Parents waited for hours for news after Texas school massacre
UVALDE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM/CNN) - It happened just two days before students were to begin summer break, a teenage gunman entered a Texas elementary school and opened fire, killing 19 children and two teachers. It is the deadliest school shooting in almost a decade.
The violent act shook a nation still reeling from a mass shooting just 10 days ago. The siege in Uvalde, Texas, ended when law enforcement killed the 18-year-old gunman, officials said, and parents waited late into Tuesday night at a civic center to learn whether their children had survived, some having given DNA to help authorities identify victims.
Now, the city about 90 miles west of San Antonio and just east of the US-Mexican border finds itself on the long list of American communities devastated by mass shootings.
So far, four 10-year-olds and a 4th grade teacher have been named publicly by relatives as among the dead. Authorities have identified all the victims, whose remains have been removed from the murder scene, and notified their families, Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez said. According to Olivarez all of the children and adults, killed and injured, were in one classroom. Area hospitals treated at least 20 injured.
Tuesday's massacre is the second-deadliest school shooting since 2012, when 26 children and adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It is reportedly at least the 30th shooting at a K-12 school in 2022.
The gunman in Uvalde is believed to have shot his grandmother -- who was still in a hospital Wednesday, Olivarez said -- before driving to Robb Elementary to carry out the attack.
Soon after, police got a 911 call about a vehicle that had crashed near the school and someone armed with a rifle heading inside, Olivarez told during an interview on CBS Mornings Wednesday morning. The man was wearing a "tactical vest carrier with no ballistic panels," Olivarez said.
Police responded and engaged the shooter before he got into the building, he said. Officers met the gunman's fire, he said; two were shot and expected to live.
The shooter then got into the building, where he barricaded himself inside a classroom and opened fire on the children and two teachers, Olivarez said, calling the act "complete evil."
With the shooter barricaded inside, officers were at a disadvantage, he said.
"There was not sufficient manpower at that time, and their primary focus was to preserve any further loss of life," he said. "They started breaking windows around the school and trying to rescue, evacuate children and teachers while that was going on."
A specialized tactical team arrived, forced its way into the classroom and shot the gunman dead, Olivarez said. One officer on the team was shot and injured and expected to survive.
President Joe Biden in a national address Tuesday night recalled the Sandy Hook shooting, which happened when he was vice president.
"I had hoped when I became President I would not have to do this again," the President said. "How many scores of little children who witnessed what happened -- see their friends die as if they're in a battlefield, for God's sake. They'll live with it the rest of their lives."
Community Shattered By Sudden Tragedy
As the last day of school was drawing near, Robb Elementary students were celebrating with special themed dress days, including Tuesday's theme of "Footloose and Fancy." Students were encouraged to come dressed in nice outfits and show off their fun footwear, according to a post on the school's Facebook page.
But by Tuesday afternoon, shaken students were being bused to the civic center-turned-reunification site. As the evening stretched on, some parents began to learn their young children had not survived.
"We see people coming out just terrorized. They're crying one by one. They're being told that their child has passed on," state Sen. Roland Gutierrez said while at the site Tuesday night.
As news of the shooting broke in Uvalde, Robb Elementary parents were told students were being taken to the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center, according to a post on the school district's Facebook page. The civic center quickly became the epicenter for families looking for their children, and scenes of devastation began to play out as victims were identified.
Parents were asked for DNA swabs to confirm their relationships to their children and instructed to wait an hour for an answer, at least four families told CNN.
A father, who had just learned his child was dead, fought tears as several of his cousins embraced him. A few yards away, a grandmother who had just driven from San Antonio said she would not stop praying for her 10-year-old granddaughter as they waited for the DNA results.
Inside, city workers handed out pizza, snacks and water to families. Some parents waited in silence, while others sobbed quietly as a group of children sat on the floor playing with teddy bears. A group of local pastors and chaplains arrived and offered their support to the families.
By Tuesday night, some families had still not been reunited with their children and had no news, said Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde.
"We have people that still have not had their children identified," he said Tuesday night. "Right now, they're still doing a DNA match."
In his address, Biden evoked his own experience as a parent who has lost children, saying there are now "parents who will never see their child again, never have them jump in bed and cuddle with them, parents who will never be the same. To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away."
Robb Elementary includes second through fourth grades and had 535 students in the 2020-21 school year, state data shows. About 90% of students are Hispanic, and about 81% are economically disadvantaged, according to the data. Uvalde County had a population of about 25,000 in the 2020 census.
Hours after the shooting, people in the neighborhood surrounding the school sat with their families outside their homes, some gathering with neighbors seeking to understand what occurred just blocks away.
Adela Martinez and her husband Paul Martinez, a former city council member, could sense the grief and sadness spreading through their town, they said.
"We are like a big family here. You can expect something like this (shooting) in big cities like New York but in Uvalde? If this happened here, now I believe it can happen anywhere," Adela Martinez said.