Teen gunman kills 19 children and teacher at Texas school

A teenage gunman killed at least 19 children and two adults after storming into a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, the latest bout of gun-fueled mass murder in the United States and the nation’s worst school shooting in nearly a decade.

The 18-year-old suspect, who was killed apparently by police, also had shot his own grandmother before fleeing from the scene, then crashing his getaway car and launching a bloody rampage at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde, Texas, about 80 miles (130 km) west of San Antonio.

The motive was not immediately clear.

Law enforcement officers saw the gunman, clad in body armor, emerge from his crashed vehicle carrying a rifle and “engaged” the suspect, who nevertheless managed to charge into the school and open fire, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Sergeant Erick Estrada said on CNN.

Speaking from the White House hours later, a visibly shaken U.S. President Joe Biden urged Americans to stand up to the politically powerful U.S. gun lobby, which he blamed for blocking enactment of tougher “common-sense” firearms safety laws.

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