Texas officials deflect questions on ‘missing hour’ when gunman was in school – as it happened

Police officers walk past a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on 26 May 2022. Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images

12.05am BST

Summary

That’s all for our live coverage for today. Here are some updates and links from today’s reporting:

• Texas law enforcement agencies are coming under scrutiny over their response, after it emerged that the gunman remained barricaded inside a classroom for up to an hour before his rampage was ended.
• The death toll from the Uvalde school shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers reached the campus’ extended family Thursday, when the husband of one of the slain teachers died of a heart attack.
• More tributes have poured in for the 19 students and two teachers killed in the shooting.
• The Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz confronted a reporter and angrily left an interview after he was asked why school shootings happen so often in the US.
• The gunman allegedly sent a series of text messages to a 15-year-old girl in Germany moments before he carried out his deadly attack, CNN and German media reported.
• Police have arrested a Texas high school student in the Dallas area after semi-automatic weapons were found in his car, one day after the Robb elementary school massacre.
• Democratic senator Chris Murphy has called for a “popular uprising of citizens” to pressure Republicans to support gun laws following the Uvalde massacre.

11.54pm BST

Some scheduled speakers and performers have pulled out of the NRA convention scheduled for this weekend in Texas, though Texas governor Greg Abbott, US Senator Ted Cruz, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem and former president Donald Trump were all still scheduled to attend.

US Senator John Cornyn and Congressman Dan Crenshaw, both from Texas, were originally supposed to speak on Friday but no longer will be attending, though their staff said it was due to scheduling issues, the AP reports. Some, however, have canceled in response to the school shooting:

Some scheduled speakers and performers have backed out, including American Pie singer Don McLean, who said “it would be disrespectful” to go ahead with his act in the aftermath of the country’s latest mass shooting.

Country music singer Larry Gatlin, who pulled out of planned appearance at the event, said he hopes “the NRA will rethink some of its outdated and ill-thought-out positions”.

More on the outrage over the NRA’s gathering here:

Updated at 12.00am BST