shooting. “The National Compassion Fund will also be administering those funds. We will make sure that it’s a separate bank account, that everything is transparent and once we’re satisfied as victims of previous mass shootings, we’ll go ahead and put the funds into the NCF.”

“We’re very transparent about what we collect and if there’s any question [about what someone gives], we ask and get that in writing — put that in the correct bank accounts and go from there,” she said. “We are so grateful that public intent will be very transparent.”

Busch added that donors could “give to the victims or you can give to the community or both, just as we did in Buffalo,” referring to the May 14 mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Markets grocery store in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 people dead.

Busch also serves as a Mass Violence Relief Specialist and adviser to the National Compassion Fund, and has personally helped victims, survivors and communities behind the scenes in more than 30 mass casualty crimes.

There are also two Uvalde area funeral homes that posted on social media about covering the cost of services for families of the shooting victims.

“For over 60 years, we have supported Uvalde and beyond,” Rushing-Estes Mortuary Uvalde wrote in a Facebook post. “Today, our resolve is stronger than ever. We are here for the people of Uvalde and our professionals are currently at Robb Elementary assisting law enforcement. As the situation develops and we have the opportunity to assist our community, not one family will be charged for our services.”

Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home also said in a Facebook post that it would handle any services for victims free of charge.

“We have fought together as a community and we will pull together as one now in our time of need,” the post read. “Hillcrest will be assisting families with NO COST for funerals for all involved in today’s horrific events. Prayer for our small amazing town.”

Grief Counseling

There are also resources available for people not in the immediate Uvalde area who may be caring for others coping with anxiety and residual trauma, or who may be affected themselves.

The National Disaster Distress Helpline, a year-round disaster crisis counseling hotline, is available to anyone in the U.S. experiencing distress or other mental health concerns related to recent mass shootings.

The free, confidential services are available 24/7 and offered in over 100 languages, including Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL) for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

“It is common to feel distress before, during, and after a disaster. Emotional distress is second only to death and injury in terms of the toll disasters take within impacted communities,” the organization said in a press release. “Most distress symptoms are temporary, but for some individuals and families these symptoms may last for weeks or months after a natural or human-caused disaster, including incidents of mass violence.”

Anyone experiencing distress or other mental health concerns related to disaster can call or text 1-800-985-5990 to connect with a trained counselor. Spanish-speakers can call or text the hotline and press “2” for 24/7 bilingual support.

Deaf or hard of hearing American Sign Language users experiencing disaster distress can contact the hotline by dialing 1-800-985-5990 through a direct videophone option via any videophone-enabled device, or by selecting the “ASL Now” option on the hotline’s website at disasterdistress.samhsa.gov. Videophone calls are answered 24/7 by trained crisis workers fluent in ASL from the hotline’s crisis center partner DeafLEAD.

The National Disaster Distress Helpline also has Online Peer Support Communities for survivors of mass violence in the U.S.

Victims’ loved ones and emergency responders with experience from mass violence can connect with one another in a private, moderated Facebook group to offer or receive emotional support in the aftermath of a mass shooting. This can include methods to cope, memorial dates, self-care strategies and support through daily living challenges.

Mother of Texas gunman says son was ‘not a monster,’ could be ‘aggressive’

May 26, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(UVALDE, Texas) — The mother of the 18-year-old gunman accused of killing 21 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, this week told ABC News in an interview that her son was “not a monster,” but that he could “be aggressive.”

“I had an uneasy feeling sometimes, like ‘what are you up to?'” Adriana Reyes told ABC News’ Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman in an interview at her home. “He can be aggressive… If he really got mad.”

Reyes’ son, accused shooter Salvador Ramos, allegedly purchased two assault rifles in the days after he turned 18 and used them to carry out the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history — all within a span of eight days, authorities said.

Twenty-one people, including 19 third- and fourth-grade children, were killed in the attack, law enforcement officials said. Two teachers were killed, as well. Another 17 people were wounded, including three law enforcement officers. Ramos’ grandmother, who police say was the accused gunman’s first victim, is hospitalized in stable condition.

“We all have a rage, that some people have it more than others,” Reyes said.

Reyes expressed sympathy for the children who were killed and the parents who lost them multiple times during the interview, but said she was not aware that her son had been buying the weapons.

“Those kids… I have no words,” Reyes said through tears. “I don’t know what to say about those poor kids.”

Some classmates told ABC News that Ramos was known for fighting and threatening fellow students. They said he exhibited increasingly disturbing behavior over the past two years, threatening at least one classmate and stalking others, and that he claimed to have cut scars into his face.

Ramos is accused of shooting his grandmother at their home in Uvalde before driving his grandparents’ car to Robb Elementary School and opening fire.

“Anyone who shoots his grandmother in the face has to have evil in his heart,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a press conference Wednesday. “But it is far more evil for someone to gun down little kids.”

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