Texas shooting: Parents run toward school during shooter’s shooting spree

Video footage shows parents frantically running to their children’s school in Uvalde, Texas, despite a gunman walking inside.

Salvador Ramos, 18, was wearing body armor as he shot down anyone who got in his way with an AR-15 assault rifle yesterday afternoon.

The teenage gunman killed at least 19 children and two teachers before being shot dead by police. Children killed at Robb Elementary School ranged in age from seven to ten years old.

A video posted on Snapchat that quickly went viral on social media showed parents panicking as they headed to school. A caption with a heartbroken emoji reads, “Children run out of classrooms.”

Yesterday’s attack was the deadliest shooting at a US elementary school since a gunman killed 10 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.

A decade later, the prospects for US gun control reform seem just as distant.

Hours after the attack on Robb Elementary School, families were still waiting for news of their children.

Outside the city’s civic center, where families waited, the silence was repeatedly broken by screams and wails. A man yelled, “No! Please do not!’ as he hugged another man.

“My heart is broken today,” said Hal Harrell, the school district superintendent. “We are a small church and we need your prayers to get through this.”

Adolfo Cruz, a 69-year-old air conditioning repairman, was still outside the school as the sun went down looking for information about his 10-year-old great-granddaughter, Eliajha Cruz Torres.

He drove to the scene after receiving a startling phone call from his daughter shortly after the first reports of the shooting.

He said other relatives were at the hospital and the civic center and waiting for an update had been the most tense moment of his life.

The attack came just 10 days after a deadly, racist killing spree at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that contributed to a years-long string of mass killings in churches, schools and businesses.

President Joe Biden appeared ready for a fight, calling for new gun restrictions hours after the attack in an address to the nation.

“As a nation, we have to ask ourselves, when in God’s name are we going to take a stand against the gun lobby?” he said.

“When in God’s name are we going to do what needs to be done? Why are we willing to live with this carnage?’

The attack came as Robb Elementary counted down to the closing days of the school year with a series of themed days. Tuesday was supposed to be “Footloose and Fancy” with students wearing beautiful outfits.

Before going to school, Ramos shot his own grandmother and left her in critical condition. He then crashed his car near the school and continued shooting “kids, teachers, whoever was in his way,” officials said.

Ramos told a woman on Instagram, “I have a little secret I want to tell you,” just hours before he launched his killing spree around 11:30 a.m. local time.

State Senator Roland Gutierrez said the shooter “suggested that the kids be careful” on social media. He said that the first thing Ramos did on his 18th birthday was buy two offensive weapons.

Investigators believe Ramos posted photos on Instagram of two guns he used in the shooting. Two local police officers were shot dead after exchanging gunfire with the gunman. It is unclear how long it took authorities to arrive at the scene.

A Border Patrol officer working nearby when the shooting began burst into the school without waiting for reinforcements and shot the gunman dead.

The agent suffered minor injuries but was able to leave the school, a police officer said.

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