HOUSTON — Fifteen people were killed, including more than a dozen children, in a shooting at a Texas elementary school, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday.
“He shot and killed horrifically, incomprehensibly, 14 students and killed a teacher,” the Texas governor said, adding that the suspect, Salvador Ramos, 18, is also dead.
After an active shooter was reported at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a predominantly Latino town about 85 miles west of San Antonio, Uvalde Memorial Hospital said in a Facebook post at 2:30 p.m. Central time that hospital staff members were caring for “several students” in the emergency room.
Uvalde Memorial received 17 injured children via ambulance or school bus, two of them dead on arrival, hospital Chief Executive Tom Nordwick said.
He said the hospital also treated a man in his mid-40s who had suffered minor injuries in the shooting.
“He just said, ‘Treat the kids,’” Nordwick said, adding that 12 children were still being treated in the ER and he couldn’t say what their condition was.
Two children were transported to a hospital in San Antonio, and another was awaiting transport, hospital officials said. University Hospital in San Antonio said a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition.
Robb Elementary has an enrollment of just under 600 students. Earlier, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District had said that all schools in the district were locked down because of gunshots in the area.
“Texans across the state are grieving for the victims of this senseless crime and for the community of Uvalde,” Abbott said in a statement. “Cecilia and I mourn this horrific loss and we urge all Texans to come together to show our unwavering support to all who are suffering.”
Abbott said he had instructed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers to work with local law enforcement to investigate the shooting.
A Uvalde Police Department dispatcher said the scene was still active and no other information was immediately available.
The district said that the city’s civic center was being used as a reunification center.
