#parent | #kids | Gunman posted messages about attack right before shooting, governor said | #schoolshooting


Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the gunman who opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers, said on Facebook just before the shooting that he was going to attack a school. The gunman, identified as an 18-year-old man from the area, was killed by law enforcement, police said. 

Abbott said the gunman wrote three messages on Facebook before the attack: once, about 30 minutes before the school shooting, to say he was going to shoot his grandmother, once to say he had shot his grandmother, and a third time — approximately 15 minutes before the shooting — to say he was going to open fire at an elementary school. 

Facebook said the posts “were private one-to-one text messages that were discovered after the terrible tragedy occurred,” and that the company is “closely cooperating with law enforcement.”

Authorities said the gunman shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face before the school shooting. She contacted police and the suspect fled, later crashing his grandmother’s car about a block from the school. He then exited the car and took a backpack and one rifle with him.  

A district police officer engaged the gunman when he arrived at the school, but the shooter was able to enter a back door, travel down two short hallways and enter a classroom, which was connected internally to another classroom, Abbott said. 

The gunman then barricaded himself in the classroom, Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department Public Safety told “CBS Mornings.”

“At that point, [he] just started shooting children and teachers that were inside that classroom, having no regard for human life,” Olivarez said. “Just a complete tragedy. An evil person going into the school and killing children for no reason whatsoever.”

Mass Shooting At Elementary School In Uvalde, Texas Leaves At Least 19 Dead
People mourn outside of the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. 

BRANDON BELL / Getty Images

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said the gunman purchased two semi-automatic rifles and ammunition at a local sporting goods store, one of which he brought with him into the school. McCraw said the suspect obtained the weapons in March at the press conference, but the Department of Public Safety later confirmed he bought the weapons on May 17 and May 20. 

Olivarez said the officers who first responded to the scene “were at a point of disadvantage” and were not able to make entry. 

“There was no way they were able to make entry, especially with the amount of manpower that was on scene,” he said. “So at that point, their primary focus was to evacuate as many children as possible.”

A specialized tactical unit made of local, state and federal law enforcement officers were eventually able to enter the classroom, authorities said. Three officers were injured, and all are in good condition, Abbott said. 

McCraw commended the officers who engaged the shooter before the tactical unit entered, saying they saved lives by keeping him “pinned down” at his location. 

“Obviously this is a situation  we failed in the sense that we didn’t prevent this mass attack — but I can tell you, those officers that arrived on the scene and put their lives in danger, they saved other kids,” he said. “They kept him pinned down, and we’re very proud of that.”  

Abbott on Wednesday heralded the “amazing courage” of law enforcement, for “running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives.” 

He noted that one sheriff’s deputy lost a daughter in the shooting. 

“Evil swept across Uvalde yesterday,” Abbott said. “Days before yesterday, when these children were in school, some were receiving awards for perfect attendance — these kids will never attend school again.” 

Abbott said 17 other people sustained non-life threatening injuries in the shooting. 

Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson on deadly school shooting

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Abbott on Tuesday identified the gunman as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. On Wednesday, Abbott said the gunman was reportedly a high school dropout with no criminal history and no documented mental health concerns. Abbott said there was “no meaningful forewarning,” other than the Facebook messages. 

Two law enforcement officials told CBS News that the gunman got into a fight with his grandmother on Tuesday morning before the shooting. Preliminary information suggests the fight was over who would pay a cellphone bill. Officials stressed that the information is preliminary and they are investigating it further. 

In response to a question at the press conference Wednesday, Abbott said he did not plan to implement gun restrictions like those in other states, claiming they haven’t stopped shootings.

Abbott repeatedly cited mental health, telling reporters that “the ability of an 18-year-old to buy a long gun has been in place in the state of Texas for more than 60 years. And think about during the time, over the course of that 60 years, we have not had episodes like this.”

Texas has in fact seen multiple, deadly mass shootings in recent years at schoolschurchesshopping centers and other venues — 244 mass shooting incidents (those with four or more victims) since 2014, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. Nationwide, the FBI reports the number of “active shooter” incidents rose more than 50% in 2021 compared to the year before.

The attack was the deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school since a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 first-graders, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Many, including President Biden, invoked Sandy Hook and the many mass shootings that have followed to call for stronger gun laws. 

“As a nation, we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Mr. Biden said in an address from the White House Tuesday night. “When in God’s name will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done?” 

“These kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world. Why?” the president said. “They have mental health problems. They have domestic disputes in other countries. They have people who are lost, but 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?”

Gunman kills 19 students, 2 adults in elementary school shooting

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