The U.S. flag will be flown at half-staff at the White House and at locations across the United States as a mark of respect for the victims of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas.
U.S. President Joe Biden was aboard Air Force One Tuesday afternoon when officials said a gunman acted alone in fatally shooting at least 14 students and a teacher at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
Biden has ordered the U.S. flag be flown at half-staff until sunset on May 28 at all public buildings and grounds, military posts, and naval vessels across the country and its territories “as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence.”
“I hoped when I became president I would not have to do this, again,” Biden said at a press conference late Tuesday, decrying the death of “beautiful, innocent” second, third, and fourth graders in “another massacre.”
Their parents “will never see their child again, never have them jump in bed and cuddle with them,” he said.
“As a nation, we have to ask, ‘When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?’”
“We have to act,” he said and suggested reinstating the assault weapons ban and other “common sense gun laws.”
Biden spoke with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott shortly before landing in Washington “to offer any and all assistance he needs in the wake of the horrific shooting,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield wrote on Twitter.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said deputy chief of staff Jen O'Malley-Dillon and other senior members of Biden’s team briefed the president on the shooting aboard Air Force One, AP reported.
Robb Elementary School is currently attended by students in the second, third, and fourth grades.
“He shot and killed—horrifically, incomprehensibly—14 students, and killed a teacher,” Abbott said.
Abbott said Ramos is dead, likely killed by responding officers. Two officers were wounded during the confrontation but were expected to survive, he said.
Officials are investigating the shooting.
