Texas shooting: onlookers urged police to storm school during gunman’s violent attack – latest updates | Texas school shooting

As the US wakes up in the aftermath of Tuesday’s school shooting in Texas, here is what we know:

• All of the 19 young victims of the shooting have now been identified. A law enforcement official said all victims were in the same fourth-grade classroom at the Robb Elementary School.
• Law enforcement say the 18-year-old gunman charged into one classroom where he barricaded himself by locking the door, forcing a staff member to open the room with a key after Border Patrol agents struggled to breach the classroom door. Lt Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN the gunman “barricaded himself by locking the door and just started shooting children and teachers that were inside that classroom.”
• About “40 minutes or so” elapsed from when the gunman opened fire on the school security officer and when the Border Patrol team shot himDepartment of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said.
• Onlookers reportedly urged police officers to charge into the school. Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene unfold from outside his house across the street said he felt arriving officers should have entered the school sooner.
• Javier Cazares, whose daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school and arrived while police were still massed outside the building. “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” he recalled. “More could have been done.”
• However, US Border Patrol chief Raul Ortiz said topeople “didn’t hesitate” when responding to the shooting. “They didn’t hesitate. They came up with a plan. They entered that classroom and they took care of the situation as quickly as they possibly could,” he told CNN.
• More than 100 federal officers responded to Uvalde school shooting, Ortiz added. “When it was all said and done, we had over 80 officers immediately on the scene, and then right after that, 150 or so officers converged on this area,” he told CNN. Those officers came from several divisions, including the Border Patrol, Air and Marine Operations and Homeland Security Investigations.
• Before attacking the school, the gunman, named as Salvador Ramos, shot and wounded his grandmother at her home. Neighbors called police when she staggered outside and they saw she had been shot in the face, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Travis Considine said.
• The gunman sent three online messages in the half-hour before the mass shooting, according to the governor of Texas, Greg Abbot. In the first message, he wrote that he was going to shoot his grandmother. The second message reportedly confirmed that he had shot her and in the last note, sent about 15 minutes before he reached Robb Elementary, he said he was going to shoot up an elementary school.
• The private, one-to-one messages were sent via Facebook, and were “discovered after the terrible tragedy,” company spokesman Andy Stone said. He said Meta, which owns Facebook, is cooperating with investigators.
• The gunman had legally bought the rifle and a second one like it last week, just after his birthdayauthorities said.
• Investigators have so far shed no light on the motive for the attack.
• Community members attended a prayer vigil Wednesday evening at the Uvalde County Fairplex Arena.
• Authorities in Texas have called for more armed officers and armed teachers in schoolsthough Republican leaders have doubled down on their opposition to gun control.
• Texas Democrat Beth O’Rourke told the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, his inaction over gun violence made the shooting at an elementary school on Tuesday “predictable”. O’Rourke, who is running to be the next governor, told Abbott in a news conference on Wednesday: “This is on you, until you choose to do something.”
• the National Rifle Association released a statement describing the shooting as “the act of a lone, deranged criminal” and pledged to “redouble our commitment to make our schools secure”. The group will gather in Houston for its first annual meeting in three years this weekend.
• US President Joe Biden said he is “sick and tired” of continued mass shootings in the US and access to military-style weapons for youth. “When in God’s name will we do what needs to be done to, not completely stop, but fundamentally change the amount of carnage that goes on in this country.” he said. “To state the obvious, I’m sick and tired, I’m just sick and tired of what is going on, what continues to go on.”

I am Martin Belam in London and I’ll be bringing you more reaction and the latest developments until handing over to my colleagues in New York. You can contact me on [email protected]