Uvalde, Texas
AP
Uvalde community members arrived early Wednesday at a civic centre where families learned the fate of their loved ones the night before. Volunteers arrived with Bibles and therapy dogs.
A minister says he prayed with families of victims in a hospital waiting room after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside an elementary school classroom in Texas.
Police walk near Robb Elementary School following a shooting, on Tuesday, 24th May, in Uvalde, Texas. PICTURE: AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital said 13 children were taken there. Another hospital reported a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition.
Pastor Doug Swimmer of the non-denominational Potters House Church told ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday that Uvalde is a tight-knit community where people know their neighbors and see them every day.
POPE FRANCIS “HEARTBROKEN”
Pope Francis has said he was “heartbroken about the massacre” at an elementary school in Texas.
Francis spoke Wednesday during his general audience. He said he was praying for the children and adults killed and their families.
“It’s time to say ‘Enough’ to the indiscriminate trade of weapons!” he said. Francis called for a renewed commitment “so that tragedies like this cannot occur again.”
The Argentine Pope has long railed against the weapons industry, calling arms manufacturers “merchants of death”.
Asked what he said to people whose faith may have been shaken by the mass shooting, Swimmer said “I know that one thing that we as Texans understand is that God is still God…He is able to bring comfort in times of distress.”
Earlier, authorities said the victim death toll from the Texas school shooting now stands at 19 children and two adults.
The latest figures come from Travis Considine, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. The gunman also died.
Authorities offered no names or descriptions of the two adults.
Governor Greg Abbott said one of the two adults was a teacher.
Officials did not immediately reveal a motive, but the Governor identified the assailant as Salvador Ramos and said he was a resident of the Unvalde, about 135 kilometres west of San Antonio.
The assault at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a US grade school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago.
In an address to the nation on Tuesday, President Joe Biden called for new gun restrictions.
“When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name do we do what we all know needs to be done?” Biden asked.
Biden, who has lost both a son and a daughter, was joined by first lady Dr Jill Biden at the White House on Tuesday night.
“Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone?” Biden said, adding later, “It’s time to act.”
Biden called on the nation to pray for the parents and siblings of those who died. “To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hal Harrell, superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, said on Tuesday that Robb Elementary School will be closed and all school activities will be canceled until further notice. Harrell also said grief counselors would be available starting Wednesday morning.
“My heart is broken today,” Harrell said. “We’re a small community and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”
Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety told NBC’s Today show that the Uvalde Police Department was first alerted to a crashed vehicle and an armed person making his way into the school.
Police and state troopers arrived in time to hear gunshots inside a classroom where the man barricaded himself and began shooting children and teachers. Olivarez said some of the officers were shot by the gunman, so others began breaking windows around the school trying to evacuate children and teachers.
Olivarez said “tactical law enforcement” forced their way into the classroom, where “they were met with gunfire as well but they were able to shoot and kill that suspect.’’
