Erick Estrada from the Department of Public Safety in Texas described the first findings on the course of events in an interview with the broadcaster CNN. The suspect initially shot the woman in his grandmother’s apartment. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to CNN.
Preliminary information only
The shooter then drove a car to the school and caused an accident there, Estrada said. The young man then got out of the car and was wearing a protective vest and entered the school with a backpack and a gun. There he opened fire. The 18-year-old was then asked by the school’s security staff. Estrada emphasized that this is preliminary information.
The elementary school was cordoned off after the attack and surrounded by emergency vehicles. Television images showed stretchers being rolled out of the building. Parents wandered around looking for their children. A woman, whose niece is still missing, was waiting in the car in front of a nearby hospital. “We don’t know where she is,” she told local broadcaster Kens5. “It’s not like my niece not to answer. Her phone is off.”
Perpetrator entrenched himself inside
According to the Department of Homeland Security, a US border control officer was injured in the shooting. Accordingly, forces from the border guard stationed in Uvalde were called to help. When they arrived at the school, they were shot at by the perpetrator, who had holed up inside the building. “Riding their own lives, border control officers at the scene got themselves among the gunmen and children to divert the gunman’s attention from potential victims and save lives,” a ministry spokeswoman said on Twitter.
A massacre in the USA leaves one again bewildered and the question of the motive to look for victims in an elementary school of all places. Shooting sprees, including in schools, occur with sad regularity in the United States. President Biden ordered flags to be flown at half-staff on all U.S. public buildings through Saturday.
Biden keeps pointing the finger at Congress when it comes to stricter gun laws. Many Republicans reject stricter regulations – the gun lobby is very powerful in the USA. Biden’s Democrats lack the necessary votes in the US Senate for far-reaching changes in the law. Shooting sprees, including in schools, occur with sad regularity in the United States.
Tat is reminiscent of Sandy Hook massacre
Almost ten years ago, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut had caused particular shocks in the USA: In December 2012, a 20-year-old shot around, killing 20 school children and six teachers. And just over a week ago, a gunman with an assault rifle opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing ten people and injuring three others. According to investigators, the act was racially motivated – eleven of the 13 victims were black.
Little was initially known about the background to the crime in Uvalde. The investigators kept a low profile. According to media reports, the shooter bought the weapon used in the crime about a week ago, shortly after his 18th birthday. According to CNN, former schoolmates assigned the shooter an Instagram profile on which a photo of two rifles had been posted a few days ago. The behavior of the shooter has recently changed, the Washington Post quoted a childhood friend as saying. He lived with his mother and sometimes with his grandmother and has recently been behaving aggressively.
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