Texas school shooting: Suspect's grandmother upgraded to good condition

Twenty-one were killed and 17 were injured in last week's mass shooting.

Last Updated: January 19, 2023, 4:57 PM EST

A small town in rural Texas was left reeling after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school, killing 19 children.

Two teachers were also killed in the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, according to authorities.

The alleged gunman -- identified by authorities as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School -- was killed by law enforcement at the scene.

The suspect allegedly shot and injured his grandmother before opening fire at the school, officials said.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news developed. All times Eastern.
May 28, 2022, 1:14 PM EDT

Texas active shooter training instructs 'move in, confront attacker,' manual shows

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District in Texas hosted active shooter training for its six-member police force two months prior to the massacre at Robb Elementary, based on the "Active Shooter Response for School-Based Law Enforcement" course from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, which explicitly states: "First responders to the active shooter scene will usually be required to place themselves in harm's way and display uncommon acts of courage to save the innocent."

The course manual also includes this sobering instruction: "A first responder unwilling to place the lives of the innocent above their own safety should consider another career field."

The training makes clear the "first priority is to move in and confront the attacker."
It is "safer" and "preferable" to have a team of at least four officers move on a subject but, since "time is the number one enemy during active shooter response," even a single officer is expected to act, according to the training document.

In Uvalde, 19 officers entered the school but remained in the hallway, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said at a press conference Friday.

Only when an attacker is isolated and "can do no more harm to students, staff, or visitors" is the officer not obligated to enter the room, which is what McCraw said the incident commander, Uvalde ISD Chief Pete Arredondo, believed.

"It was the wrong decision," McCraw said.

-ABC News' Mike Levine and Aaron Katersky

May 27, 2022, 6:40 PM EDT

Uvalde County DA to make any charging decisions following investigation into police conduct

The district attorney in Uvalde County told ABC News Friday she would make charging decisions once an investigation into the law enforcement conduct in connection with the deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School is complete.

The district attorney, Christina Mitchell Busbee, declined to answer questions about specific individuals or conduct.

The comments come after the Texas Department of Public Safety provided more details about the delayed response to Tuesday's active shooter incident.

During a press briefing Friday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would like to know why the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police chief did "not choose the strategy that would have been best to go in there." He said he does not know if the chief is still on active duty.

The superintendent of the Uvalde school district declined to answer questions about the police chief during the briefing.

-ABC News' Aaron Katersky and Josh Margolin

May 27, 2022, 5:23 PM EDT

Texas governor: 'I was misled' on police response to shooting

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he was "misled" about the response to the Uvalde school shooting.

"I am livid about what happened," Abbott said during a press briefing Friday, hours after the Texas Department of Public Safety detailed missteps that led to a 35-minute wait to breach the classroom where the shooter was.

"As everybody has learned, the information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, and I'm absolutely livid about that," Abbott said Friday. "There are people who deserve answers the most, and those are the families whose lives have been destroyed. They need answers that are accurate, and it is inexcusable that they may suffer from any inaccurate information whatsoever."

The governor said there will be investigations into the release of information on the shooting and the strategy employed in the response.

On Wednesday, Abbott said an officer had confronted the shooter at the entrance to the school building, which was not the case.

"But the reality is, as horrible as what happened, it could have been worse," he also said at the time. "The reason it was not worse, is because law enforcement officials did what they do."

May 27, 2022, 4:45 PM EDT

Texas official says gunman had 1,657 rounds of ammunition

The gunman had purchased a total of 1,657 rounds of ammunition, 315 of which were inside the school, Steven McCraw, director of Texas Department of Public Safety, said Friday.

McCraw said 142 of those rounds were spent cartridges and 173 were live rounds.

A gun lies on the ground next to the vehicle the suspect crashed near Robb Elementary School, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
Pete Luna/Uvalde Leader-News

Officials found 922 rounds outside of the school, but on school property. Of those rounds, 22 were spent cartridges and 900 were live rounds. Another 422 live rounds were found at the crash site, McCraw said.

The suspect had a total of 60 30-round magazines, 58 of which were at the school. He had fired nearly 200 rounds, most of them inside the school, said McCraw.