What we know about the deadly mass shooting at Texas elementary school

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• William Brangham:

  The nation's recurring nightmare has happened again.

  Texas Governor Greg Abbott said a gunman killed 14 children and a teacher at an elementary school today. It appears the 18-year-old shooter was killed by police. Gunfire broke out in the city of Uvalde. It's about 85 miles West of San Antonio.

  Heavily armed police swarmed the school, with ambulances close behind. School staffers and others waited and watched.

  The governor then spoke in Abilene, Texas.

• Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX):

  When parents drop the kids off at school, they have every expectation to know that they're going to be able to pick their child up when that school day ends. And there are families who are in mourning right now, and the state of Texas is in mourning with him.

• William Brangham:

  For more on this tragedy, I'm joined now by Troy (sic) Plohetski. He's an investigative reporter for The Austin-American Statesman. And he is covering the story. He is driving right now to Uvalde as we speak.

  Troy is joining us by phone.

  Troy, thank you so much for being here on thi- yet another tragic day in Texas.

  I know you have covered a lot of mass shootings in the state in the past. I wonder, could you tell us what you have learned from law enforcement so far?

• Tony Plohetski, The Austin-American Statesman:

  Well, of course, the death toll is 14 children and one teacher.

  Yes. Thank you, William — and one teacher.

  Officials are still trying to also get an assessmens -t of the number of injuries. We know that other students were taking hospitals in both Uvalde and Williams, also to San Antonio, which is about 85 miles to the east of Uvalde.

  But, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the gunman walked into the school armed with at least one gun, possibly a rifle as well, and opened fire. Again, authorities are still trying to understand everything about what led up to the shooting.

  But the gunman did reportedly also shoot and injure his grandmother in the minutes leading up to the shooting at the school, William.

• William Brangham:

  You said his grandmother.

  I mean, I understand, from what the governor said earlier today, that he was a local resident. So his grandmother, it's believed, was working at the school or was at the school today?

• Tony Plohetski:

  That is unclear.

  It is possible that he may have injured her at an another location and then traveled to the school. But that is one of the open questions right now that authorities are trying to ascertain and share that information with the public at this time.

• William Brangham:

  I see.

  And given that this is an elementary school, we are likely looking at children who are very, very young victims. Did the police have anything further to say about who's in the hospital and the status of those young people?

• Tony Plohetski:

  In fact, they are very, very young.

  We know that at least one of the people who went to a hospital in San Antonio — this is being confirmed by University Health in Antonio — is a 10-year-old girl. They confirmed that they received at least two patients, a 66-year-old woman and that 10-year-old girl.

  But, again, as you mentioned, this is an elementary school. So we are in fact seeing the victims to be a very young age. And I do want to point out that it is based on our understanding that, aside from the University of Texas shooting that happened in the 1960s, that this may, in fact, become the deadliest school shooting in the state's history.

• William Brangham:

  It's really just remarkable that we have to keep having this conversation in this country.

  For people who don't know Uvalde, is there anything about that community you can give us, a sense of who lives there? Who are the children? Who are the families that might have been attending this school today?

• Tony Plohetski:

  Well, Uvalde is along a major highway heading to the Texas-Mexico border.

  It's a relatively small town, just about 16,000 residents there. But, again, it sort of stands in the shadows of San Antonio, the big sister, if you will, again, about 80 miles west of Uvalde. But, certainly, it is a community that is mourning and is in tremendous grief right now, William, and, of course, will be for the days to come, weeks to come, years to come, as a matter of fact.

• William Brangham:

  And, Tony, I know that, as I mentioned before, you have unfortunately been in the position of having to cover these types of shootings.

  Again, you find yourself in a vehicle right now driving to another one of these tragedies. I can only imagine, for you and for everyone in this community, this has got to be another terrible, terrible day.

• Tony Plohetski:

  You know, my mind goes back, of course, to the El Paso shooting that happened at a Walmart in 2019, and then, of course, before that, the Sutherland Springs shooting just two years earlier in 2017.

  And I remember being on the ground there. And one of the things that I remember so strikingly about the reporting from Sutherland Springs, similarly now with Uvalde, is that this violence, this gun violence, does not just happen in big cities across our country, but also in small towns across Texas, and, unfortunately, across America as well.

• William Brangham:

  That's right.

  All right, Tony Plohetski from The Austin-American Statesman, thank you so much for joining us. And, well, I'm sure we will be back in touch soon.

• Tony Plohetski:

  You bet.

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