Shooting with 21 dead at US elementary school: scandal at press conference
Created: 05/26/2022 05:03
By: Kim Hornickel, Lukas Zigo, Christian Stör, Sarah Neumeyer
Another killing spree shakes the United States.
In Texas, the nation experiences the next shock - of almost incomprehensible proportions.
Shooting spree in Uvalde:
An 18-year-old shoots 21 people, including 19 children, at an elementary school in the state of Texas in the USA.
Many families in the USA are still worried about their loved ones: after the
killing spree, not all victims have yet been identified.
Criticism of the gun lobby:
US President Joe Biden wants to tighten gun laws in the USA.
School massacres are increasing:
A total of 126 people have died in school shootings in recent years.
+++ 10 p.m .:
At a press conference on the shooting spree at an elementary school in the US state of Texas, there was a political scandal.
Democrat Beto O'Rourke interrupted an ongoing press conference by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and criticized him for his stance on gun laws in the state.
O'Rourke, who wants to challenge Abbott in the next Texas gubernatorial election in November, accused the Republican of not doing anything about rampant gun violence in the United States.
"They do nothing," criticized O'Rourke.
Abbott did not respond to the allegations, while other officials called O'Rourke to order and ordered him to leave the room.
One man shouted at O'Rourke, "You're out of the ordinary and you're an embarrassment." Another man savagely berated the Democrat, saying, "I can't believe you're a sick bastard born out of something like this wants to make a political issue.” O'Rourke left the room after the verbal altercation.
Beto O'Rourke addresses the media following his altercation with Greg Abbott.
© CHANDAN KHANNA/afp
+++ 8.40 p.m .:
Texas Senator Ted Cruz expressed his condolences to the victims of the elementary school massacre on Twitter.
He received heavy criticism for this, because the Republican is considered an opponent of strict gun laws and has rejected them for years.
The politician was also confronted with the renewed allegations on Twitter.
Campaign committee members verbally attacked Cruz on the social media platform: "Ted Cruz received $300,000 from the pro-gun mob so take your prayers and shove it up your ass," tweeted Kurt Bardella, aide to the committee .
"Your acceptance of this blood money tells us how much your prayers are worth," the Democrat added.
The gun lobby NRA has repeatedly prevented tightening of the law in recent years.
Death in the classroom: gunman entrenches himself and kills 19 children
+++ 3.45 p.m .:
According to the police, all the fatalities and injuries in the rampage in an elementary school in the US state of Texas were in a single classroom.
The gunman barricaded himself in the classroom and killed two teachers and 19 children, police spokesman Chris Olivarez told US broadcaster CNN on Wednesday.
"It shows how abysmal evil this shooter was," Olivarez said.
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The perpetrator wrote shortly before the rampage at a US school, probably with a German girl (15) - and made an announcement
Vaccination status before possible change in autumn: who is still considered vaccinated in October?
Vigil after the massacre: It's not just in Uvalde, Texas, that there is grief and horror after the bloody deed - the flags are expected to fly at half-mast across the United States by Saturday.
© Billy Calzada/The San Antonio Express-News/AP/dpa
The 18-year-old gunman was shot dead by police after the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde near San Antonio on Tuesday (May 24).
Olivarez said the perpetrator lived with his grandparents and first shot his grandmother - she is still alive, they said.
He then fled in a vehicle and had an accident near the school.
The police were then alerted that a person with a gun entered the school.
When the security forces arrived, the gunman opened fire and injured two police officers.
Then he holed himself up in a classroom and began "shooting at children and teachers who were in the class."
Shooting spree at a US elementary school: the shooter apparently announced the act online
+++ 1:45 p.m .:
Shortly before the killing spree at an elementary school in the US state of Texas, the shooter is said to have contacted a strange woman on Instagram.
As reported by several media, including the news portal Focus Online, the 18-year-old is said to have written to the woman he did not know and asked for his weapon photos to be shared.
Irritated, the woman replied: "What do your weapons have to do with me?"
On the morning of the day of the crime, the gunman is said to have contacted the user again and indirectly announced his crime.
"I'm about to." And: "I have a little secret," he wrote.
When the woman asked, who was still confused, the shooter replied that he would tell her before 11 a.m.
The statements of the woman have not yet been officially confirmed.
Bloody crime in the USA: still not all victims identified
+++ 11.30 a.m .:
Not all victims of the shooting spree in the USA have yet been identified.
At least four families said they were asked for DNA swabs to confirm their relationship to children, CNN reports.
For more than 12 hours, families have gathered in silence outside the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center, waiting for news.
People sit on the curb in front of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas while police patrol the site.
The shock after the killing spree, in which 21 people died, runs deep.
© Allison Dinner/AFP
One of the victims was a fourth grade teacher.
Her death has not yet been officially confirmed by the authorities, but has been confirmed to KSAT by a relative.
"I am angry that these shootings continue, these children are innocent, guns should not be so readily available to everyone," she was quoted as saying by KSAT.
Shooting spree at an elementary school in the USA: Scholz and Selenskyj condole
+++ 10.45 a.m .:
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed their condolences after the killing spree in Texas.
"Our thoughts are with the injured and the survivors of the victims of this incredible massacre, for which words can hardly be found," wrote Scholz in a tweet.
Pedro Sanchez tweeted, "This everyday horror in America needs to stop."
At an event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also spoke.
"I want to offer my condolences to all the families and loved ones of the children who died in the horrific shooting in Texas," said Zelensky, who attended the event via video link.
+++ 9.25 a.m .:
Damion Lee, basketball player with the Golden State Warriors, sharply criticized the US weapons policy after the massacre at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
"It shouldn't be so easy to buy guns.
Right now, in the country we live in, it's easier to buy a gun than get baby food," Lee said Tuesday (May 24).
+++ 8.43 a.m .:
The shooting spree at the elementary school in Uvalde is the second deadliest in recent US history.
Only the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 killed 26 people.
There have been 13 school shootings in the United States since 1988.
Since then, 126 people have died.
An overview of school shootings only in the USA:
School shootings - the sad statistics of recent years in the USA
1988: Chicago, Illinois - 4 dead
1989: Stockton, California- 5 dead
1992: Olivehurst, California - 4 dead
1998: Jonesboro, Arkansas - 5 dead
1999: Littleton, Colo. - 13 dead
2005: Red Lake, Minnesota - 8 dead
2006: Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania - 5 dead
2012: Newtown, Connecticut - 26 dead
2014: Marysville, Washington - 4 dead
2018: Santa Fe, Texas - 10 dead
2018: Parkland, Fla. - 17 dead
2021: Oxford, Michigan - 4 dead
2022: Uvalde, Texas - 21 dead
Primary school shooting in the US: Uvalde in shock
Update from Wednesday, May 25, 6:30 a.m .:
An almost incomprehensible act took place in the US state of Texas.
An 18-year-old opened fire in an elementary school, killing at least 19 school children.
It is one of the deadliest school massacres in US history.
According to investigators, the shooter entered the primary school in the small town of Uvalde on Tuesday afternoon (May 24) and shot himself.
He also killed at least two adults.
According to initial findings, the shooter was killed by security forces.
It was unclear if he himself was counted among the adult fatalities.
US President Joe Biden addressed the nation after the massacre and called for stricter gun laws.
Uvalde, Texas: rampage in the USA – police comment on the course of events
Initially, the Uvalde police did not provide any information on the death toll.
Erick Estrada from the Texas Department of Public Safety only commented on the numbers later in an interview with CNN.
He also described the events leading up to the massacre.
First, the suspect shot his grandmother, Estrada said.
The incident happened in the grandmother's apartment - she was taken to a hospital.
Nothing was known about her condition at the moment.
The shooter then drove to school in a car and had an accident there, Estrada said.
He then got out of the car and entered the school wearing a protective vest, a backpack and a gun.
There he opened fire.
The 18-year-old was then asked by the school's security staff.
However, Estrada emphasized that the investigation was still ongoing and that this information was still preliminary.
Emergency services at the primary school in Uvalde.
© Dario Lopez-Mills/AP/dpa
Gunman kills 14 children in attack at US elementary school in Uvalde, Texas
First report from Tuesday, May 24, 11:35 p.m.:
Uvalde / Washington – 14 children and a teacher were killed in a shooting spree at an elementary school in the US state of Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said after the attack in the small town of Uvalde near San Antonio.
The shooter was also dead. According to initial findings, the attacker was an 18-year-old young man who had been killed by officials.
Tat reminiscent of Sandy Hook rampage
Shooting sprees, including in schools, occur with sad regularity in the United States.
A massacre at an elementary school ten years ago was particularly shocking: In December 2012, a 20-year-old with severe mental health problems in Newtown, Connecticut, first shot his mother.
He then went to his elementary school, Sandy Hook Elementary School, and killed 20 schoolchildren and six teachers there.
He then killed himself.
At the time, the act caused a shock across the country and also caused horror beyond the borders of the USA.
Just over a week ago, a gunman with an assault rifle opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing ten people and injuring three others.
He was arrested at the scene of the crime.
According to investigators, the act was racially motivated - 11 of the 13 victims were black.
Buffalo has a mostly black population.
Number of rampages has doubled since 2017
Last year, the FBI counted 61 gun shootings in the United States.
That's more than 50 percent more than the year before, the FBI said in Washington.
The number has doubled since 2017.
In 2021, 103 people were killed and 140 injured in rampages.
That, too, is an increase of almost 50 percent compared to 2020. According to the information, 60 of the 61 shooters were men.
The FBI uses a strict definition for the count: it only includes cases in which a perpetrator shoots at people in public in order to kill them.
Classic criminal cases involving armed violence or shootings among gang members are ignored.
The level of gun violence overall is far greater in the United States.
Fatal incidents involving firearms, which are readily available there, occur regularly.
In its most recent statistics from 2020, the health authority CDC recorded a total of 45,222 gun deaths in the USA - more than 120 deaths per day.
(kh/cs/lz with dpa/AFP)