United States: what we know about the shooting in a school in Texas, where 19 children and two adults were killed

The faces of the very young victims will no doubt haunt Americans for a long time. A gunman killed 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, before being shot dead by police on Tuesday, May 24. The students were between 7 and 10 years old. It is the second deadliest school shooting in US history. Reacting to the drama, US President Joe Biden promised “to face the arms lobby”, relaunching a recurring debate in the United States. Here’s what we know about the facts.

A massacre in an elementary school

At around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the shooter entered Robb Primary School in Uvalde. His vehicle, a pick-up, was found, obviously damaged, near the establishment. The man was carrying a handgun, and possibly an assault rifle, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said. He opened fire, killing his victims “in an atrocious and senseless way”continued the governor.

The authorities did not detail the precise course of the attack. The scenario of the intervention of the police remains unclear. Two city police officers and a school security guard tried to intervene but were unable to neutralize the shooter, who was wearing body armor, Texas public safety official Chris Olivarez said. quoted by NBC*.

We had to wait for the arrival of a “tactical team” for the assailant to be shot. Upon entering the establishment, the security forces were fired upon by the assailant, barricaded inside, detailed on Twitter* an official from the Department of Homeland Security. The agents “placed themselves between the shooter and children to draw his attention away from potential victims”she also said.

A town of 15,000 inhabitants, Uvalde is located in southern Texas, about 100 kilometers from the border with Mexico to the west and San Antonio to the east. Robb School usually serves over 500 children under the age of 10.

Twenty-one dead and victims already identified

The number of victims increased over the evening to reach, according to the latest report, 21 dead including 19 children. The journalists on the spot describe the endless hours of anguish of the parents of pupils of the establishment, who sometimes had to wait until the end of the evening and a DNA test to learn of the death of their child. The identity of the victims had not been made public on Tuesday evening.

The aunt of a teacher at the establishment, Eva Mireles, identified the latter as one of the two adult victims of the killing, to several media. His death, however, has not been confirmed by the authorities. On elementary school website*, Eva Mireles said she taught in the same class, at a level equivalent to CM1, that is to say with pupils from 9 to 10 years old. According to a Texas Public Safety Officer Chris Olivarez, the other adult killed was also teaching at the facility.

A manager of the only hospital in Uvalde told the New York Times* that 16 people were transferred to the establishment: two children died on their arrival, four slightly affected children were able to emerge, but the ten other victims (five children and five adults) remained hospitalized in the evening. Among them, five children and one adult were transferred to San Antonio, the nearest large town. A San Antonio hospital claimed on Twitter* having received four patients from Uvalde: a 66-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl in critical condition, and two more slightly affected children.

UA Department of Homeland Security official said a Border Patrol agent was injured in a firefight with the assailant.

An 18-year-old shooter with unknown motives

The man who opened fire at this Texas school before being shot has been identified by authorities. His name was Salvador Ramos and he was 18 years old. Of American nationality, he lived in the county where the school is located, according to the governor of Texas.

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Local officials, speaking anonymously to US media, said the man was suspected of shooting his grandmother at her home shortly before the shooting. The 66-year-old woman was hospitalized in serious condition in San Antonio.

Salvador Ramos’ motives remain unknown. A Texas senator, Roland Gutierrez, said he was told by police that the young man had bought two assault rifles on his 18th birthday, a point that authorities have not publicly confirmed. Photos showing two assault rifles and an ammunition magazine had been posted to his Instagram account three days before the attack, reports the CNN channel*.

The manager of a local fast food told the New York Times that he worked there and quit a month ago. “He did everything he could to stay in his corner. No one really knew him”he testifies.

Gun debate revived, Biden vows to act

US President Joe Biden expressed his emotion in a speech at the White House on Tuesday evening after returning from a tour of Asia. “When, for God’s sake, are we going to face the gun lobby?” he implored, believing that he was “time to turn pain into action”. Its Vice President Kamala Harris addressed Congress, saying that “we must find the courage to act”.

In recent years, attempts to toughen the legislation have come up against political blockages. Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy “begged” his colleagues to overcome them: “In no other country do children go to school thinking they might get shot”, he recalled. It was in his state, in 2012, that a 20-year-old man killed 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the only school killings whose death toll surpasses that of Uvalde in horror. .

For his part, Republican Senator from Texas Ted Cruz reiterated his conviction of the ineffectiveness of restrictions on the right to carry weapons, considering it more useful to deploy more armed police around schools.

The subject should be the subject of heated debates around the annual congress of the NRA, the powerful weapons lobby, which is to open Friday in Houston, Texas, in the presence of the state governor. This killing takes place barely ten days after a racist massacre perpetrated in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, which left 10 dead, and whose author had deliberately targeted black victims.

Uvalde’s drama is reacting far beyond American politics. In France, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron affirmed in a tweet that the country shared “shock and pain” of the American people. Pope Francis said he has the “Broken Heart” and condemned the trade “uncontrolled” weapons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, judging “horrible that shooters should cause casualties in peacetime”.

One of the most noticed reactions on social networks is that of a basketball coach, Steve Kerr, of the Golden State Warriors (California), who protested at a press conference: “When are we going to do something?”he exclaimed, accusing the Republican senators of “Put their desire for power before the lives of children”.

* Links followed by an asterisk refer to content in English.

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