UVALDE, Texas — At least 21 people, including 19 children, are dead following a Tuesday shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, according to local officials. There are several others, both students and adults, being treated for injuries.
The alleged shooter was killed, local police confirmed. He has been identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. It is believed that the shooter acted alone.
Uvalde officials say the shooting started at 11:32 a.m. Tuesday at a building at Robb Elementary that houses 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders. All campuses were placed under lockdown due to the gunfire.
In an update at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, officials said families of the deceased were being notified and services were being offered.
School shootings in Texas
From 1970 to today, there have been 135 school shootings in Texas, based on data tracked by the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security.
This is the second-most in the country, behind only California, which has had 164.
The Uvalde school shooting is now the deadliest school shooting in Texas' history, bypassing the 1966 University of Texas Tower shooting which killed 18.
Tuesday's shooting comes after just over four years to the day that 10 people, eight students and two teachers, were killed on May 18, 2018 at Santa Fe High School.
In terms of mass shootings, which can be defined as an incident that involves several victims of gun violence, Texas has had 129 from 2013 through August 2019, based on data from the Gun Violence Archive. This is the fourth most in the country, behind California (257), Illinois (209) and Florida (147).
In 2019, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a series of bills focused on school safety, in wake of the Santa Fe High School shooting. The bill instructed school districts to implement emergency operation plans that included requiring certain training for school resource officers and ensuring school district employees were trained to respond to emergencies.