Teacher identified as victim in Texas school shooting
A teacher who was killed alongside at least 19 children at a school in Texas has been identified.
Eva Mireles was killed in Uvalde, Texas when a teenage gunman opened fire at an elementary school. At least 21 people are dead, including 19 school-aged children.
Ms Mireles' aunt has released a statement in the wake of the shooting.
"I'm furious that these shootings continue. These children are innocent. Rifles should not be easily available to all," Lydia Martinez Delgado, said in a statement according to ABC7.
"This is my hometown, a small community of less than 20,000. I never imagined this would happen to especially loved ones ... All we can do is pray hard for our country, state, schools, and especially the families of all."
On Twitter, a woman who said Ms Mireles was her daughter's teacher described her as a "beautiful person" and "dedicated teacher.
"She believed in Gabby & went above & beyond to teach her as you can see below. There are no words," the mother said.
According to Robb Elementary Ms Mireles has been teaching for 17 years and has a daughter.
The death toll includes two adults, however, it is unclear if that number includes the gunman. ABC7 reported that sources had revealed the death toll is expected to rise.
The school's website is also advising parents to not pick their children up from school. It is believed several students were also injured and have been taken to hospital.
"Students need to be accounted for before they are released to your care," the notification on the website says.
"You will be notified to pick up students once all are accounted for."
Students have been taken to the Civic Centre for reunification, the premise is under a Secure Status while the children are being accounted for.
The gunman entered the school after crashing his car outside, the Associated Press reported.
Before heading to school, he reportedly killed his grandmother with two military-style rifles he purchased on his 18th birthday.
Sgt. Erick Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN that buying the guns was the first thing he did.
When the shooting began, a Border Patrol agent was working nearby and he rushed to the school without backup and killed the gunman, an anonymous law enforcement official told the Associated Press.
Deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook
The massacre at Robb Elementary School in the heavily Latino town was the deadliest shooting at a US grade school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, almost a decade ago.
It's also the deadliest school shooting in Texas ever.
The attack also came just 10 days after a deadly, racist rampage at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that added to a years-long series of mass killings at churches, schools and stores.
These kinds of mass shootings rarely happen elsewhere in the world.
Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with it?
It’s time to turn this pain into action.— President Biden (@POTUS) May 25, 2022
The prospects for any reform of the nation’s gun regulations seemed as dim as in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook deaths.
However, it appeared President Joe Biden seemed ready to call for gun restrictions in the wake of the mass shooting.
“As a nation, we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what has to be done?” Mr Biden asked.
“Why are willing to live with this carnage?"
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