Texas school shooting: Officials outline updated timeline of the attack Greg Abbott backed out of a scheduled appearance at the National Rifle Association’s convention in Houston on Friday, days after a gunman massacred 19 children and two teachers. He was scheduled to speak alongside former president Donald Trump and senator Ted Cruz but will now deliver “pre-recorded video remarks”. Meanwhile, police are being slammed for their delayed response, with videos showing desperate parents outside Robb Elementary School during the attack, pleading officers to storm the building. The father of 10-year-old victim Jacklyn Cazares said he even suggested he could go in himself with other bystanders as he was frustrated police were not doing it themselves. Details of the timeline remain unclear, including whether officers failed to prevent 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos from entering the school, and whether he “barricaded” himself inside a classroom before or after killing fourth-grade children inside. Messages from Ramos to recipients on social media appear to show him flaunting his weapons and announcing plans to “shoot up a elementary school” moments before the killings. Key points Show latest update 1653629453 Greg Abbott to skip NRA convention Texas governor Greg Abbott will not be attending the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Houston following the school shooting this week, his office said late on Thursday. He will instead visit Uvalde again. Mr Abbott was set to speak at the NRA leadership forum on Friday alongside former president Donald Trump and senator Ted Cruz. The National Rifle Association’s spokesperson has said that the governor will still pre-record remarks on video to be aired at the gun group’s event, according to the Dallas Morning News. My colleague Stuti Mishra reports: Namita Singh27 May 2022 06:30 1653629392 Yankees, Rays use social media to raise awareness about gun violence The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays used their social media accounts to raise awareness about gun violence on Thursday instead of covering their Major League Baseball. “In lieu of game coverage and in collaboration with the Tampa Bay Rays, we will be using our channels to offer facts about the impacts of gun violence,” the Yankees said in a statement. “The devastating events that have taken place in Uvalde, Buffalo and countless other communities across our nation are tragedies that are intolerable.” The Rays said that shootings “cannot become normal” and that they had made a $50,000 commitment to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. Throughout their game on Thursday, both teams continued to post facts about gun violence on their social media profiles, along with links to sources and helpline numbers. Neither team posted the result of the game. Namita Singh27 May 2022 06:29 1653627144 Shooter shared warning signs on social media handle The 18-year-old gunman had left warning signs on his social media handle for days before he entered a Texas elementary school, slaughtering 19 children and two teachers. There was the Instagram photo of a hand holding a gun magazine, a TikTok profile that warned, “Kids be scared,” and the image of two AR-style semi-automatic rifles displayed on a rug, pinned to the top of the killer’s Instagram profile. Shooters are increasingly leaving digital trails on social media, hinting about what is to come long before executing. “When somebody starts posting pictures of guns they started purchasing, they’re announcing to the world that they’re changing who they are,” said Katherine Schweit, a retired FBI agent who spearheaded the agency’s active shooter programme. “It absolutely is a cry for help. It’s a tease: can you catch me?” For law enforcement and social media companies, spotting a gun post from a potential mass shooter is like sifting through quicksand, Schweit said. A group of text messages sent by Salvador Ramos, 18, just before he carried out a mass shooting that killed 19 children and two faculty members at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (screengrab) That’s why she tells people not to ignore those type of posts, especially from children or young adults. Report it, she advises, to a school counselor, the police or even the FBI tip line. In an undated screenshot from the Instagram account of Salvador Ramos the suspected gunman appears to hold an ammunitions magazine (Instagram/AFP via Getty Images) Before shooting 17 students and staff members dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, Nikolas Cruz posted on YouTube that he wanted to be a “professional school shooter”, and shared photos of his face covered, posing with guns. The FBI took in a tip about Cruz’s YouTube comment, but never followed up with Cruz. In November, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley shared a photo of a semi-automatic handgun his dad had purchased with the caption, “Just got my new beauty today”, days before he went on to kill four students and injured seven others at his high school in Oxford Township, Michigan. And days before entering a school classroom and killing 19 small children and two teachers, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos left similar clues across Instagram. Namita Singh27 May 2022 05:52 1653626142 Police questioned over their delayed response to Texas school shooting It was 11.28am when the Ford pickup slammed into a ditch behind the low-slung Texas school and the driver jumped out carrying an AR-15-style rifle. Twelve minutes after that, authorities say, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos was in the hallways of Robb Elementary School. Soon he entered a fourth-grade classroom. And there, he killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in a still-unexplained spasm of violence. At 12.58pm, law enforcement radio chatter said Ramos had been killed and the siege was over. Crosses with the names of Tuesday's shooting victims are placed outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Thursday, 26 May 2022 (AP) What happened in those 90 minutes, in a working-class neighbourhood near the edge of the little town of Uvalde, has fueled mounting public anger and scrutiny over law enforcement’s response to Tuesday’s rampage. “They say they rushed in,” said Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, and who raced to the school as the massacre unfolded. “We didn’t see that.” Namita Singh27 May 2022 05:35 1653624948 ‘He probably would have shot me too,’ says gunman’s father The gunman’s father, also named Salvador Ramos, 42, expressed remorse for his son’s actions in a first interview on Thursday. “I just want the people to know I am sorry, man, what my son did,” he told the Daily Beast. “I never expected my son to do something like that. “He should have just killed me, you know, instead of doing something like that to someone.” Ramos said he was at work on the day of the shooting and learned of it only when his mother told him on the phone. He began calling local jails to ask if the son was there and eventually, it sunk in. (Texas Department of Public Safety) “They killed my baby man,” he told the outlet. I’m never gonna see my son again, just like they’re not gonna see their kids. And that hurts me. Salvador Ramos The father said his son was “a good person” and has no idea why he got so violent. “My mom tells me he probably would have shot me too because he would always say I didn’t love him,” Mr Ramos said. He said that his own mother was suffering from cancer and he could risk being exposed to coronavirus. His son grew frustrated with the Covid precautions about a month back and refused to speak with him. The father also blamed the boy’s mother for not buying him more school supplies, adding that he was bullied at school for wearing the same jeans and that this is the reason why he dropped out. Namita Singh27 May 2022 05:15 1653624426 Biden to travel to Uvalde on Sunday President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Uvalde on Sunday to console families and honour the victims of Tuesday’s mass shooting at the Texas school that left 19 children and two teachers dead. The Bidens will “grieve with the community that lost 21 lives in the horrific” shooting at Robb Elementary School, said the White House. The president will also meet with the community and religious leaders and victims’ families, added press secretary Karina Jean- Pierre. Activists join Senate Democrats outside the Capitol to demand action on gun control legislation after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in a Texas elementary school (AP) Jean-Pierre, the parent of an elementary school student, delivered an impassioned plea at the White House for lawmakers to come together to address gun violence. “These were elementary school kids, they should be losing their first teeth not losing their lives,” she said. She slammed the NRA for “contributing the problem of gun violence, not trying to solve it”. It’s shameful that the NRA and their allies have stood in the way of every attempt to advance measures that we all know will save lives. Karina Jean- Pierre Namita Singh27 May 2022 05:07 1653621771 Grieving husband dies after wife is slain in Texas rampage Irma Garcia’s husband died from a heart attack two days after her death in the Texas school shooting, a family member said. Joe Garcia, 50, dropped off flowers at his wife’s memorial on Thursday morning in Uvalde and returned home, where he “pretty much just fell over” and died, his nephew John Martinez told The New York Times. Married for 24 years, the couple had four children. Martinez told The Detroit Free Press that the family was struggling to grasp that while the couple’s oldest son trained for combat in the Marine Corps, it was his mother who was shot to death.“Stuff like this should not be happening in schools,” he told the newspaper. The Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary confirmed his death to the Associated Press. My colleague Graig Graziosi reports: Namita Singh27 May 2022 04:22 1653620451 Miami Heat urges fans to call their reps about gun control Instead of just holding a moment of silence for the victims in Uvalde, Texas, the Miami Heat urged its fans to call their local representatives about gun control. “The Heat urges you to contact your state senators by calling 202-224-3121 to leave a message demanding their support for common sense gun laws,” an announcer said at a Wednesday night NBA game. Nathan Place27 May 2022 04:00 1653618651 Shooter was armed with 22 30-bullet magazines, report says The gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday may have been armed with as many as 660 rounds packed into high-capacity ammunition magazines during the massacre, ABC News reports. Salvador Ramos had one 30-round magazine loaded into the AR-15-style assault rifle he used during the shooting, law enforcement sources said. The 18-year-old had another six magazines loaded into a tactical vest he was wearing, as well as 15 more loaded magazines in a backpack later discovered by police. Read more here: Nathan Place27 May 2022 03:30 1653616851 Rep Joaquin Castro demands FBI investigation of police response Rep Joaquin Castro of Texas has written to the director of the FBI, demanding an investigation of the shooting in Uvalde and the police response to it. “State authorities have provided the public with conflicting accounts of how the tragedy in Uvalde unfolded,” the Democratic congressman tweeted on Thursday. “I’m calling on the FBI to use their maximum authority to investigate and provide a full report on the timeline, the law enforcement response and how 21 Texans were killed.” Nathan Place27 May 2022 03:00