Accessibility links

Breaking News
USA

Students' End-of-Year Celebrations Shattered by Shooting


A woman reacts as a priest comforts people outside the Ssgt. Willie de Leon Civic Center, where students had been transported from Robb Elementary School after a shooting, in Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022.
A woman reacts as a priest comforts people outside the Ssgt. Willie de Leon Civic Center, where students had been transported from Robb Elementary School after a shooting, in Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022.

The children at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, were two days away from their summer break when Tuesday's massacre unfolded.

They had visited the zoo and participated in a gifted-and-talented showcase, recent posts on the school's Facebook page showed. Tuesday was awards day, according to the calendar, and students were invited to wear a nice outfit and fun shoes as part of a "footloose and fancy" theme.

But at 11:43 a.m., a note was posted on the Facebook feed: "Please know at this time Robb Elementary is under a Lockdown Status due to gunshots in the area. The students and staff are safe in the building," it read.

Then came a second message: "There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary. Law enforcement is on site."

School administrators asked parents to stay away. The school serves about 570 children in second through fourth grades, nearly 90% of them Hispanic.

The details that came next were devastating: an 18-year-old gunman had opened fire at the school, killing 18 children and one adult, officials said. Read full story

Messages poured in from around the world, offering prayers and expressing outrage at yet another U.S. mass shooting.

"Our hearts are breaking for the families that have been affected by this evil," Susan Vanderwier of Indiana wrote on the school's Facebook page.

The school district said the elementary school, where the mission statement is "Live. Learn. Love. Lead," would remain closed for the final days of the school year.

  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG