A gunman killed 15 people – 14 of them children – at a Texas elementary school, authorities said, marking the deadliest school shooting in the state’s history.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the 18-year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde around noon EST and opened fire with a handgun. Abbott said the shooter was killed by police responders.
“It was horrible, incomprehensible, he shot and killed 14 students, and killed a teacher,” Abbott said Tuesday afternoon. “He himself died. It is believed that the response officers killed him.”
Uvalde is a city of about 16,000 people about 85 miles west of San Antonio. The shooting comes four years after a gunman shot dead 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area.
President Biden was briefed on the “horrific news of the elementary school shooting in Texas,” his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre wrote on Twitter.
Worried parents reunited with their surviving children all afternoon. It remains unclear how many people, other than those killed, were injured in the shooting.
Many law enforcement agencies including Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and The Federal Bureau of Investigation was on the scene Tuesday afternoon.
“We are aware of this tragic incident,” FBI Special Agent Carmen Portillo said in a statement. “At this point, it’s too early to determine our level of involvement.”
Earlier, the county said all schools in the county were locked because of gunfire in the area.
Robb Elementary School has just under 600 students.
Contribution: Associated Press
Contact Breaking News Reporter N’dea Yancey-Bragg at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @NdeaYanceyBragg
