On Tuesday afternoon, reports of a uniquely American horror trickled in: There was an active shooter at an elementary school outside San Antonio, Texas. The site was Robb Elementary, a public school located about 90 miles west of San Antonio in the city of Uvalde, which hosts only second, third, and fourth graders. Its last day of school was scheduled for Thursday.
Local hospitals had confirmed receiving patients with injuries stemming from the shooting, though at first it was unclear who’d been harmed and how. But in a press conference shortly before 4 p.m. local time, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the inconceivable: Fourteen students had been killed in the shooting, as well as a teacher. The shooter himself was also dead, Abbott said. (Late Tuesday, the death toll was revised upward: 19 kids had been killed, along with two adults.)
