UWALDE, Texas – The small town of Uwalde, Texas has gathered to pray for the 21 victims and their families after Tuesday’s deadly shooting at Rob Elementary School.
Authorities say 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, armed with an AR-15-style weapon, stormed the classroom, barricaded himself inside and opened fire.
Nineteen children lost their lives in this classroom along with two teachers.
MORE: What we know about the victims of the Texas Elementary School shooting so far
For the officials in charge, this was personal. Many of them had their own children in danger.
“To all EMS units, ready. Do not try to get close. We have shots,” radio told rescuers.
Officials say officers shot and killed the suspect approximately 40 minutes to an hour after his first meeting with a school official in front of the building.
Authorities say the suspect turned 18 just nine days ago.
READ ALSO: Beto O’Rourke interrupts Texas Gov. Abbott at Uvalde’s press conference, calling the shooting “completely predictable”
The ATF said that just one day after his birthday, Ramos bought an AR-15-style rifle.
Three days later he bought a second one.
And four days later he was in Rob’s elementary school.
Ramos’ grandfather told ABC’s Matt Gutmann that he did not know his grandson had a weapon.
“If I had known, I would have reported,” said Rolando Reyes.
Reports from ABC News also revealed a chilling warning just minutes before the shooting.
The suspected shooter sent an SMS to a 15-year-old girl in Germany.
First, he described a dispute with his grandmother over the payment of his phone bill.
He later wrote, “I have to shoot in elementary school right now.”
Investigators are now flooding his social networks.
The head of the school ended the school year earlier.
SEE ALSO: The United States is seeing a sharp rise in deadly mass shootings
Dr. Hal Harel, a superintendent at UCISD, said: “My heart was broken today. We are a small community and we will need your prayers to get us through this.”
A customs and border protection official told ABC News that there were four border patrols, members of elite special forces, who had engaged and stopped the shooter along with state and local officials.
ACT: Resources for survivors and victims of gun violence
Since 2013, a year after the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the mass shootings in the United States – described as shooting incidents that injured or killed at least four people – have nearly tripled. There are already 213 mass shooting incidents in 2022 – a 50% increase from 141 shootings by May 2017 and a 150% increase from 84 to May 2013. The chart above shows the number of shooting incidents per state. Mobile users: Click here to see our map of mass shootings in the United States after Sandy Hook.
The number of wounded or killed does not include the suspect or perpetrator. These graphs show the number of victims in all mass shootings since 20 children and six adults were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut on December 14, 2012.
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