14 students, one teacher killed in Texas elementary school shooting

Fourteen students and one teacher were killed in a shooting Tuesday morning at a Texas elementary school, Gov. Greg Abbott said.

The suspected shooter, who might have had a handgun and a rifle, was fatally wounded in the law enforcement response to the attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, about 83 miles west of San Antonio, he said.

"It is believed that he abandoned his vehicle, then entered into the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde with a handgun, and he may have also had a rifle," Abbott said in a news briefing.

"He shot and killed, horrifically and incomprehensibly, 14 students and killed a teacher," the governor said.

The mass casualty incident, reported shortly after 11:30 a.m., was no longer active Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. The suspected shooter was identified as Salvador Rolando Ramos, 18, multiple senior law enforcement sources said.

"The investigation is leading to tell us the suspect did act alone during this heinous crime," Pete Arredondo, the chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, said at a news conference.

Two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the shooting said investigators were trying to determine whether the suspect also shot his grandmother prior to the incident.

FBI agents and Customs and Border Protection personnel were assisting local law enforcement with the investigation into the suspect's motives and background, authorities said. Uvalde is about 70 miles from the port at Del Rio.

Meanwhile, families of the deceased were being notified, the governor said.

President Joe Biden has been briefed on the attack and will address the nation Tuesday evening, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Twitter. The White House said the briefing will be at 8:15 p.m. ET from the Roosevelt Room.

"His prayers are with the families impacted by this awful event, and he will speak this evening when he arrives back at the White House," Jean-Pierre said.

Initial accounts indicated 13 children were taken to the emergency room at Uvalde Memorial Hospital after the shooting, according to a Facebook statement and hospital CEO Tom Nordwick. Two were transferred, and one is pending a transfer, Nordwick said in a phone call.

In addition, two people were pronounced dead before they arrived at the hospital, Nordwick said. Their names and ages were not released.

Two officers were struck when they apparently exchanged gunfire with the shooter, Abbott said. They sustained non-life-threatening injuries, he said.

University Health, based in San Antonio, said in a tweet that it was treating a child and a 66-year-old woman who is listed in critical condition. The child, a 10-year-old girl, was also in critical condition, the hospital said.

The school serves second through fourth grades in a city that is nearly half non-English speaking, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District initially announced on Twitter that there was "an active shooter" at the elementary school.

“Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus. As soon as more information is gathered it will be shared,” the tweet said.

The public was urged to avoid the area, according to the police department's Facebook post.

Students were being taken to Uvalde High School for reunification with parents, police and the school district said. But the district asked parents not to pick up their children. "You will be notified to pick up students once all are accounted for," an update from the district said.

The district's last day of school is Thursday.

The shooting occurred after new FBI statistics released Monday showed active shooter incidents in 2021 surged by more than 50 percent from 2020 and by nearly 97 percent from 2017.

Uvalde, incorporated in 1888 as a ranch and crossroads town, has a population of 8,921, according to the census.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.