Texas School Shooting: Officials describe updated chronology of attack
Greg Abbott withdrew Friday from a scheduled appearance at the National Rifle Association convention in Houston, days after a gunman commanded 19 children and two teachers.
He had planned to speak alongside former President Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, but will now make “pre-recorded video remarks.”
Meanwhile, police are being criticized for their delayed response, with videos showing desperate parents outside Robb Elementary School during the attack, asking officers to storm the building.
The father of the 10-year-old victim, Jacklyn Cazares, said he even suggested he could go with other spectators as he was frustrated that the police would not do it themselves.
Details of the timeline and events are still unclear, including whether officers prevented 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos from entering the school, and whether he “barricaded” himself inside a classroom before or after. after killing fourth-graders inside.
Ramos’ messages to social media recipients appear to show him showing off his weapons and announcing plans to “shoot an elementary school” moments before the killings.
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Yankees, the Rays use social media to raise awareness about armed violence
The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday used their social media accounts to raise awareness about armed violence instead of covering their Major League Baseball.
“Instead of covering the game and working with the Tampa Bay Rays, we will use our channels to provide data on the impacts of armed violence,” the Yankees said in a statement.
“The devastating events that have taken place in Uvalde, Buffalo and many other communities in our country are tragedies that are intolerable.”
The Rays said the shootings “can’t be normal” and that they had made a $ 50,000 commitment to the Everytown for Gun Safety gun control group.
Throughout Thursday’s game, both teams continued to post facts about armed violence on their social media profiles, along with links to sources and helpline numbers. Neither team posted the result of the match.
Namita Singh May 27, 2022 6:29 AM
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The shooter shared warning signs on the handle of social media
The 18-year-old gunman had left warning signs on his social media for days before entering a Texas elementary school and killed 19 children and two teachers.
There was an Instagram photo of a hand holding a gun magazine, a TikTok profile warning, “Kids are scared,” and a picture of two AR-style semi-automatic rifles displayed on a carpet. pinned to the top of the killer’s Instagram. Profile.
Shooters are leaving more and more digital footprints on social media, hinting at what’s to come long before execution.
“When someone starts posting pictures of guns they started buying, they’re announcing to the world that they’re changing who they are,” said Katherine Schweit, a retired FBI agent who led the active-duty shooting program. agency.
“It’s absolutely a cry for help. It’s a joke: can you catch me?”
For law enforcement and social media companies, detecting a gun release from a potential mass shooter is like sifting through quicksand, Schweit said.
A group of text messages sent by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos just before a massacre that killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
(screenshot)
That’s why he tells people not to ignore such posts, especially from children or young adults. Inform a school counselor, the police, or even the FBI hotline.
In an undisclosed screenshot of Salvador Ramos’ Instagram account, the alleged gunman appears to be holding an ammunition magazine
(Instagram / AFP via Getty Images)
Before shooting 17 students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, Nikolas Cruz posted on YouTube that he wanted to be a “school professional shooter” and shared photos of his face covered, posing with weapons. The FBI received advice on Cruz’s comment on YouTube, but never followed up with Cruz.
In November, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley shared a photo of a semi-automatic pistol his father had bought with the text “I just got my new beauty today,” days before he killed four students and injured seven others. his high school in Oxford Township, Michigan.
And days before entering a school classroom and killing 19 young children and two teachers, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos left similar tracks on Instagram.
Namita Singh May 27, 2022 5:52 AM
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Police questioned his late response to the Texas school shooting
It was 11:28 a.m. when the Ford van crashed into a ditch behind Texas High School and the driver jumped with an AR-15-style rifle.
Twelve minutes later, authorities say Salvador Ramos, 18, was in the hallways of Robb Elementary School. He soon entered a fourth grade classroom. And there, he killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in a still inexplicable spasm of violence.
At 12.58 p.m., a radio talk by law enforcement said Ramos had been killed and the siege was over.
Crosses with the names of the victims of Tuesday’s shooting are placed outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Thursday, May 26, 2022
(AP)
What happened in those 90 minutes, in a working-class neighborhood near the outskirts of the small town of Uvalde, has fueled growing public anger and scrutiny over law enforcement response to the hustle and bustle of Tuesday.
“They say they rushed in,” said Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grader daughter Jacklyn Cazares died in the attack, and who ran to the school while the massacre unfolded. “We didn’t see it.”
Namita Singh 27 May 2022 05:35
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“I probably would have been shot too,” says the gunman’s father
The father of the gunman, also known as Salvador Ramos, 42, expressed his remorse for his son’s actions in a first interview on Thursday.
“I just want people to know I’m sorry, man, what my son did,” he told the Daily Beast.
“I never expected my son to do such a thing.
“I should have killed myself, you know, instead of doing something like that to someone.”
Ramos said he was at work on the day of the shooting and only found out when his mother told him over the phone. He started calling local prisons to ask if his son was there and eventually collapsed.
(Texas Department of Public Safety)
“They killed my little man,” he told the network.
I will never see my child again, just as they will never see their children. And that hurts me.
Salvador Ramos
The father said his son was “a good person” and has no idea why he became so violent.
“My mom tells me she probably would have shot me too because she would always say I didn’t love her,” Ramos said.
He said his own mother was suffering from cancer and could be at risk of being exposed to the coronavirus. Her son was frustrated with Covid’s precautions a month ago and refused to talk to him.
The father also blamed the boy’s mother for not buying him more school supplies, adding that he was harassed at school for wearing the same jeans and that this is why he dropped out of school.
Namita Singh May 27, 2022 5:15 p.m.
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Biden will travel to Uvalde on Sunday
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will travel to Uvalde on Sunday to comfort families and pay tribute to the victims of Tuesday’s mass shooting at a Texas school that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
The Biden “will mourn the community that lost 21 lives in the horrific” shooting at Robb Elementary School, the White House said.
The president will also meet with the community and the religious leaders and families of the victims, added Press Secretary Karina Jean-Pierre.
Activists join Senate Democrats outside Capitol to demand measures on gun control legislation after gunman kills 19 children and two teachers at Texas elementary school
(AP)
Jean-Pierre, the father of an elementary school student, made a passionate plea to the White House for lawmakers to meet to address armed violence.
“They were primary school children, they should be losing their first teeth and not losing their lives,” he said.
He criticized the ANR for “having contributed to the problem of armed violence, not trying to solve it”.
It is a shame that the ANR and its allies have stopped all attempts to move forward on measures that we all know will save lives.
Karina Jean-Pierre
Namita Singh May 27, 2022 5:07 AM
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The grieving husband dies after his wife is murdered in Texas
Irma Garcia’s husband died of a heart attack two days after her death in a Texas school shooting, a relative said.
Joe Garcia, 50, left flowers at his wife’s memorial on Thursday morning in Uvalde and returned home, where he “almost fell” and died, his nephew John Martinez told The New York Times.
Married for 24 years, the couple had four children.
Martinez told The Detroit Free Press that the family was struggling to understand that while the couple’s eldest son was training for combat in the Marine Corps, it was his mother who was shot dead. “Things like this shouldn’t happen in schools,” he said. he told the newspaper.
The Archdiocese of St. Anthony and the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Funeral Home confirmed his death to the Associated Press.
My colleague Graig Graziosi reports:
Namita Singh May 27, 2022 4:22 AM
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The Miami Heat urges fans to call their representatives about gun control
Instead of holding a moment of silence for the victims in Uvalde, Texas, the Miami Heat urged its supporters to call their local representatives on gun control.
“The Heat urges you to contact your state senators by calling 202-224-3121 to leave a message demanding their support for common sense gun laws,” a spokesman at an NBA game said Wednesday. at night.
Nathan Place May 27, 2022 4:00 p.m.
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The shooter was armed with 22 30-bullet magazines, according to the report
The gunman who …