Service for Amerie Jo Garza took place in afternoon and a second scheduled for the evening as 11 funerals planned for this week
The first funeral of a victim of the Uvalde elementary school shooting took place in the small Texas town on Tuesday.
The service, before a second scheduled for the evening, came a week after an 18-year-old gunman who was eventually killed by law enforcement murdered 19 children and two teachers at Robb elementary school.
Continue reading...Group of city council members seeks to protect patients from criminal prosecution if supreme court ends abortion rights
A group of Austin, Texas city council members is preparing a resolution to “decriminalize” abortion there in the event the US Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, a landmark case decided nearly five decades ago that protects the federal right to terminate a pregnancy.
An unprecedented leaked supreme court draft decision showed a conservative majority of the nine justices are open to reversing Roe v Wade entirely. If that happened, 26 states would be certain or likely to ban abortion, including in Texas. The state has a “trigger” ban that would almost immediately ban abortion.
Continue reading...President returns to White House after visiting small south Texas city and says he will continue to push for gun control
The first memorial services for the 19 children and two teachers killed in a mass shooting at their elementary school in Uvalde began on Monday, a day after Joe Biden visited the small south Texas city and was urged by residents to take action on gun safety laws.
Returning to Washington on Monday morning, the US president, wearing a black suit, talked about the “palpable” pain in Uvalde.
Continue reading...New York governor seeks to ban people under 21 from buying assault rifles, while California governor intends to sign restrictions, including the right to sue gun manufacturers
With Republicans stonewalling for years on any significant federal gun safety legislation, some states are now rushing to take steps themselves following large-scale shootings in New York and Texas this month.
Democrats in some blue states are making fresh efforts to reinvigorate proposals toward what gun control advocates call “evidence-based policy interventions”.
Continue reading...Predicted wind gusts could cause fire to jump containment lines as crews in New Mexico try to stop growth of US’s biggest wildfire
Warnings of critical fire conditions are peppered across much of the US south-west this weekend, as crews in northern New Mexico worked to stop the growth of the nation’s largest active wildfire.
Two fires that merged to create the largest wildfire in New Mexico history have both been traced to planned burns set by federal forest managers as preventative measures, federal investigators have announced.
Continue reading...More details have emerged about those who were killed on Tuesday when a gunman attacked Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas
As the United States lamented the nation’s latest mass school shooting, in which a gunman killed 19 children and two adults after storming into an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, more details emerged of those who died.
A law enforcement official said all victims were in the same fourth-grade classroom.
Continue reading...Local law enforcement under scrutiny over delay in entering Uvalde classroom
New details on the apparent failure of local law enforcement to respond swiftly to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, are increasingly raising questions about police procedures introduced after the 1999 Columbine shooting in Colorado and how they were followed, or not.
After three days of contradictory accounts of the police response tothe attack that left 19 children and two teachers dead in the small south Texas city, it emerged that the decision by police to wait outside the classroom where the 18-year-old gunman was barricaded appears to contravene federal and state guidelines, developed over two decades, that prioritize police disabling the gunman.
Continue reading...Timeline suggests about 78 minutes passed from when the gunman entered school to when officers breached the classroom
Joe Biden lamented “too much violence, too much fear, too much grief” in the latest US mass shooting as he prepared to visit Uvalde, where authorities said police had made “the wrong decision” not to storm a classroom where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.
The US president and first lady, Jill Biden, will travel to the small southern Texas city on Sunday, five days after it was plunged into horror when an 18-year-old with a military-style rifle attacked an elementary school.
Continue reading...Schoolchildren, teachers and family members offer graphic details of day gunman killed 19 children and two adults
Survivors of the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers are beginning to share their stories, painting a graphic and horrifying picture of the tragedy that unfolded that day.
Miah Cerrillo, 11, told a CNN producer her fourth-grade class was watching Disney’s Lilo & Stitch when the gunman entered the classroom and made eye contact with her teacher and shot her dead, as well as some of her other classmates.
Continue reading...At least two girls hiding in their classrooms at Robb elementary school in Texas dialled 911 during the shooting, law enforcement officials have said
The first call came from a little girl who called multiple times on Tuesday. At 12.03pm, she identified herself and told authorities what room the shooter was in, said Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Here is a 911 emergency call timeline McCraw outlined at a news conference:
Continue reading...Texas governor backs out of in-person appearance as protesters descend on gun-rights group’s event
The National Rifle Association held its annual convention in Houston on Friday, three days after 19 children and two adults were shot dead at a school in Uvalde, as protesters gathered outside and high-profile speakers, including the governor of Texas, withdrew their attendance.
The event took place under a cloud of controversy and put in stark relief America’s deep divisions on gun control. As demonstrations swelled in Houston, attendees inside the convention – including Donald Trump – continued to deny that guns were the problem and put the emphasis on school safety and mental health.
Continue reading...McCraw, using a map of the school as a prop, says the back door at Robb elementary school was left propped open by a teacher.
Salvador Ramos, the shooter, crashed his car outside the school and began firing at two men outside, who were not hurt.
We’re here to report facts as we know them now, and not to defend what was done, or criticize what was done, or the action taken.
Continue reading...Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden founded Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit organization to protect kids from gun violence
The parents of children who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting – the deadliest school shooting in US history that left 26 people dead, 20 of whom were children under the age of eight – on Thursday spoke out against inaction on gun violence after a mass shooting at Robb elementary in Uvalde, Texas, this week.
In the wake of the tragedy that killed their children, Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden co-founded Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting American children from gun violence.
Continue reading...Counter-protests expected as about 55,000 NRA members to attend event, including Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott
Just days after the deadliest mass school shooting in Texas history, the National Rifle Association (NRA) – America’s leading gun lobbyist group – will meet a few hours away in Houston on Friday.
Ashton P Woods says they are not welcome in his hometown.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. Click here for full coverage of the shooting at the Robb elementary school in Uvalde
As the US begins to reflect on the events of yesterday as it begins to wake up, several politicians have made calls to action or asked pressing questions. Tulsi Gabbard, who ran for the Democratic party presidential nominations in 2020, said:
We grieve for the 21 who were killed in Texas today. But grieving is not enough—we could have, and must now, take commonsense actions to prevent these tragedies, like establishing single points of entry into schools, armed guards, trained staff, mental health services & more.
Continue reading...Three children, aged eight and 10, have been named; US president Joe Biden called for ‘common sense’ legislation after school massacre
The second US mass shooting in 10 days, which left 14 young children and a teacher dead at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, led to an outpouring of disbelief and potent rage at America’s persistent failure to tackle its epidemic of gun violence.
Tuesday’s horrifying attack in Uvalde, a small, largely Hispanic community outside San Antonio, came just 10 days after the events in Buffalo, New York. There 10 grocery shoppers, most of them African American, were gunned down in a supermarket.
Continue reading...First victims being named as US president calls for action on gun laws
An 18-year-old man, identified by police as Salvador Ramos, opened fire in an elementary school in Texas. He killed at least 19 students and two adults at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, a mostly Latino community about 85 miles west of San Antonio near the Mexico border.
Police said Ramos was killed after the shooting. The motive was not immediately clear and it is believed he acted alone. Texas state senator Roland Gutierrez said the suspect shot his grandmother at her home in the morning. She is believed to be in critical condition in hospital, Sergeant Erick Estrada told CNN.
The suspected gunman bought two rifles on his 18th birthday, Gutierrez told reporters. Two assault-style rifles were reportedly purchased from a store in Uvalde County. “That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday,” Gutierrez said, adding that the gunman had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming. “He suggested the kids should watch out,” he said.
Fourth-grade teacher Eva Mireles has been confirmed as one of the adults killed in the attack. “I’m furious that these shootings continue,” her aunt said in a statement reported by ABC News. “These children are innocent. Rifles should not be easily available to all.”
Names of student victims began to emerge. Eight-year-old Uziyah Garcia and Xavier Javier Lopez, 10, were confirmed by the Associated Press to have been killed after speaking with members of their families. Amerie Jo Garza, also 10, was identified by family as one of the children killed, according to ABC news.
Joe Biden addressed the nation on Tuesday night shortly after returning to the White House from a five-day trip to Asia. The president delivered an emotional speech, calling for “common sense” gun laws and said: “It’s time to turn this pain into action.”
Parents of school children have had to wait for hours in a parking lot to receive the news that their children are dead after being swabbed for DNA, according to New York Times reporter, Jazmine Ulloa.
The families of people killed in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting have pleaded for action on gun control in the wake of the killings at Robb elementary school in Texas.
NBA coach Steve Kerr gave an emotional pre-game press conference which he devoted to the events in Texas. He singled out politicians for failing to act on gun control in order to hold on to power and noted the recent shooting in Buffalo.
Numerous lawmakers and public figures spoke out on Tuesday by calling for action on gun control legislation in the wake of a tragedy that drew immediate comparisons to the Sandy Hook massacre, when 20 first graders and six educators were killed by an 18-year-old man armed with an AR-15-type rifle. In a series of tweets, former president Barack Obama said that “nearly ten years after Sandy Hook – and ten days after Buffalo – our country is paralyzed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies”.
US Senator Chris Murphy, who came to Congress representing Sandy Hook, begged his colleagues to finally pass legislation addressing the nation’s gun violence problem. “What are we doing?” Murphy said. “I’m here on this floor to beg to literally get down on my hands and knees to beg my colleagues. Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely.”
Hal Harrell, superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent school district, said Tuesday that Robb Elementary School will be closed and all school activities will be cancelled until further notice. Harrell also said grief counselors would be available starting Wednesday morning.“My heart is broken today,” Harrell said. “We’re a small community and we’re going to need your prayers to get through this.”
Continue reading...Prime minister says after 2019 Christchurch massacre, country made a ‘pragmatic’ decision to get guns off streets: ‘We saw something that wasn’t right and we acted’
New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern says her country’s swift change to gun laws after the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch was a “pragmatic” response, where “we saw something that wasn’t right and we acted on it”.
The prime minister was speaking as her visit to the United States coincided with the mass killing of 19 children at a school in Uvalde, Texas.
Ardern appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was filmed shortly after the Uvalde shooting. “When I watch from afar and see events such as this today, it’s not as a politician. I see them just as a mother,” an emotional Ardern said. “I’m so sorry for what has happened here.”
A teenage gunman has killed at least 19 children and two adults after storming into an elementary school in Texas, officials have said, the latest bout of gun-fueled mass killings in the United States and the nation’s worst school shooting since Sandy Hook a decade ago.
The carnage began when the 18-year-old suspect, identified as Salvador Ramos, shot his own grandmother, who is in a critical condition, authorities said.
Continue reading...Races from Georgia to Texas were a litmus test of Donald Trump’s hold on the Republican party with some significant losses
Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, defeated former Senator David Perdue, who had been endorsed by Donald Trump. Perdue’s loss marked a significant defeat for Trump’s reputation as a kingmaker in the Republican party, as the former president has used the power of his endorsement to wield influence over candidates and lawmakers.
Continue reading...