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The unfolding horror of Uvalde school massacre revealed as witnesses paint horrifying picture

Witnesses are describing the awful moment when the shooter went on a killing spree, with many people sharing their stories on social media

WARNING: ARTICLE CONTAINS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF SCHOOL SHOOTING. READER DISCRETION STRONGLY ADVISED

UVALDE, TEXAS: In the bloodiest school shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012, a gunman, Salvador Ramos killed at least 19 students and two teachers of Robb Elementary school on Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas, a little community west of San Antonio. The students' identities and ages have not yet been revealed, although the school served students in grades two through four. Witnesses are describing the awful moment when the shooter went on a killing spree, with many people sharing their stories on social media.

Derek Sotelo, 26, who owns a nearby car repair shop, told The Washington Post, “We saw a little girl full of blood and the parents were screaming, it was an ugly scene,” adding, “It’s a nice town, quiet, a tightknit community of 25,000, and everybody came out to help. It hurt our community, what happened. They were just little kids; they didn’t mean no harm.” Sotelo and a coworker were on their way to lunch when they say they noticed Ramos park his grey Ford F150 truck in an irregular manner near the school. Bystanders went to assist him, assuming he was experiencing auto problems, before he began shooting at them.

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“People thought that he was in trouble and so they jumped out to help him and he came out of his vehicle and started shooting at them,” another bystander told Telemundo. Workers at a nearby funeral home began yelling that he was firing. According to witnesses, the gunman then barricaded himself in a classroom. Tamica Martinez told the Washington Post that her 10-year-old son, a fourth-grader, crawled out of a window to get out of the school. Two people were shot, according to the boy.

On Tuesday, a woman named Janine A Turner wrote on Twitter that she was from Uvalde and that her nephew was injured in the shooting but did not die. “At the beginning of the school year, my little [sic] wanted to stop going to her private school here in Uvalde. And switch to Robb elementary. For some reason, I didn’t want to do it. Today… I’m so glad I followed my gut instinct,” she wrote.
Elsa G Ruiz, who says she lives in Uvalde on Facebook, said her daughters sent her a video of the shooter, which has not been officially verified by officials. 

One person wrote, “God help the families of the victims in Uvalde. And God help the first responders and health care workers who had to witness such horrific tragedy.” Another person wrote, “I’m not a religious man, but pray for those children and their teacher senselessly murdered today. Pray for the parents that lost their babies. Pray for the first responders that responded heroically and had to witness the aftermath. Pray for change. #Uvalde 🙏” Another user said, “I have no words. I feel so incredibly heartbroken for Robb Elementary and the Uvalde community. Students and school staff should never have to fear coming to school or witness this type of terror. #ProtectOurChildren”