This Tuesday, at least 19 children and two teachers were killed when a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Multiple survivors are being treated at regional hospitals; many are still missing. It was the state’s deadliest school shooting in modern history and the nation’s third mass shooting within weeks.
Uvalde is home to about 16,000 people and is located about 75 miles from the Mexican border. About 82% of the city’s population is Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The suspect, Salvador Ramos, 18, was killed after being confronted by law enforcement. Lieutenant. Chris Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety said the suspect shot his grandmother, who is hospitalized in critical condition, before he drove to the school.
Looking at a house across the street, Javier Rangel, 57, remembered the young girl who used to play out front. Rangel lives a few blocks from Robb Elementary School, where the girl was a student. He said her father posted to Facebook last night that she was among the victims.
“This has hit us bad, knowing they were young kids just starting their lives. We never thought it would happen in this little town. I was used to seeing her riding her bike, playing with her sisters. That poor little girl,” Rangel lamented.
The state’s Republican-controlled government is unlikely to restrict gun access despite the shooting. Last year, gun laws were actually loosened, even after the 2019 Walmart shooting in El Paso where a shooter killed 23 people in a racist attack that targeted the Latinx community.
On Tuesday night, President Biden decried “another massacre” that had left parents in unfathomable pain: “To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away,” he said. Biden also called for a renewed push for gun control measures, lamenting the lack of progress despite repeated shootings.
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