Texas Governor Greg Abbott told reporters on Tuesday afternoon at 14 students and one teacher had been killed by a gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, earlier in the day. The gunman is also dead. Later, state police reported that the number had risen to 18 children and three adults.
The Uvalde Police Department said on Facebook that by 1:06pm, local time, the shooter had been taken into custody. However, Abbott later said that police had killed him. The shooter’s name was Salvador Romos, an 18-year-old who lived in Uvalde and stormed into the school with a pistol and possibly also a rifle. A police spokesperson said it was believed he acted alone.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital said Tuesday afternoon it was caring for “several students” in its emergency room who were wounded in the shooting, but gave no information about the nature of their injuries. Later, the hospital said two of the children brought in had been dead upon arrival and at least 15 had been wounded.
A 10-year-old child and a 66-year-old adult were also reportedly in the care of University Health in San Antonio in “critical” condition. According to news reports, 14 liters of blood were transferred to the hospitals.
The entire school district was placed on lockdown, students are being transported to a nearby area for pickup, with their parents being directed there instead of to the school, the facility’s Facebook page said. A spokesperson for the district told KSAT, an ABC affiliate in San Antonio, that the pickup site was Willie DeLeon Civic Center.
“Please know at this time all campuses are under a Lockdown Status due to gunshots in the area. The students and staff are safe in the buildings,” the Uvalde school district said in a message sent to parents.
The majority-Hispanic city of Uvalde is located about 77 miles west of San Antonio.
The United States has seen nearly 200 mass shootings so far in 2022, including the massacre of 10 Black shoppers at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket last week by a white man who expressed white supremacist ideas.