Quick Take
More than a dozen students and a teacher were killed Tuesday in a shooting at a Texas elementary school, authorities say.
Fifteen people were killed, including more than a dozen children, in a shooting at a Texas elementary school, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday.
“He shot and killed horrifically, incomprehensibly 14 students and killed a teacher,” the Texas governor said, adding that the suspect, Salvador Ramos, 18, is also dead.
After an active shooter was reported at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a predominantly Latino town about 85 miles west of San Antonio, Uvalde Memorial Hospital said in a Facebook post at 12:30 p.m. Pacific that hospital staff was caring for “several students” in the emergency room.
Uvalde Memorial received 17 injured children via ambulance or school bus, two of them dead on arrival, hospital Chief Executive Tom Nordwick said.
At 1 p.m., the hospital said it had “received 13 children via ambulance or buses for treatment.”
“Two individuals that arrived at UMH were deceased. No details are available,” the hospital wrote.
Two children were transported to a hospital in San Antonio by 1 p.m., and another was awaiting transport, hospital officials said.
University Hospital in San Antonio said a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition.
Uvalde Memorial received 17 injured children in the emergency room Tuesday, via ambulance or school bus, two of them dead on arrival, Nordwick said.
Two of the children had been transferred to another hospital by late afternoon, while a third was pending transfer.
“I hear a helicopter now,” Nordwick said.
He said the hospital also treated a man in his mid-40s who had suffered minor injuries in the shooting.
“He just said, ‘Treat the kids,’ ” Nordwick said, adding that 12 children were still being treated in the ER and he couldn’t say what their condition was.
The nature and severity of the people’s injuries wasn’t immediately known, but the shooter was in custody shortly after 1 p.m, the Uvalde Police Department said.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District had said an active shooter was reported at Robb Elementary School, which has an enrollment of just under 600 students. Earlier, the district had said that all schools in the district were locked down because of gunshots in the area.
“Texans across the state are grieving for the victims of this senseless crime and for the community of Uvalde,” Abbott said in a statement. “Cecilia and I mourn this horrific loss and we urge all Texans to come together to show our unwavering support to all who are suffering.”
Abbott said he had instructed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers to work with local law enforcement to investigate the shooting.
A Uvalde Police Department dispatcher said the scene was still active and no other information was immediately available.
The shooting in Texas came less than two weeks after a gunman opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 Black shoppers and workers in what officials have described as a hate crime.
Uvalde is home to about 16,000 people and is the seat of government for Uvalde County; the town is about 75 miles from the border with Mexico. Robb Elementary is in a mostly residential neighborhood of modest homes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
