A shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, in central Texas, has left at least 15 dead, including 14 students and a teacher, according to the governor of that state, Greg Abbott, who assured in a press conference that the attacker, an 18-year-old boy identified as Salvador Romas, has also lost his life.
According to Abbott’s account, Romas arrived at the school with a gun and is believed to have also carried a rifle and “horribly and incomprehensibly shot and killed” more than a dozen children and a teacher.
The attack was recorded on Tuesday morning at the Robb educational center, where the police quickly moved. Authorities in the city of 16,000 people reported the arrest of a suspect, but have not yet explained his role in the incident. The ages of the deceased have not been specified. An adult and a minor have been transferred to a hospital in the city of San Antonio, 140 kilometers away, to be treated for serious injuries.
The authorities of the School District, the body that governs educational centers, had sent an alert to all schools in the region to maximize security protocols. Those in charge had asked the parents not to approach the area until the police could control the situation. The suspect was taken into custody half an hour after it was reported that a shooter was in the building.
Minutes later, police reported that they had apprehended the shooter. The students at the center were being moved to an adjoining building, to be reunited with their families. The local authorities, however, initially asked the parents not to go to the civic center to pick up the minors immediately because they considered that the emergency was not over. “They will be notified when they can do so,” they reported on Facebook.
The event coincides with the publication of a report that reveals that shootings have multiplied in the United States during 2021. A count by the FBI, the federal investigative agency, indicates that 61 such episodes were recorded last year. These had been 40 in 2020. The shootings left 103 people dead last year and another hundred more injured. These figures do not include the perpetrators. One in five active shooter situations results in a mass shooting in which at least three people are killed.
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