A gunman named Salvador Ramos killed 19 children at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on tuesday, it is the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since the 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Wearing body armor and firing hundreds of rounds, the 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults
Federal law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that the death toll was expected to rise.
"This was a tragic and senseless event today, and my heart was broke today," said Hal Harrell, the school system superintendent. The classes were canceled for the year.
There were 249 shootings on school grounds last year – more than any other year since at least 1970 – and 137 so far this year, said David Riedman, lead researcher at Homeland Defense and Security.
President Joe Biden in a Tuesday night news conference decried “another massacre” that had left pain parents in unfathomable pain: “To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away,” he said.