May 26 Texas shooting news

Our live coverage of the mass shooting in Texas has moved here.

Local law enforcement authorities on Thursday provided a more detailed timeline for Tuesday’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead. But many questions remain unanswered.

Victor Escalon, South Texas regional director for the Department of Public Safety, told reporters Thursday that they are “still grabbing a lot of information” regarding the shooting.

Meanwhile, the White House announced that President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will visit Uvalde on Sunday to meet with families who lost loved ones and speak to community members and religious leaders.

If you’re just catching up on the latest developments, here are key things to know:

What authorities revealed today about the timeline of events inside and outside the school:

Officials defend response:

Details about the identified victims:

Blocked bill in Washington:

Read more about what we know — and don’t know — about the shooting here.

CNN’s Eric Levenson, Holly Yan, Joe Sutton, Clare Foran and Ted Barrett contributed reporting to this post.

Alithia Ramirez, 10, has been identified as one of the victims killed in the Robb Elementary shooting.

Her father, Ryan Ramirez, confirmed the information to CNN affiliate KSAT. Alithia was in fourth grade, Ramirez said, and loved to draw and wanted to be an artist.

On Wednesday morning, Ryan posted to Facebook a photo of Alithia with angel wings.

Alithia’s grandmother, Rosa Maria Ramirez, told ABC News “she was a very talented little girl,” adding that “she loved to draw, she was real sweet.”

Jayce Luevanos has been identified as one of the victims in the Uvalde, Texas, shooting. CNN confirmed the information through a GoFundMe site set up to raise funds for funeral expenses and family needs.

Jayce’s grandfather, Carmelo Quiroz, told USA Today that the 10-year-old and his mother lived with him. He said Jayce was happy and loved. “He was our baby,” Quiroz said. 

Veronica Luevanos, Jayce’s aunt and mother of shooting victim Jailah Nicole Silguero, posted a picture Wednesday on Facebook of her daughter and Jayce and wrote: “My baby you didn’t deserve this neither did your classmates n cousin Jayce.”

The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays – who are currently playing a game against each other – each posted tweets saying that the two clubs are collaborating and will use their channels “to offer facts about the impacts of gun violence” instead of focusing on game coverage.

“The devastating events that took place in Uvalde, Buffalo and countless other communities across our nation are tragedies that are intolerable,” both teams said in tweets.

Additionally, the Rays said the organization “has made a $50,000 commitment to Everytown for Gun Safety’s Support Fund.”

See some of their tweets:

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), facing questions about how officers dealt with the gunman who killed 21 people at a school in Uvalde, Texas, Tuesday, says those officers saved lives, despite waiting before physically confronting the suspect who was holed up inside a classroom.

Olivarez said that officers did not have enough information on the exact location of the shooter to do an immediate takedown.

“They do not know where the gunman is. They are hearing gunshots, they are receiving gunshots,” said Olivarez. “At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where this suspect was at, they could have been shot. They could have been killed, and at that point, that gunman would have had the opportunity to kill other people inside that school.” 

Olivarez declined to explain the discrepancy between initial claims that a school resource officer “engaged” the gunman outside the school and Thursday’s statement saying Ramos was not confronted before entering the school.

“We’re conducting those investigations right now, speaking to witnesses, and those officers obviously are key to this investigation,” he told CNN.

Irma and Joe Garcia

The husband of Irma Garcia, one of the Robb Elementary teachers who was killed in Tuesday’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, has died, according to a GoFundMe post and a Twitter post from Garcia’s nephew.

On the school’s website, Irma Garcia’s bio states that she and her husband had four children.

Irma Garcia’s nephew also acknowledged the death of his aunt’s husband.

“Lord god please on our family, my tias husband passed away this morning due to a heart attack at home he’s with his wife now, these two will make anyone feel loved no matter what they have the purest hearts ever I love you sm tia and tio please be with me every step of the way,” the tweet said. 

CNN has reached out to the Garcia family for additional comment. 

Makenna Lee Elrod, 10, has been identified as one of the victims in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, April Elrod, Makenna’s mother, confirmed to CNN.

Allison McCullough, Makenna’s aunt, also confirmed the information to ABC News. 

She added that Makenna loved to play softball, do gymnastics and spend time with her family. She was a natural leader and loved school. McCullough described her niece as “a light to all who knew her.”

“She loved her family and friends so much,” McCullough added.

Derek Gonzales was about to go for lunch with his colleague Julio Luna when he heard gunshots on Tuesday. So he rushed to Robb Elementary School from his nearby shop with Luna.

What they saw upon arrival was a chaotic scene.

Gonzales said bullets were going into the direction of a nearby funeral home, and some were coming in his direction, he added. “We were like, in shock.”

He said he didn’t expect a shooting at the school and thought something else might have happened.

“We didn’t expect for this to happen here in Uvalde,” Luna added.

The two tried to get out of their car, but police told them to get back in.

In a news briefing earlier Thursday, Victor Escalon, South Texas regional director of Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), told reporters that the gunman shot towards eyewitnesses across the street at a funeral home after he wrecked his car. The official said the shooter then continued to walk towards the school and climbed a fence.

Victor Luna, a parent of a student at Robb Elementary School

Victor Luna, a parent of a student at Robb Elementary School, said he pleaded with officers to give him their gear so he could go inside as the shooting was happening.

“I told one of the officers myself, if they didn’t want to go in there, let me borrow his gun and a vest, and I’ll go in there myself to handle it, and they told me no,” he told CNN, adding that he wanted the officers to “go in and get rid of that man, that shooter.”

“I mean, they took a while for them to go in there. So I mean this tragedy happened, like kids didn’t make it out,” he continued. “They were doing their job, but they could have done it quicker before that man went in the school.”

His son Jayden survived Tuesday’s mass shooting. He said he also had grandchildren in the school.

Luna told CNN that he saw some officers going in and out of the building, but he wanted to see more.

Luna noted that he had waited about two to three hours before they started bringing kids out of the school. “That was what was aggravating me, cause I want to see my son. I didn’t know what was going on he could have been in there dead,” he said.

Jayden is hurting and doesn’t want to be by himself, Luna added.

Derek Gonzalez, a witness to the scene, told CNN he saw “family members crying, screaming.”

“They were like give me the vest, you know, I’ll go in there,” he said. “And the cops were pushing people back to get out of the way.”

They were outside for what felt like “forever,” Gonzalez added. 

He said his aunt is a fourth-grade teacher in the same building. She survived and is “shaken up,” he said. His cousin lost his daughter, Amerie Garza, in the massacre.

Watch:

Video Ad Feedback

09f40254-6971-484e-9ea9-2d4f59990e0d.mp4

02:37 - Source: cnn

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will visit Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday to meet with families who lost loved ones in the horrific mass shooting, as well as to meet with other community members and religious leaders, the White House announced.

“On Sunday, May 29, the President and the First Lady will travel to Uvalde, Texas to grieve with the community that lost twenty-one lives in the horrific elementary school shooting,” according to an advisory from the White House.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierr offered more details about the trip during a press briefing Thursday.

Jean-Pierre also urged Congress to take action and lamented the loss of life from Tuesday’s terrible mass shooting that killed 19 children and two adults. 

“Schools should be sanctuaries of learning, not battlefields,” Jean-Pierre said. “These were elementary school kids — they should be losing their first teeth. Not losing their lives. They should be at little league, softball, and soccer practices this weekend. These parents should be planning their kids’ summer, not their child’s funeral.”

She added: “Teachers should be there to teach, nurture, and prepare our children for the future. Not to be gunned down or asked to sacrifice their own lives for the kids they love. But that is what two heroic teachers did in Uvalde — killed while trying to protect their students.”

Jean-Pierre continued: “As the President said this week it is time to turn this pain into action. It’s time for Congress to act.”

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, places flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Uvalde County Courthouse in Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday, May 26.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, visited Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Duchess told CNN.

“She took this trip in a personal capacity as a mother, to offer her condolences and support in person to a community experiencing unimaginable grief,” the spokesperson said. 

Ten-year-old Jailah Nicole Silguero has been identified as one of the victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting, her mother Veronica Luevanos told CNN network partner, Univision.

Luevanos said her daughter did not want to go to school Tuesday morning and asked to stay home, but she said no.

In tearful interview, Luevanos said Jailah enjoyed dancing and making TikTok videos.

Nancy Salazar, a family friend, started a GoFundMe page to help the parents and wrote that Jailah “was a Delighted, energetic, Lovely little girl.”

Jacklyn Jaylen Cazares.

Jacklyn Jaylen Cazares has been identified as one of the victims of Tuesday’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, according to posts by her family on social media.

Jacklyn was killed along with her cousin Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez. They were cousins, friends and classmates in their fourth-grade class at Robb Elementary School.

“She was full of life and full of love. She touched a lot of people. Recently, she had her first baptism, her first communion. Through COVID, through the death of a family member a year ago, it brought us together and it was something beautiful. And now, we’re being brought together, but it is in tragedy,” her father Jacinto Cazares told reporters in a video distributed by Reuters.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Javier Cazares said that he and others wanted to rush the building to retrieve their children as they heard gunshots from inside.

Cazares told The Washington Post he arrived at the Robb Elementary School Tuesday soon after hearing something was going on at his daughter’s school. He added that he was joined near the building’s front door by several other men who had children at the school.

“There were five or six of [us] fathers, hearing the gunshots, and [police officers] were telling us to move back,” Cazares told the paper. “We didn’t care about us. We wanted to storm the building. We were saying, ‘Let’s go,’ because that is how worried we were, and we wanted to get our babies out.”

Law enforcement works on scene at Robb Elementary School on May 25 in Uvalde, Texas.

The Texas elementary school shooter also fired at witnesses across the street from his vehicle before heading to the Robb Elementary campus in Uvalde, Texas, according to Victor Escalon, South Texas regional director for the Department of Public Safety.

“He walks around, he sees two witnesses at the funeral home across the street from where he wrecked [his vehicle]. He engages and fires towards them. He continues walking towards the school. He climbs a fence. Now he’s in the parking lot, shooting at the school. Multiple times,” he added.

At 11:40 a.m. local time, the shooter walked into the west side of Robb Elementary School and shot multiple rounds, Escalon continued.

The Texas Department of Public Safety official said the gunman was not confronted by a school resource officer outside the school, and apparently entered an unlocked door. The same law enforcement agency previously said an officer had “engaged” him.

“Four minutes later, local police departments, Uvalde Police Department, the Independent School District Police Department are inside, making entry. They hear gunfire, they take rounds, they move back, get cover. And during that time, they approach where the suspect is at,” Escalon explained.

“According to the information I have, he went in at 11:40, he walks approximate 20 feet, 30 feet, he makes a right and walks into the hallway, he makes a right, walks another 20 feet, turns left into a schoolroom – into a classroom and that has doors opened in the middle,” Escalon says.

These officers were not able to make entry initially, Escalon said, “because of the gunfire they’re receiving.” They called for backup and additional resources, while the evacuation of children and teachers in other classrooms was underway, he added.

A Zavala county deputy and members of the Uvalde Police Department also made entry into the classroom, Escalon said, and also shot the suspect.

The scene of the shooting then immediately turned into a “rescue operation,” Escalon said.

“How do we save these children? Some made it out — we don’t have a hard number yet but that was our goal,” he said.

The gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers in Robb Elementary School was not confronted by a school resource officer, according to Victor Escalon, South Texas regional director for the Department of Public Safety.

He said he “wanted to clear that up” amid reports to the contrary.

Escalon also said the school also appeared to be unlocked when the gunman entered.

“We will find out as much as we can why it was unlocked — or maybe it was locked. But right now, it appears it was unlocked,” he said.

Victor Escalon speaks at a press conference in Uvalde, Texas on May 26.

Victor Escalon, South Texas regional director for the Department of Public Safety, said “we’re still grabbing a lot of information” regarding the deadly school shooting in Uvalde.

“We’re going to find out. With all the different agencies that are involved, we’re working every angle that’s available. We won’t stop until we get all the answers that we possibly can,” he said during a news conference.

Escalon also said the investigation is focusing on the shooter’s motive as well.

Recreating the crime scene “takes days — that takes hours, that takes time, a lot of information,” he said.

He said his department “cannot do it alone,” thanking Texas Rangers, state, federal and local authorities.

“Thank you for being here and being patient with us,” he said.

Law enforcement in Uvalde, Texas, are holding a briefing to share updates on the Tuesday mass shooting at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 children and two adults.

Don McLean performs on May 12 in Nashville, Tennessee.

At least three musicians who were set to sing in a concert at this weekend’s annual convention of the National Rifle Association in Houston have canceled their performances after Tuesday’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

“In light of the recent events in Texas, I have decided it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to perform for the NRA at their convention in Houston this week. I’m sure all the folks planning to attend this event are shocked and sickened by these events as well. After all, we are all Americans,” said Don McLean in a statement to CNN. “I share the sorrow for this terrible, cruel loss with the rest of the nation.” McLean is best known for the 1970s hits “American Pie” and “Vincent.”

Larry Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers fame is also canceling, telling CNN in part, “I cannot, in good conscience, perform at the NRA convention in Houston this weekend.”

Larry Stewart, who contributed lead vocals in the band Restless Heart, has also opted to cancel, saying, “I want to honor the victims, families, the town and our friends in the great state of Texas the best I know how.”  

CNN has reached out to other musicians slated to perform, including Danielle Peck, T. Graham Brown, Jacob Bryant, and Lee Greenwood, known for the Fourth of July favorite “God Bless the U.S.A.”

The conditions of the six hospitalized victims of Tuesday’s shooting at Robb Elementary School have remained the same, according to hospital officials. 

A 10-year-old girl and a 66-year-old woman — whom police have identified to CNN as the grandmother of the gunman — remain in serious condition, according to a tweet from University Health in San Antonio.

Two other victims, 10-year-old and 9-year-old girls, were both listed in good condition as of Thursday morning.

Robert Whetstone, a spokesperson for Brooke Army Medical Center, told CNN that the two adult patients in their care are both listed in serious condition. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP Texas Sen. John Cornyn.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN he met this morning with GOP Texas Sen. John Cornyn after Cornyn returned from Texas, and encouraged the senator to begin discussions with Democrats to see if they can find a middle ground on some legislation to respond to the shooting in Texas.

The Democrats include Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona

McConnell would not say specifically what the contours of that legislation should be, instead signaling he wants Cornyn to be the one to negotiate.

Earlier Thursday, Senate Republicans blocked a bill designed to combat domestic terrorism from advancing in a key vote. The vote comes as lawmakers are under intense pressure to take action in the wake of multiple recent episodes of horrific gun violence.

The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House last week following a tragic mass shooting at a supermarket in a predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. But Republicans have pushed back against the measure put forward by Democrats, describing it as partisan and unnecessary.

Read more here.

An additional 10 bodies of school shooting victims were released to funeral homes on Thursday, bringing the total number to 19, according to Judge Lalo Diaz, Uvalde County justice of the peace. 

Nine victims were released on Wednesday evening, CNN previously reported. 

Diaz told CNN that the bodies of the remaining two victims will be released later this afternoon. 

The Uvalde school district where 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman this week had a safety plan that included its own police force, social media monitoring and a threat reporting system to “provide a safe and secure environment” for students. 

The two-page document on the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District website lists 21 different measures that it says it has undertaken for the safety of the school community, ranging from an app for reporting bullying to physical security measures, like fencing and a buzz-in door system. It’s not clear to what degree the plan was developed with active shooters in mind.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Chris Olivarez on Thursday said the gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, gained access to the school through an unlocked door.

Records show the district spent about $200,000 on security and monitoring services in 2017-18 and that figure rose to more than $450,000 in the 2019-20 school year.

The district employed four police officers, including a chief, detective, and two officers. The school district also had additional security staff “who patrol door entrances, parking lots and perimeters of the campuses.”

The plan included a “threat reporting system” for “students, parents, staff, and community members” to share information that is deemed “troubling,” which could include information about weapons, threats, fights, drugs, self- harm, suicide or disclosures made that are concerning.” The policy states reports could be made through the district site or to a district staff member.

The district also employed a company called Social Sentinel to monitor social media “with a connection to Uvalde as a measure to identify any possible threats that might be made against students and or staff within the school district.” 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the gunman wrote about his intentions on Facebook, including “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.” A spokesperson for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said the gunman’s private one-to-one messages were discovered after the shooting.

Ramos allegedly sent similarly chilling text messages to a girl he met online describing how he had just shot his grandmother and was going to shoot up an elementary school. 

The security plan also refers to lockdown drills. “Students receive training on the Standard Response Protocol for lockout, lockdown, evacuate, shelter, and hold. In addition, drills are held for each of these emergency actions on a regular basis,” the plan said.

Two other schools, Uvalde High School and Anthon Elementary, have security vestibules, though it is not clear if Robb had one. The plan lists security cameras at the high school and middle schools, though it’s not clear how many are at the grade school where the shooting happened. “Key staff” were also equipped with radios, but it’s not clear if those were for use within the building or meant to communicate across the district.

The document is undated, but has “19-20” in the file name, possibly a reference to the 2019-2020 school year. 

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has not responded to multiple CNN requests for comment.

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bill designed to combat domestic terrorism from advancing in a key vote. The vote comes as lawmakers are under intense pressure to take action in the wake of multiple recent episodes of horrific gun violence, including the shooting in Uvalde.

Republicans have pushed back against the bill put forward by Democrats, describing it as partisan and unnecessary.

The final tally of the vote was 47-47. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer changed his vote from an “aye” to a “no” at the end in a procedural move to be able to bring the bill back up again in the future if he wants. 

At least 10 Senate Republicans would have needed to vote with Democrats to overcome the 60-vote threshold imposed by the filibuster — and that was not expected to happen.

The bill passed the House last week following a tragic mass shooting at a supermarket in a predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.

Read more about the vote and bill here:

Related article Senate to take key vote on domestic terrorism prevention bill after mass shootings

Several social media videos shot outside Robb Elementary on Tuesday show frantic parents rushing to the school and pleading with officers to go inside to stop the gunman or let them go in themselves as the situation was still unfolding.

The video shows law enforcement officers holding parents back – behind the yellow tape of a police line — from entering the school, as crying and screaming can be heard in the background. 

During an interview with CNN on Thursday morning, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Chris Olivarez described Tuesday’s school shooting as “volatile,” and explained why parents who wanted to go in to help rescue students were held back. 

“I can tell you right now as a father myself, I wanted to go in too. It’s a volatile situation,” Olivarez said. 

Olivarez told CNN that with an active shooter situation, officials want to prevent any further loss of life and cannot have people go into the school.

A father of a student at Robb Elementary told The Washington Post that he and at least four other men who had children in the school were huddled near the building’s front door when they started hearing gunfire coming from the building. 

“There were five or six of us fathers, hearing the gunshots, and police officers were telling us to move back,” Javier Cazares told the Post. “We were saying, ‘let’s go,’ because that is how worried we were and wanted to get our babies out.”

Later, Cazares would learn that his 9-year-old daughter, Jacklyn, was one of the victims, reported CNN affiliate KSAT.  

School shootings in the US have claimed the lives of 175 children and adults since 2008.

The five deadliest shootings — in Newton, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; Santa Fe, Texas; Oxford, Michigan; and Tuesday’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas — account for 78 of those who’ve been killed.

In the wake of the Texas shooting, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for the Senate to take up the House-passed domestic terrorism prevention bill in a procedural vote set for later this morning, but acknowledged that it is unlikely to advance amid GOP opposition.

Schumer said that he is willing to give some time and space for efforts to reach some kind of bipartisan compromise on gun legislation – though he conceded that the odds are long.

He made clear that these efforts will not be given an unlimited amount of time to play out, and said that if they fail, then the Senate will move forward with votes on gun safety legislation. If that happens, those votes would be expected to fail again due to Republican opposition, but would give Democrats a chance to put lawmakers on record and criticize the GOP over gun control.

“This is not an invite to negotiate indefinitely. Make no mistake, if these negotiations do not bear fruit in a short period of time, the Senate will vote on gun safety legislation,” he said.

On the domestic terrorism bill, Schumer said, “today the Senate will have a chance to act on a pernicious issue that has recently become an increasingly prevalent component in America’s gun violence epidemic – the evil spread of white supremacy and domestic terrorism.”

Schumer said if the domestic terrorism prevention bill moves forward, there could be a debate on broader gun safety-related amendments.

But he acknowledged that Republicans are expected to block the bill from advancing.

Schumer outlined what he is willing to allow in terms of bipartisan efforts to reach a compromise on gun control – and what will happen if they fail.

“If Republicans obstruct debate today, we are prepared to have an honest and realistic discussion, conversation, negotiation for a little more time to see what they can come to the table with,” he said. “We are under no illusions that this will be easy. We have been burned in the past when Republicans promised to debate only for them to break their promise. But even with long odds, the issue is so important, so raw to the American people, so personal to countless families with missing children, that we must pursue that opportunity.”

Schumer said Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy “has asked for space to see what progress can be done with Senate Republicans. Neither he nor I is under an illusion that this will be easy; it will not. But his view, my view and the overwhelming view of our caucus is we need to give it a short amount of time to try.”

Students and their families at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary should’ve been celebrating the last day of school today before the summer break.

Instead, they are mourning the deaths of 19 children and two teachers who were shot to death by an 18-year-old gunman. Others remain hospitalized from their injuries.

Parents of some of the victims said they saw their kids hours before the shooting on Tuesday, lauding them for making the honor roll or receiving awards at an end-of-year ceremony.

One mother said her son “couldn’t wait to go to middle school.”

Now their families will have to start planning funerals as questions remain around the investigation.

Ubiquitous gun violence in the United States has left few places unscathed over the decades. Still, many Americans hold their right to bear arms, enshrined in the US Constitution, as sacrosanct. But critics of the Second Amendment say that right threatens another: The right to life.

America’s relationship to gun ownership is unique, and its gun culture is a global outlier.

As the tally of gun-related deaths continue to grow daily, here’s a look at how gun culture in the US compares to the rest of the world.

Read the full story and see how CNN reported it here.

The scene outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25.

Authorities in Texas are working to “gather the facts” to establish a concrete timeline for the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivarez told CNN on Thursday.

Here’s what we know and what questions remain about the massacre:

School resource officer was armed

Olivarez told CNN’s John Berman that officials are “trying to establish and corroborate exactly what was that role” for the school resource officer when he encountered the gunman at the school.

Texas Rangers conducted an interview last night with the school resource officer, Olivarez said. The officer was armed at the time of the shooting, he said, but it’s unclear if he fired his weapon.

Yesterday, Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Erick Estrada said that the suspect dropped a bag full of ammunition outside of the school prior to entering.

School door was unlocked

The gunman was able to enter the school “unimpeded” by any locks, Olivarez said, and gunfire was exchanged inside the school hallway between the gunman and officers who were right behind him.

Those two officers were shot, and then the gunman barricaded himself inside a classroom, Olivarez said. Officials are still trying to determine exactly how he barricaded himself inside.

CNN previously reported that the gunman was on the school premises for up to an hour before law enforcement forcibly entered a classroom and killed him. 

When asked why it took tactical teams so long to respond to the shooting, Olivarez said that they are working to establish an accurate timeline, which is part of the investigation. 

Parents seek answers

The father of a victim of the shooting told The Washington Post that he and other dads wanted to storm the elementary school to retrieve their children as they heard gunshots from inside. Video posted to social media appears to show frustrated and distraught parents and other adults outside the school clashing with law enforcement officers, urging the officers to go inside and get the gunman or let them go inside themselves.

“I can tell you right now, as a father myself, I would want to go in too. But it’s a volatile situation. We have an active shooter situation. We’re trying to preserve any further loss of life. … We cannot have individuals going into that school, especially if they’re not armed,” Olivarez said.

FBI involvement

Olivarez also said local authorities are working with the FBI to obtain surveillance video from the school.

The FBI is also doing cell phone forensics for the gunman to “establish or obtain information from the suspect’s phone, if there was any social media posts that was posted, any other facts that would help the case in terms of as far as there were any indicators for this shooter leading up to this mass shooting,” he said.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn is back at the Capitol today after spending yesterday in Texas meeting with grieving families and officials. 

Cornyn recounted how “horrible” it was to see the community of Uvalde grieving. He also said that he is thinking through what could have been done or what could be changed to have stopped this shooting. He said this shooter was a “ticking time bomb” and troubled, but he said it is hard to know if enhanced background checks would have caught anything. 

He also said he is going to meet today with Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy to see what can be worked on. He said he and Murphy have met on and off for the last year on the issues around shootings and are going to try and resume some of their talks. 

He said he doesn’t know if they can reach an agreement on background checks or other bills, but he did say “this hopefully will provide a new, greater sense of urgency.”

Murphy has been a proponent of gun reform, particularly since the Sandy Hook school shooting in his state. After the Uvalde shooting, he gave a speech on the Senate floor and pleaded for his fellow lawmakers to take action.

Dr. Lillian Liao, pediatric trauma medical director at University Hospital in San Antonio, told CNN that her hospital is currently treating three children injured in the Uvalde school shooting.

“They are critical but stable and will be continuing to receive care over the next days to weeks,” she said.

“Broadly speaking … we were treating destructive wounds, and what that means is that there were large areas of tissue missing from the body, and they required emergency surgery because there was significant blood loss,” Liao told CNN’s John Berman.

Liao blinked back tears as she described receiving the injured children.

She said that her unit had experience treating mass shooting victims from the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting, and they were able to prepare quickly for the Uvalde shooting patients.

But she said the hardest part was knowing that many of victims were likely already dead.

But, she added, “our job as the trauma center is to be focused on treating the patients that we did receive, and that’s what we’re going to do today.” 

The hospital is also treating the gunman’s grandmother, who officials say he shot in the face before fleeing their home and then getting into a crash near the school.

“She’s critical but stable as well,” Liao said.

Hear trauma surgeon here:

Video Ad Feedback

10bd4ff2-a093-4291-b6ec-77265feed192.mp4

01:33 - Source: cnn

General view at Robb Elemntary School on May 25, in Uvalde, Texas.

The father of a school shooting victim in Uvalde, Texas, told The Washington Post that he and others wanted to storm the elementary school to retrieve their children as they heard gunshots from inside.

Javier Cazares said he arrived at Robb Elementary soon after hearing something was going on at his daughter’s school, and he told the Post he was joined near the building’s front door by several other men who had children at the school.

The Washington Post reported that hours later, Cazares learned his daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, 9, had been shot and killed.

According to Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw, the gunman was in the school between 40 to 60 minutes before law enforcement forcibly entered and killed him.

Video posted to social media appears to show frustrated and distraught parents and other adults outside the school clashing with law enforcement officers, urging the officers to go inside and get the gunman or let them go inside themselves.

The gunman was in a standoff with law enforcement officers for about a half-hour after firing on students and teachers, Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican whose district includes Uvalde, told CNN’s Jake Tapper, citing a briefing he was given.

“And then [the shooting] stops, and he barricades himself in. That’s where there’s kind of a lull in the action,” Gonzales said. “All of it, I understand, lasted about an hour, but this is where there’s kind of a 30-minute lull. They feel as if they’ve got him barricaded in. The rest of the students in the school are now leaving.”

Justice of the Peace Lalo Diaz said that when he was called to the scene of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and told by officers that multiple children had been killed, his “heart dropped knowing that I was going to go in and have to assess a scene so horrific,” he told CNN’s John Berman outside the school on Thursday.

Because the county, which has less than 50,000 people, does not have a medical examiner, it was Diaz’s job to process the dead.

When he went inside, he saw “something I never want to see again.”

He recognized the body of Irma Garcia, a teacher at the school who had been a classmate of his.

Diaz attended the school, as did his children. He called it “a pillar of the community.”

He said he never thought a mass shooting could occur in his town.

“We’re a community of hunters, we see guns regularly, we see people loading up to go dove hunting or deer hunting, but never like this. Never to this caliber that you say we’re going to have multiple homicides or whatever. Normally it happens in a case-by-case basis and it’s rare. Never would I have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would have had to have gone and assess a site in that condition,” he said.

Hear Uvalde justice of the peace here:

Video Ad Feedback

a1a39868-80a3-4a95-884a-cf8912b97ec5.mp4

02:08 - Source: cnn

Frank DeAngelis, longtime principal at Columbine High School is seen at his home in Arvada, Colorado on Thursday, March 17.

Frank DeAngelis, who was principal of Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 when two gunmen killed 13 people on campus, told CNN a network of educational leaders who have experienced gun violence is available to help those at Robb Elementary School after Tuesday’s shooting.

DeAngelis said after the Columbine shooting, Bill Bond, who was then-principal of Heath High School in Kentucky when a gunman opened fire and killed three schoolmates in 1997, called him to offer his support and guidance.

DeAngelis has since called multiple schools after mass shootings to provide the same support, he said, and has reached out and left a voice message for the principal of Robb Elementary.

As part of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, members of the Principal Recovery Network “reach out directly to their colleagues to provide much-needed support, share the combined wisdom of their experience with the larger principal community through various outlets, assist schools during recovery, and advocate for national school safety enhancements and violence prevention programs,” according to its website.

DeAngelis credited improved police response times and the introduction of lockdown drills over the last two decades, but stressed that more must be done.

The fatal shooting of 19 children and two adults on Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas, has shocked the country, evoking memories of other tragic school shootings such as Columbine, Newtown and Parkland, and renewing calls for Congress to do something.

But the response to those calls from many Republican lawmakers is the same now as it pretty much always is: The country should not have stricter gun control.

Why do these Republicans refuse to act? Beyond the fact that many believe stricter gun control would not prevent such mass shootings, a look at the data reveals that there is simply no political pressure to do so.

While there are certainly some Americans who want stricter gun control, the public at large is far more split on the issue than a lot of commonly cited polling data would have you believe.

Read the full analysis:

Greg Abbott, governor of Texas, center, during a news conference in Uvalde, Texas, US, on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. President Joe Biden mourned the killing of at least 19 children and two teachers in a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, decrying their deaths as senseless and demanding action to try to curb the violence. Photographer: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Related article Analysis: Why Republicans feel little political pressure for stricter gun control

The National Rifle Association is set to hold its 2022 annual meeting in Houston on Friday, bringing together its top brass and several notable conservatives, including former President Donald Trump, for the first time in three years.

The NRA’s annual meeting was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but this year the organization is moving ahead with its plans, holding the meeting at a time when both gun rights and the organization itself have come under intense scrutiny, especially after a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, left 21 dead.

Read the full story:

Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the NRA, arrives prior to a speech by US President Donald Trump at the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meeting at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, April 26, 2019.

Related article What to know about the NRA's annual meeting in Houston | CNN Politics

It’s not that America can’t stop its bloody sequence of mass killings. It’s that it lacks the national cohesion and common will to do so.

The elementary school massacre in Texas underscored that the world’s most powerful nation can’t even ensure that its most vulnerable — young children — are safe from violent death at their desks. A more stunning failure of government would be hard to find.

A deep political and cultural estrangement on guns — caused principally by the right’s blocking of efforts from Democrats and moderate Republicans to pass even modest safety measures — is boiling up again over Tuesday’s shooting.

Mass killings are a sickeningly familiar background noise to daily life in the US, but the latest school bloodbath, which killed 19 children and two teachers, came as an especially devastating blow. It rekindled the sense of dread millions of American parents feel when say goodbye to their kids at school drop off.

And it will further scar a generation of students haunted by the perpetual fear of a school shooting – a frightful vision for young minds that was only alleviated by Covid-19 pandemic virtual learning, which traumatized many of them in other ways.

Read the full analysis:

Attendees light candles during a memorial held for the 19 children and two teachers who were murdered by an 18-year-old gunman at Robb Elementary School the day before, in Uvalde, Tx., U.S., on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. Photographer: Matthew Busch/CNN

Related article Analysis: America's divide on guns is keeping schoolchildren in danger

People light candles during a memorial service in Uvalde, Texas on Wednesday, May 25.

Hundreds of people gathered at a vigil Wednesday night at the Uvalde County Fairplex, a community arena, for the victims of the school shooting at Robb Elementary.

“Amazing Grace” was played during the vigil as members of the community wept and hugged.

Family members of one of the victims killed in Tuesday's shooting at Robb Elementary School comfort each other during a prayer vigil in Uvalde, Texas on May 25.

With 21 dead and 17 others injured, the attack Tuesday was the deadliest school shooting in almost a decade and shook a nation still reeling from a mass shooting just 10 days ago.

Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo is seen in this undated family photo

Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo, 10, has been identified as one of the victims killed at Robb Elementary, a family member told The Washington Post.

Her cousin, Austin Ayala, told The Post that she put a smile on everyone’s face and that her family is devastated.

Her grandmother, Esmeralda Bravo, attended a vigil in Uvalde on Wednesday night. She was photographed by CNN holding an image of Nevaeh.

Funeral services for the 10-year-old are pending, according to an online obituary by Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home.

Again.

That was the front-page headline on the Dallas Morning News on Wednesday morning after 19 children and two teachers were killed by an 18-year-old gunman.

It’s a sentiment many people are feeling. The shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas is the third mass shooting this week, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and comes days after high-profile shootings in Buffalo, New York and Orange County, California. With almost two dozen victims, it’s one of the largest mass school shootings in the last decade.

“This is something that never should have happened,” said Hogg, who was a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when 17 people were killed by a gunman in 2018.

As people across the country mourn, here’s what parents, educators and students who lived through past school shootings are saying in the wake of what has become a national epidemic.

Read the full story:

Related article What past survivors and families have to say about the Texas school shooting | CNN

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appears on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," on Tuesday May 24.

While on a visit to the US, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern shared her country’s experience with gun reform in a discussion with Democratic and Republican representatives on Wednesday. 

Ardern said it is not for her to tell others what to do.

The Prime Minister arrived in the US earlier this week on a trade mission to support export growth and the return of tourists post-Covid-19.

Reacting to the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, while appearing on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” an emotional Ardern said she saw the events “not as a politician,” but “as a mother,” adding she was “so sorry” for what happened.

As the town of Uvalde in South Texas mourns the killing of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school, a vigil was held for the victims at a community arena Wednesday night.

“Amazing Grace” was played as those in attendance wept and hugged.

The mass shooting on Tuesday has again spurred statewide and national conversations over gun control, following on two others over a two-week period —at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and a church in Laguna Woods, California.

Here are the latest developments in the Uvalde shooting:

President Biden announced he will visit Texas “in the coming days” to meet the grieving families after a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at the Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde on Tuesday.

More information has come to light about how Tuesday’s events unfolded and the lives claimed by the gunman:

The victims:

Here’s a look at the order of events on Tuesday:

The suspect:

The city and the school:

Remember: Tuesday’s massacre is the deadliest school shooting since 2012, when 26 children and adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. This is at least the 30th shooting at a K-12 school in 2022, according to a CNN tally.

Angel Garza, the father of Amerie Jo Garza, who was killed in Tuesday’s school shooting in Uvalde, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper this evening that his daughter was trying to help her classmates as the attack was unfolding.

“She was just trying to do the right thing,” he said. “She was just trying to call the cops, that’s all.”

The father noted that his daughter had received a phone for her birthday two weeks ago.

“She just got her phone. She’d been wanting a phone for so long, and we finally got it for her. She just tried to call the police,” he told CNN.

Garza, who works as a med aide, learned this information while arriving on the scene to help the shooting victims. He stated that two students in the classroom confirmed that she was trying to call police when she got shot.

“One little girl was just covered in blood head-to-toe,” Garza said. “I asked her what was wrong, and she said ‘she was ok.’ She was hysterical saying they shot her best friend. ‘She’s not breathing, and she tried to call the cops.’ I asked her what’s her name and she said, she told me ‘Amerie, she said Amerie.’”

The father described his daughter, calling her “the sweetest little girl.”

“She was the sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong. She listened to her mom and dad. She always brushed her teeth. She was creative. She made things for us. She never got in trouble in school,” he said.

Watch the interview:

While the Supreme Court has been working behind closed doors on its first major Second Amendment opinion in more than a decade, three mass shootings have broken the country, including Tuesday’s massacre of 19 schoolchildren in Texas.

Closed off from public view, the justices are penning opinions and dissents in a dispute that targets one concealed carry law in New York that is more than a century old. A narrow ruling could impact only a handful of states with similar laws, but a more expansive ruling could open a new chapter in constitutional challenges to gun safety laws across the country.

“As a formal matter, the Supreme Court’s ruling on New York’s gun law doesn’t call into question gun laws restricting types of weapons or sensitive places where individuals can carry guns,” said Jacob Charles, executive director of the Center for Firearms Law at Duke University School of Law.

“But a broader ruling that changes the way courts evaluate gun laws could call into question a wider array of gun regulations like assault weapons bans and other restrictions like high-capacity magazine bans,” Charles added.

The deliberations come as the country mourns another tragedy, victims of gun violence plea for more action, and the political branches seem forever divided on a path forward.

In 2008, the Supreme Court held for the first time, that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms at home for self-defense.

After the ruling, however, to the frustration of gun rights advocates, lower courts relied upon language in the opinion to uphold many gun regulations.

“Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings,” then-Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority in the Heller case.

Except for a follow-up decision two years later, the justices largely stayed away from the issue, infuriating gun rights advocates and even some of the justices themselves.

Justice Clarence Thomas declared at one point that the “Second Amendment is a disfavored right in this court.”

After Amy Coney Barrett took her seat, the court agreed to take up a new case, highlighting the impact of former President Donald Trump’s three nominees on the court.

Keep reading here.

As a parent, it can be gut-wrenching to discuss violence happening across the country with your kids, and even harder when the violence is happening in our schools. In the wake of the Texas school shooting, what questions are your school-aged children asking and how are they feeling?

Please call in with your child and leave us a voicemail at (404) 618-1992 to let us know your thoughts and what you are discussing with your children.

Each voicemail can be three minutes in length. All or part of your call may be used by CNN on television and/or digital as part of our coverage.

Please include your name, contact information and where you’re calling from. By calling in with your child, you are representing that you have authority to consent for your child’s voice and statements to be used by CNN on television and/or digital and are agreeing to such use.

Thank you for weighing in with your important perspective.