The city of Uvalde, Texas has a population of 16,000. It is located about 140 kilometers west of San Antonio, towards the Mexican border. This is where the Robb Elementary School is located, a public school with 570 students, mainly of Hispanic origin, from modest or disadvantaged backgrounds. Salvador Ramos, a resident of Uvalde, had just turned 18 and was attending a high school in the city.
Tuesday, May 24, after shooting his grandmother at her home for an as yet unknown reason, the young man went in his gray pick-up near the primary school. It is unclear whether he had chosen this specific target premeditated. He left the car in a ditch. He entered the building and wreaked havoc.
In total, at least 19 children, between 7 and 10 years old, were killed, as well as two adults. The final toll of the victims has not yet been established: the wounded have been evacuated, sometimes in critical condition, to two hospitals in the region. The shooting took place at 11:30 a.m. Salvador Ramos was equipped with at least one assault rifle, according to State Security Department Sgt. Erick Estrada, who claimed he bought his guns for his 18e anniversary. It is unclear at this time whether he acquired them from a gun store in Texas or online.
Barricaded in a room, the killer ended up being shot by the police. Children had managed to get out of classes through windows, some had taken refuge in a nearby funeral home, terrified. During this time, the parents, alerted, flocked near the school, but they were recommended to go to the civic center of the city, to be able to identify all the children.
It is the worst elementary school shooting since the one in Sandy Hook, Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, when 20 children and six adults were killed. According to an estimate of Washington Post, more than 300,000 children have been directly exposed – as physical victims or traumatized witnesses – to a school shooting since the Columbine tragedy in 1999.
Biden between emotion and grief
America shells its mourning by bullets, affecting adults and children. Ten days ago, on May 14, a man with supremacist convictions seeking to target black people murdered ten people in a supermarket in the city of Buffalo (State of New York). According to an FBI report released on Monday, 2021 was marked by 61 shootings in populated areas, in 30 different states, causing 103 deaths and 140 injuries, compared to 40 similar crimes in 2020 and 30 the two previous years.
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