He announced it on Facebook: the teenager who killed 19 children at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, wrote on the day of the tragedy that he was going to kill his grandmother, then attack a school in this small town with a Hispanic majority located 130 kilometers west of San Antonio.
France 24 takes stock of what we know two days after the events.
Messages on Facebook, thirty minutes before the shooting
On the morning of the tragedy, around 11 a.m., the killer, later identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, announced "on Facebook" that he was going to "shoot" his grandmother, where he lived, said Wednesday Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Touched in the face, the 66-year-old woman nevertheless manages to alert the police.
She will be transported shortly thereafter in critical condition to University Health Hospital in San Antonio.
For his part, the young man fled with his grandmother's pick-up.
On Facebook, he announces that he will attack "a primary school".
Around 11:30 a.m., after 3.5 kilometers on the road, the young man was the victim of a road accident, for an undetermined reason, while he was near the Robb primary school, where more than 500 children between 7 and 11 years old go to school.
They only had a few more school days before the end of the school year.
He then exits the vehicle with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a backpack.
Quickly, he is confronted with a police officer assigned to the security of the elementary school who tries to prevent him from entering the establishment, without success, continues Steven McCraw, the head of the department of public safety of Texas.
One hour in the establishment
As soon as he enters the building, he enters a corridor that leads to two adjacent classrooms, followed by three policemen who ask for reinforcement.
He barricades himself in one of them and "the carnage begins", according to Steven McCraw.
He kills nineteen students, aged 9 to 10, and the two teachers present.
Soon the police intervened.
Outside the school walls, she breaks the windows of other classes and evacuates pupils and teachers.
Inside, law enforcement positions themselves in the hallway and adjacent classroom to prevent the assailant from escaping.
He is eventually killed by an elite unit of border police, Mexico being almost 90 kilometers as the crow flies from Uvalde, an hour later.
It is 1 p.m. when the police indicate on Twitter that Salvador Ramos has been neutralized.
Nineteen children aged 9 to 10 and two teachers killed
The children's identities have been exposed by their families who share their pain on social media.
Among them, Xavier Lopez, a 10-year-old boy who loved to dance, or Amerie Jo Garza, a little girl with a broad smile who had just turned 10.
10-year-old Xavier Lopez has now been identified as another victim in the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde.
His mom snapped this photo of him at an honor roll ceremony only a few hours before tragedy.
pic.twitter.com/d64pBFwEVZ
— Nora Neus (@noraneus) May 25, 2022
The name of a professor was also revealed in the press.
Eva Mireles, 44, had been teaching at Uvalde for 17 years, according to her family and the primary school.
Married, she had a child.
A young man with no criminal record
Salvador Ramos is an American citizen enrolled in Uvalde high school where he had dropped out, said the governor of Texas.
He had been living with his grandmother for two months, said Steven McCraw.
According to the media, he had argued with his mother.
He has no criminal history as a minor or psychological problems known to local health services, said Governor Greg Abbott, calling him "insane" with "disabilities that caused him to shoot his grandmother." mother and then kill babies, all these young children".
On May 17, the day after his 18th birthday, he had purchased a semi-automatic rifle, then ammunition, and another automatic rifle on May 20 at the same Uvalde armory, Steven McCraw said.
Investigators have so far found no other evidence to explain the reason for his action, he said.
A cousin, Mia, told The Washington Post that he was "not very social" and no longer wanted to attend classes where he was bullied because of his stutter.
He liked fighting video games according to other friends.
With AFP
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