At Least 19 Children Dead After Texas Elementary School Shooting

An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom, officials said, in the latest gruesome moment for a country scarred by a string of massacres.

An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom, officials said, in the latest gruesome moment for a country scarred by a string of massacres. The attacker was killed by law enforcement.

The death toll also included two adults, one of the two was a teacher.

The assault at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town of Uvalde was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago.

The attack also came just 10 days after a deadly, racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket and the prospects for any reform of the nation's gun regulations seemed as dim as in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook deaths.

President Joe Biden appeared ready for a fight, calling for new gun restrictions in an address to the nation hours after the attack.

The gunman, who was wearing body armor, crashed his car outside the school before going inside.

He killed his grandmother before heading to the school with two military-style rifles he had purchased on his birthday.

Officials did not immediately reveal a motive, but the governor identified the assailant as Salvador Ramos and said he was a resident of the community.

Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, and that "he suggested the kids should watch out."

A Border Patrol agent who was working nearby when the shooting began rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot and killed the gunman, who was behind a barricade.

Robb Elementary School has an enrollment of just under 600 students, and it serves students in the second, third and fourth grade. This was the school's last week of classes before summer break.