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Texas authorities said Friday that the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers inside an elementary school discussed his interest in buying a gun in private online conversations, but backed away from earlier descriptions that he made public threats less than an hour before the attack. Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday, a day after the shooting, that “the only information that was known in advance was posted by the gunman on Facebook approximately 30 minutes before reaching the school.” Abbott’s claim prompted questions about whether technology companies could have provided advance warning. But on Friday, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety said the gunman made the threatening comments in a private message.  “I want to correct something that was said early on in the investigation, that he posted on Facebook publicly that he was going to kill, that he was going to shoot his grandmother and secondly after that that he was going to, that he had shot her and that third he was going to go shoot up a school,” Steven McCraw said. “That did not happen.” Facebook had already noted on Wednesday that the threats were in direct text messages, not a public post. Also read: Gunman kills at least 18 children at Texas elementary school McCraw did not say to whom 18-year-old Salvador Ramos sent the messages. McCraw also told reporters Friday that Ramos asked his sister to help him buy a gun in September 2021, but that she “flatly refused.” He did not say how authorities learned of that request. McCraw shared information from four more of Ramos’ social media private messages. In a Feb. 28 four-person chat, McCraw said that “Ramos being a school shooter” was discussed. In a March 1 four-person chat, he said Ramos discussed buying a gun. In a March 3 four-person chat, another person said “word on the street is that you’re buying a gun.” McCraw said Ramos replied, “Just bought something.” On March 14, McCraw said Ramos shared the words “10 more days” in a social media post. Another user asked “Are you going to shoot up a school or something?” McCraw said. He said Ramos replied, “No and stop asking dumb questions and you’ll see.” McCraw did not identify any of the other people included in those chat groups. The department did not immediately respond to a request Friday for more detail, including screenshots of the communications mentioned during the news conference. Authorities have said Ramos legally purchased two guns not long before the school attack: an AR-style rifle on May 17 and a second rifle on May 20. He had turned 18 just days earlier, permitting him to buy a rifle under federal law. Also read: 3 teens killed, 1 injured in gas station shooting in U.S. Texas Friday’s briefing came after authorities spent three days providing often conflicting and incomplete information about the law enforcement response in Uvalde.  

One by one, they took the stage at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Houston and denounced the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school across the state. And one by one, they insisted that further restricting access to firearms was not the answer to preventing future tragedies. “The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens,” said former President Donald Trump, who was among the Republicans who lined up to speak before the gun rights lobbying group Friday as thousands of protesters angry about gun violence demonstrated outside. “The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens,” he said. The gathering came just three days after the shooting in Uvalde and as the nation grappled with revelations that students trapped inside a classroom with the gunman repeatedly called 911 during the attack — one pleading “Please send the police now” — as officers waited in the hallway for more than 45 minutes. The NRA had said that convention attendees would “reflect on” the shooting at the event and “pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure.” The meeting was the first for the troubled organization since 2019, following a two-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization has been trying to regroup following a period of serious legal and financial turmoil that included a failed bankruptcy effort, a class-action lawsuit and a fraud investigation by New York’s attorney general. Once among the most powerful political organizations in the country, the NRA has seen its influence wane following a significant drop in political spending.  Also Read: Texas elementary school shooting: What do we know so far? Wayne LaPierre, the group’s embattled chief executive, opened the program with remarks bemoaning the “21 beautiful lives ruthlessly and indiscriminately extinguished by a criminal monster.” Still, he said that “restricting the fundamental human rights of law-abiding Americans to defend themselves is not the answer. It never has been.” Later, several hundred people in the auditorium stood and bowed their heads in a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting. Several thousand people were inside the auditorium during the speeches, which appeared fewer than the number gathered outside. Many seats were empty. Trump accused Democrats of trying to exploit the tragedy and demonizing gun owners. “When Joe Biden blamed the gun lobby he was talking about Americans like you,” Trump said, referring to the president’s emotional plea in a national address asking, “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Also Read: 'Horrifying' conspiracy theories swirl around Texas shooting Trump called for overhauling school security and the nation’s approach to mental health, telling the group every school building should have a single point of entry, strong exterior fencing, metal detectors and hardened classroom doors and every school should have a police officer or armed guard on duty at all times. He also called yet again for trained teachers to be able to carry concealed weapons in the classroom. He and other speakers overlooked the security upgrades that were already in place at the elementary school and did not stop the gunman, who entered the building through a back door that had been propped open. According to a district safety plan, Uvalde schools have a wide range of safety measures in place. The district had four police officers and four support counselors, according to the plan, which appears to be dated from the 2019-20 school year. It also had software to monitor social media for threats and software to screen school visitors. Security experts say the Uvalde case illustrates how fortifying schools can backfire. A lock on the classroom door, for instance — one of the most basic and widely recommended school safety measures — kept victims in and police out. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who, like Trump, is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2024, railed against Democrats’ calls for universal background checks for gun purchases and bans of assault-style weapons and instead pointed to broken families, declining church attendance, social media bullying and video games as the real problems. “Tragedies like the event of this week are a mirror forcing us to ask hard questions, demanding that we see where our culture is failing,” he said. “We must not react to evil and tragedy by abandoning the Constitution or infringing on the rights of our law-abiding citizens.” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, another potential presidential contender, said calls to further restrict gun access are “all about control and it is garbage. I’m not buying it for a second and you shouldn’t, either.” Some scheduled speakers and performers backed out of the event, including several Texas lawmakers and “American Pie” singer Don McLean, who said “it would be disrespectful” to go ahead with his act after the country’s latest mass shooting. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday morning that he had decided not to speak at an event breakfast after “prayerful consideration and discussion with NRA officials.” “While a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and an NRA member, I would not want my appearance today to bring any additional pain or grief to the families and all those suffering in Uvalde,” he wrote in a statement. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who was to attend, addressed the convention by prerecorded video instead. Outside the convention hall, protesters gathered in a park where police set up metal barriers — some holding crosses with photos of the Uvalde shooting victims. “Murderers!” some yelled in Spanish. “Shame on you!” others shouted at attendees. Among the protesters was singer Little Joe, of the popular Tejano band Little Joe y La Familia, who said in the more than 60 years he’s spent touring the world, no other country he’s been to has faced as many mass shootings as the U.S. “Of course, this is the best country in the world,” he said. “But what good does it do us if we can’t protect lives, especially of our children?” Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is challenging Abbott in the governor’s race, ticked off a list of previous school shootings and called on those attending the convention to “join us to make sure that this no longer happens in this country.” While Biden and Democrats in Congress have renewed calls for stricter gun laws after the Uvalde shooting, NRA board members and others attending the conference dismissed talk of banning or limiting access to firearms. Samuel Thornburg, 43, a maintenance worker for Southwest Airlines in Houston who was attending the NRA meeting, said: “Guns are not evil. It’s the people that are committing the crime that are evil. Our schools need to be more locked. There need to be more guards.” There is precedent for the NRA to gather during local mourning and controversy. The organization went ahead with a shortened version of its 1999 meeting in Denver roughly a week after the deadly shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado. Texas has experienced a series of mass shootings in recent years. During that time, the Republican-led Legislature and governor have relaxed gun laws. Most U.S. adults think that mass shootings would occur less often if guns were harder to get and believe schools and other public places have become less safe than they were two decades ago, polling finds. Many specific measures that would curb access to guns or ammunition also get majority support. A May AP-NORC poll found, for instance, that 51% of U.S. adults favor a nationwide ban on the sale of AR-15 rifles and similar semiautomatic weapons. But the numbers are highly partisan, with 75% percent of Democrats agreeing versus just 27% of Republicans. Though personal firearms are allowed at the convention, guns were not permitted during the session featuring Trump because of Secret Service security protocols.

The coronavirus mutant that is now dominant in the United States is a member of the omicron family but scientists say it spreads faster than its omicron predecessors, is adept at escaping immunity and might possibly cause more serious disease. Why? Because it combines properties of both omicron and delta, the nation's dominant variant in the middle of last year. A genetic trait that harkens back to the pandemic's past, known as a “delta mutation," appears to allow the virus "to escape pre-existing immunity from vaccination and prior infection, especially if you were infected in the omicron wave," said Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas. That's because the original omicron strain that swept the world didn’t have the mutation. The omicron “subvariant” gaining ground in the U.S. — known as BA.2.12.1 and responsible for 58% of U.S. COVID-19 cases last week — isn't the only one affected by the delta mutation. The genetic change is also present in the omicron relatives that together dominate in South Africa, known as BA.4 and BA.5. Those have exactly the same mutation as delta, while BA.2.12.1 has one that's nearly identical. Also read: WHO: COVID-19 cases mostly drop, except for the Americas This genetic change is bad news for people who caught the original omicron and thought that made them unlikely to get COVID-19 again soon. Although most people don't know for sure which variant caused their illness, the original omicron caused a giant wave of cases late last year and early this year. Long said lab data suggests a prior infection with the original omicron is not very protective against reinfection with the new mutants, though the true risk of being reinfected no matter the variant is unique to every person and situation. In a twist, however, those sickened by delta previously may have some extra armor to ward off the new mutants. A study released before it was reviewed by other scientists, by researchers at Ohio State University, found that COVID patients in intensive care with delta infections induced antibodies that were better at neutralizing the new mutants than patients who caught the original omicron. “The omicron infection antibody does not appear to protect well against the subvariants compared to delta,” said Dr. Shan-Lu Liu, a study author who co-directs the viruses and emerging pathogens program at Ohio State. But Liu said the level of protection a delta infection provides depends partly on how long ago someone was ill. That's because immunity wanes over time. People who got sick with delta shouldn’t think of themselves as invulnerable to the new subvariants, especially if they’re unvaccinated, Long said. “I wouldn’t say anyone is safe." Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh reports 28 new cases, no death One bright spot? Booster shots can provide strong protection against the new mutants, Liu said. In general, vaccines and prior infection can protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID-19. At this point, scientists say, it's too early to know if the new mutant gaining ground in the U.S. will cause a significant uptick in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Scientists are still trying to figure out how virulent these new mutants are. Long said he hasn’t seen anything that answers that question for him, but Liu said emerging data points toward more serious illness. Liu said the subvariants have properties suggesting they spread more efficiently cell-to-cell. The virus "just hides in the cell and spreads through cell-to-cell contact,” Liu said. “That's more scary because the virus does not come out for the antibody to work.” Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, said the new mutants certainly don’t appear less virulent than previous versions of omicron, and whether they are more virulent or not "will become clear in the months ahead.” In the meantime, scientists expect the latest powerhouse mutants to spread quickly, since they are more transmissible than their predecessors. Though home testing makes it tough to track all U.S. COVID cases, data from Johns Hopkins University shows that cases are averaging nearly 107,000 a day, up from about 87,000 two weeks ago. And new hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19 have been trending upwards since around mid-April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I’m hopeful that we don’t see a similar increase in hospitalizations that we’ve had in prior waves,” Long said. “But with COVID, any time you have lots of people being infected, it’s just a numbers game. Some of those people are going to be severe. Some of those people are going to need hospitalization. Some of them, unfortunately, are going to pass away.”

The world will experience 1.5 medium to large-scale disasters every day through the end of the decade unless countries ramp up action on prevention and risk reduction, according to the UN. Disasters are already hampering global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). "We can – and we must – put our efforts firmly behind prevention and risk reduction, and build a safe, sustainable, resilient and equitable future for all," UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said in Bali, Indonesia Wednesday while addressing the opening of the Seventh Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction – the first international forum on the issue since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Read: Over 4.18 lakh people affected by flash floods in 5 districts "We must secure better coherence and implementation of the humanitarian development nexus. That means improving risk governance. Because despite our efforts, risk creation is outpacing risk reduction," Amina added. There are no governance frameworks in place to manage risks and mitigate their impact. The UN's 2022 Global Assessment Report, published last month, outlines ways in which governance systems can evolve to better address systemic risks. The report makes it clear that in a world of uncertainty, understanding and reducing risk is fundamental to achieving sustainable development. Amina referred to "new multilateral instruments" in this area, such as the UN's Complex Risk Analytics Fund, which supports "data ecosystems" that can better anticipate, prevent, and respond to complex threats, before they turn into full-blown disasters. "This includes jointly developing risk analysis and investing in coordination and data infrastructure that enables knowledge-sharing and joint anticipatory action. Such investments will help us navigate complex risks earlier, faster, and in a more targeted and efficient manner," she said. Read: Tension mounts as BCL, JCD clash at DU "Also, We urgently need to step up international cooperation for prevention and disaster risk reduction in the most vulnerable countries and the most vulnerable communities, including women and girls, people with disabilities, the poor, marginalised and isolated," Amina added.

Over-consumption in the richest countries is creating unhealthy, dangerous, and toxic conditions for children globally, according to a recent report by the UN Children's Fund (Unicef). "Not only are the majority of rich countries failing to provide healthy environments for children within their borders, but they are also contributing to the destruction of children's environments in other parts of the world," said Gunilla Olsson, director of the Unicef Office of Research – Innocenti. The latest Innocenti Report Card 17: Places and Spaces, published Tuesday, compares how 39 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union (EU) impact children's environments. Indicators include exposure to harmful pollutants, such as toxic air, pesticides, damp and lead; access to light, green spaces and safe roads; and countries' contributions to the climate crisis, resource consumption, and e-waste dumping. Read: WHO: COVID-19 cases mostly drop, except for the Americas The report states that if the entire world consumed resources at the rate of the OECD and the EU countries, the equivalent of 3.3 earths would be needed to keep up with consumption levels. If it were at the rate at which people in Canada, Luxembourg and the US do, at least five earths would be needed. While Spain, Ireland and Portugal feature at the overall top of the list, all the OECD and the EU countries are failing to provide healthy environments for all children across all indicators. Based on CO2 emissions, e-waste and overall resource consumption per capita, Australia, Belgium, Canada and the US are among other wealthy countries that rank low on creating a healthy environment for children within and beyond their borders. Meanwhile, Finland, Iceland and Norway are among those that provide healthier environments for their country's children but disproportionately contribute to destroying the global environment. "In some cases, we are seeing countries providing relatively healthy environments for children at home while being among the top contributors to pollutants that are destroying children's environments abroad," said Gunilla. In contrast, the least wealthy OECD and EU countries in Latin America and Europe have a much lower impact on the wider world. Read: Davos climate focus: Can ‘going green’ mean oil and gas? Over 20 million children in this group have elevated levels of lead – one of the most dangerous environmental toxic substances – in their blood. Many children are breathing toxic air both in and outside of their homes. More than one in 12 children in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Israel and Poland are exposed to high pesticide pollution, which has been linked with cancer – including childhood leukaemia – and can harm vital body systems. "Mounting waste, harmful pollutants and exhausted natural resources are taking a toll on our children’s physical and mental health and threatening our planet’s sustainability," said Gunilla.

The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths are still falling globally after peaking in January, the World Health Organization said. In its latest weekly assessment of the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said there were more than 3.7 million new infections and 9,000 deaths in the last week, drops of 3% and 11% respectively. COVID-19 cases rose in only two regions of the world: the Americas and the Western Pacific. Deaths increased by 30% in the Middle East, but were stable or decreased everywhere else. WHO said it is tracking all omicron subvariants as “variants of concern.” It noted that countries which had a significant wave of disease caused by the omicron subvariant BA.2 appeared to be less affected by other subvariants like BA.4 and BA.5, which were responsible for the latest surge of disease in South Africa. Read: Global Covid cases near 530 million Salim Abdool Karim, an infectious diseases expert at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said it appeared that South Africa had passed its most recent wave of COVID-19 caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants; the country has been on the forefront of the pandemic since first detecting the omicron variant last November. Karim predicted that another mutated version of omicron might emerge in June, explaining that the large number of mutations in the variant meant there were more opportunities for it to evolve. Read: Davos climate focus: Can ‘going green’ mean oil and gas? Meanwhile in Beijing, authorities in the Chinese capital ordered more workers and students to stay home and implemented additional mass testing Monday as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise. Numerous residential compounds in the city have restricted movement in and out, although lockdown conditions remain far less severe than in Shanghai, where millions of citizens have been under varying degrees of lockdown for two months. China is vowing to stick to a “zero-COVID” policy despite the fact that the WHO describes the policy as “unsustainable,” given the infectious nature of omicron and its subvariants.  

Boeing’s crew taxi returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Wednesday, completing a repeat test flight before NASA astronauts climb aboard. It was a quick trip back: The Starliner capsule parachuted into the New Mexico desert just four hours after leaving the orbiting lab, with airbags attached to cushion the landing. Only a mannequin was buckled in. Aside from thruster failures and cooling system snags, Starliner appeared to clinch its high-stakes shakedown cruise, 2 1/2 years after its botched first try. Flight controllers in Houston applauded and cheered the bull’s-eye touchdown. “It’s great to have this incredible test flight behind us,” said Steve Stich, director of NASA’s commercial crew program. He described the demo as “extremely successful,” with all objectives met. Also read:US astronaut ends record-long spaceflight in Russian capsule Added Boeing’s Mark Nappi, a vice president: “On a scale of one to 10, I think I’d give it a 15.” Based on these early results, NASA astronauts will strap in next for a trip to the space station, perhaps by year’s end. The space agency has long wanted two competing U.S. companies ferrying astronauts, for added insurance as it drastically reduced its reliance on Russia for rides to and from the space station. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is already the established leader, launching astronauts since 2020 and even tourists. Its crew capsules splash down off the Florida coast, Boeing’s Starliner returns to the Army’s expansive and desolate White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Boeing scrapped its first attempt to reach the space station in 2019, after software errors left the capsule in the wrong orbit and nearly doomed it. The company fixed the flaws and tried again last summer, but corroded valves halted the countdown. Following more repairs, Starliner finally lifted off from Cape Canaveral last Thursday and docked to the space station Friday. Station astronauts tested Starliner’s communication and computer systems during its five days at the space station. They also unloaded hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of groceries and other supplies that flew up in the Boeing capsule, then filled it with empty air tanks and other discarded gear. A folded U.S. flag sent up by Boeing stayed behind, to be retrieved by the first Starliner crew. “We’re a little sad to see her go,” station astronaut Bob Hines radioed as the capsule flew away. Along for the ride was Starliner’s test dummy — Rosie the Rocketeer, a takeoff on World War II’s Rosie the Riveter. The repairs and do-over cost Boeing nearly $600 million.

The overall number of Covid cases is fast approaching 530 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world. According to the latest global data, the total case count mounted to 529,701,594 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,306,199 on Thursday morning. The US has recorded 85,440,340 cases so far and 1,030,415 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows. India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,142,192 on Wednesday with 2,124 new cases registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's data. Besides, 17 deaths from the pandemic registered across the country since Monday morning took the total death toll to 524,507. Situation in Bangladesh Bangladesh registered 30 new Covid cases in 24 hours till Wednesday morning, taking the country's total caseload to 1,953,328, health authorities said. With no new Covid deaths reported during the period, the total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,130. On May 23, the country saw two deaths from Covid-19 with 31 new cases. On Tuesday, the country saw 34 new cases with zero deaths. The daily test positivity rate slightly dropped to 0.65 per cent from Tuesday’s 0.69 per cent as 4,660 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent. The recovery rate rose to 97.35 per cent as 215 patients recovered during this period. Also read:COVID-19: Urgent action sought to close vaccine equity gap In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS. Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine. The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 cases, since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020. Also read:N. Korea's low death count questioned amid COVID-19 outbreak On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 per cent. The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.

Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as finance minister as this Indian Ocean island nation confronts its worst economic crisis in memory. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa named Wickremesinghe minister of Finance, Economic Stability and National Policies in an apparent bid to regain Sri Lanka’s credibility as the government negotiates a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund. Sri Lankans have been enduring shortages of food and fuel, power outages and other privations. The country lacks the financial wherewithal to buy imported necessities and pay its debts, and the economic crisis has fueled political turmoil, with protesters demanding Rajapaksa’s resignation. Wickremesinghe’s appointment followed a government announcement that Sri Lanka was hiring firms to restructure its $51 billion external debt. Lazard of France will provide financial advice and Clifford Chance LLP will assist with legal help in restructuring Sri Lanka’s debts to international creditors. A five-time former prime minister, Wickremesinghe was appointed to the post two weeks ago after his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa — who is the president’s elder brother — resigned following violent attacks by his supporters on peaceful anti-government protesters. Also read: Wickremesinghe to be appointed Sri Lankan PM: Party official Sri Lankans for months have been forced to stand in long lines to buy scarce essentials, with many returning home empty-handed. There is a severe shortage of many goods, from food, cooking gas, medicine and fuel to toilet paper and matchsticks. The economy has suffered under the pandemic, which has kept tourists away, and surging costs for most imports. Nearly bankrupt, the country has suspended repayments of $7 billion in foreign loans due this year. The IMF has said any short or long-term assistance will hinge on talks with creditors on restructuring loans. Sri Lanka must repay about $25 billion in foreign loans by 2026. The finance ministry said earlier this month that the country’s usable foreign reserves had plummeted to $25 million. Wickremesinghe, 73, has been in Parliament for 45 years. His political party split in 2020 amid a leadership crisis and its most senior members left to form a new party, which is currently the country’s main opposition. He said last week that petrol stocks had dwindled to a single day, but shipments of gasoline paid for by an Indian credit line started arriving over the weekend. Also read: Sri Lanka leader vows to shed powers, appoint prime minister Protesters have been occupying the entrance to the president’s office for more than 40 days demanding Rajapaksa’s resignation. Attacks on peaceful protesters by government supporters triggered countrywide riots in which nine people died including a lawmaker and 200 were hurt. Homes and properties of government ministers and their supporters were burned down. The violence has nearly dismantled the Rajapaksa dynasty after Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as prime minister. Apart from being tasked with reviving the economy, Wickremesinghe is working on a constitutional amendment to dilute presidential powers and better empower the Parliament.

Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by a Border Patrol team. “Go in there! Go in there!” nearby women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene from outside his house, across the street from Robb Elementary School in the close-knit town of Uvalde. Carranza said the officers did not go in. Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school when he heard about the shooting, arriving while police were still gathered outside the building. Upset that police were not moving in, he raised the idea of charging into the school with several other bystanders. “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” he said. “More could have been done.” “They were unprepared,” he added. Minutes earlier, Carranza had watched as Salvador Ramos crashed his truck into a ditch outside the school, grabbed his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle and shot at two people outside a nearby funeral home who ran away uninjured. Officials say he “encountered” a school district security officer outside the school, though there were conflicting reports from authorities on whether the men exchanged gunfire. After running inside, he fired on two arriving Uvalde police officers who were outside the building, said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Travis Considine. The police officers were injured. After entering the school, Ramos charged into one classroom and began to kill. He “barricaded himself by locking the door and just started shooting children and teachers that were inside that classroom,” Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Department of Public Safety told CNN. “It just shows you the complete evil of the shooter.” All those killed were in the same classroom, he said. Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told reporters that 40 minutes to an hour elapsed from when Ramos opened fire on the school security officer to when the tactical team shot him, though a department spokesman said later that they could not give a solid estimate of how long the gunman was in the school or when he was killed. “The bottom line is law enforcement was there,” McCraw said. “They did engage immediately. They did contain (Ramos) in the classroom.” Meanwhile, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said the Border Patrol agents had trouble breaching the classroom door and had to get a staff member to open the room with a key. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation. Carranza said the officers should have entered the school sooner. “There were more of them. There was just one of him,” he said. Uvalde is a largely Latino town of some 16,000 people about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Mexican border. Robb Elementary, which has nearly 600 students in second, third and fourth grades, is a single-story brick structure in a mostly residential neighborhood of modest homes. Before attacking the school, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother at the home they shared, authorities said. Neighbor Gilbert Gallegos, 82, who lives across the street and has known the family for decades, said he was puttering in his yard when he heard the shots. Ramos ran out the front door and across the small yard to the truck parked in front of the house. He seemed panicked, Gallegos said, and had trouble getting the truck out of park. Then he raced away: “He spun out, I mean fast,” spraying gravel in the air. His grandmother emerged covered in blood: “She says, ‘Berto, this is what he did. He shot me.’” She was hospitalized. Gallegos, whose wife called 911, said he had heard no arguments before or after the shots, and knew of no history of bullying or abuse of Ramos, who he rarely saw. Investigators also shed no light on Ramos’ motive for the attack, which also left at least 17 people wounded. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Ramos, a resident of the small town about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio, had no known criminal or mental health history. “We don’t see a motive or catalyst right now,” said McCraw of the Department of Public Safety. Ramos legally bought the rifle and a second one like it last week, just after his birthday, authorities said. About a half-hour before the mass shooting, Ramos sent the first of three online messages warning about his plans, Abbott said. Ramos wrote that he was going to shoot his grandmother, then that he had shot the woman. In the last note, sent about 15 minutes before he reached Robb Elementary, he said he was going to shoot up an elementary school, according to Abbott. Investigators said Ramos did not specify which school. Ramos sent the private, one-to-one text messages via Facebook, said company spokesman Andy Stone. Grief engulfed Uvalde as the details emerged. The dead included Eliahna Garcia, an outgoing 10-year-old who loved to sing, dance and play basketball; a fellow fourth-grader, Xavier Javier Lopez, who had been eagerly awaiting a summer of swimming; and a teacher, Eva Mireles, whose husband is an officer with the school district’s police department. Also read: Gunman kills at least 18 children at Texas elementary school “You can just tell by their angelic smiles that they were loved,” Uvalde Schools Superintendent Hal Harrell said, fighting back tears as he recalled the children and teachers killed. The tragedy was the latest in a seemingly unending wave of mass shootings across the U.S. in recent years. Just 10 days earlier, 10 Black people were shot to death in a racist attack at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket. The attack was the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. Amid calls for tighter restrictions on firearms, the Republican governor repeatedly talked about mental health struggles among Texas young people and argued that tougher gun laws in Chicago, New York and California are ineffective. Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is running against Abbott for governor, interrupted Wednesday’s news conference, calling the tragedy “predictable.” Pointing his finger at Abbott, he said: “This is on you until you choose to do something different. This will continue to happen.” O’Rourke was escorted out as some in the room yelled at him. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin yelled that O’Rourke was a “sick son of a bitch.” Texas has some of the most gun-friendly laws in the nation and has been the site of some of the deadliest shootings in the U.S. over the past five years. Also read: 3 teens killed, 1 injured in gas station shooting in U.S. Texas “I just don’t know how people can sell that type of a gun to a kid 18 years old,” Siria Arizmendi, the aunt of victim Eliahna Garcia, said angrily through tears. “What is he going to use it for but for that purpose?” President Joe Biden said Wednesday that “the Second Amendment is not absolute” as he called for new limitations on guns in the wake of the massacre. But the prospects for reform of the nation’s gun regulations appeared dim. Repeated attempts over the years to expand background checks and enact other curbs have run into Republican opposition in Congress. The shooting came days before the National Rifle Association annual convention was set to begin in Houston, with the Texas governor and both of the state’s Republican U.S. senators scheduled to speak. Dillon Silva, whose nephew was in a classroom, said students were watching the Disney movie “Moana” when they heard several loud pops and a bullet shattered a window. Moments later, their teacher saw the attacker stride past. “Oh, my God, he has a gun!” the teacher shouted twice, according to Silva. “The teacher didn’t even have time to lock the door,” he said. The close-knit community, built around a shaded central square, includes many families who have lived there for generations. Lorena Auguste was substitute teaching at Uvalde High School when she heard about the shooting and began frantically texting her niece, a fourth grader at Robb Elementary. Eventually she found out the girl was OK. But that night, her niece had a question. “Why did they do this to us?” the girl asked. “We’re good kids. We didn’t do anything wrong.”