UVALDE, Texas — The gunman who killed 19 youngsters and two lecturers in a rural Texas elementary faculty on Tuesday entered the constructing regardless of being confronted by an armed faculty safety officer, then wounded two responding cops and engaged in a standoff inside the varsity for over an hour, state police officers stated.

Whereas gaps remained within the timeline of occasions, particulars emerged on Wednesday of a protracted scene of carnage at Robb Elementary College in Uvalde. What started round 11:30 a.m., with the primary report of an armed man approaching the varsity, ended as specialised officers breached a pair of adjoining lecture rooms and killed the gunman barricaded inside simply after 1 p.m., state police officers stated.

It was not identified what number of had been killed within the first minutes of the bloodbath, which was the deadliest in an American faculty since 20 youngsters and 6 educators had been shot to loss of life at Sandy Hook Elementary College in Newtown, Conn., in 2012. However officers stated that the officers had efficiently contained the gunman, recognized as Salvador Ramos, till extra specifically educated officers might arrive.

But at the same time as the small print of the assault turned extra clear, the motivation behind the eruption of violence remained frustratingly opaque. Within the absence of a proof, there was solely deep grief in a neighborhood unaccustomed to exterior consideration, and a uncooked renewal of the nationwide debate over firearms laws and the stupefying tally of gun violence in America.

By Wednesday, all the victims had been recognized by the officers, who had but to launch their names, however the toll of the tragedy was solely starting to take form.

All 21 fatalities occurred in a single space of the varsity, the authorities stated. They included Eva Mireles, a trainer who ran marathons in her free time, and Jailah Silguero, 10, the youngest of 4 youngsters. “I can’t imagine this occurred to my daughter,” stated her father, Jacob Silguero, crying throughout an interview. “It’s at all times been a concern of mine to lose a child.”

President Biden stated he would journey to Uvalde within the coming days to attempt to consolation the residents. He didn’t name on Congress to take up gun security laws however in remarks on Wednesday stated that the “Second Modification shouldn’t be absolute” and that earlier gun security legal guidelines didn’t violate its constitutional protections. “These actions we’ve taken earlier than, they save lives,” he stated. “They’ll do it once more.”

Nonetheless, with little obvious opening on the federal degree, states managed by Democrats moved to introduce their very own adjustments. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul stated she would work to boost to 21 — “at a minimal” — the age for purchasing AR-15-style weapons just like the one the Texas gunman used. In California, the State Senate superior a invoice alongside occasion traces, proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and modeled on Texas’ restrictive abortion regulation, that may let personal residents sue those that make or promote outlawed ghost weapons, ghost gun kits and assault-style weapons.

“This state is leaning in,” Mr. Newsom stated. “We’re leaning ahead.”

In Uvalde, prime Texas officers gathered for an emotional information convention that started with requires unity within the aftermath of the killing. “It’s insupportable and unacceptable to have on this state anyone who would kill little youngsters in our colleges,” stated Gov. Greg Abbott, who has celebrated the loosening of gun rules in Texas and pushed for a brand new regulation final yr that permits most Texans to hold a gun with out a allow.

However the somber tone that Mr. Abbott sought to strike was upended by Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat difficult Mr. Abbott’s re-election, who blamed the governor for the repeated carnage within the state. “The time to cease the subsequent taking pictures is true now and you’re doing nothing,” Mr. O’Rourke stated.

“Sit down, you’re out of line and a humiliation,” the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, responded.

The interruption and ensuing vitriol from the stage, stuffed virtually completely with Republican officers, revealed straight away the entrenched battle traces over gun possession and mass killing in the USA.

“I hate to say this however there are extra people who find themselves shot each weekend in Chicago than there are in colleges in Texas,” Mr. Abbott stated later. He criticized “individuals who assume that, properly, ‘Perhaps we simply implement harder gun legal guidelines — it’s going to resolve it,’” saying that “Chicago and L.A. and New York disprove that thesis.”

Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois responded later by pointing to proof that “the vast majority of weapons utilized in Chicago shootings come from states with lax gun legal guidelines.”

Mr. Patrick stated limiting entrances to only one at smaller colleges may very well be an answer to preserving college students protected. He additionally urged arming lecturers. Mr. Abbott harassed the necessity for higher psychological well being care, although he didn’t suggest the best way to enhance entry to it within the state.

But within the case of Mr. Ramos, there was little to boost official alarm forward of the taking pictures, officers stated. No historical past of psychological sickness. No obvious felony file. “We don’t see a motive or catalyst proper now,” stated Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Division of Public Security.

However those that knew the gunman stated he had been slipping away: He appeared to have dropped out of highschool and infrequently frightened co-workers at a fast-food restaurant the place he labored. When picked on, he would lash out in response. Acquaintances stated he steadily missed class and had few pals.

“He would curse on the prospects, on the managers, even at me,” stated Jocelyn Rodriguez, 19, an worker on the Wendy’s restaurant. She recalled that he as soon as advised her, “I’m going to shoot up the Wendy’s,” however she by no means took his threats significantly. “I assumed he was joking.”

Two weeks in the past, she stated, he stopped exhibiting as much as work.

He bought an AR-style rifle at an area retailer on Could 17, a day after his 18th birthday. Then he purchased one other one on Could 20, officers stated. In between, he purchased 375 rounds of ammunition.

He had been messaging obliquely about his plans with a 15-year-old lady in Germany who he had just lately met on-line. The lady, who requested to be recognized solely by her nickname, Cece, stated he had video-called her within the days round his birthday from a gun retailer, the place he advised her he was shopping for a rifle. Mr. Ramos additionally confirmed her, on the video name, a black bag that appeared to carry many magazines of ammunition and at the least one gun.

On Tuesday morning, mother and father dropped their youngsters off at Robb Elementary, a cheerful brick schoolhouse close to the sting of Uvalde the place everybody was making ready for summer season break.

Narcedalia Luna and her 8-year-old grandson, a 3rd grader, attended an end-of-the-year awards program within the faculty’s cafeteria. However her grandson advised her that he needed to go dwelling early. In order that they did. “I gave in and I’m glad I did,” she stated.

They returned to their dwelling on Diaz Avenue.

Alongside that very same quick road, lower than half a mile from the varsity, Mr. Ramos lived in a modest dwelling along with his grandmother. On Tuesday morning, Mr. Ramos texted the lady in Germany simply after 11 a.m., apparently aggravated that his grandmother was calling AT&T about his cellphone. “Ima do one thing to her rn,” he wrote. The screenshots don’t present Cece replying, however at 11:21 a.m., Mr. Ramos despatched one other textual content: “I simply shot my grandma in her head,” adopted instantly by one other: “Ima go shoot up a elementary faculty rn.”

Mr. Ramos, officers stated, had picked up one of many weapons he had purchased, and shot his 66-year-old grandmother within the face.

The injured girl rushed to a neighbor’s home for assist whereas Mr. Ramos sped off in her pickup truck, bringing with him a bag of ammunition and the 2 weapons. Ms. Luna stated one other neighbor noticed the grandmother with “blood on her face working throughout the road.”

The truck Mr. Ramos was driving, officers stated, crashed at excessive velocity subsequent to the varsity at roughly 11:30 a.m.

As he approached the varsity, officers stated, he encountered an Uvalde faculty district officer. There have been conflicting reviews, state police officers stated, as as to whether there was an alternate of gunfire at that time.

Because the gunman approached, Juan Paulo Ybarra Jr. stated, his little sister, a 10-year-old pupil at Robb Elementary, had been inside her fourth-grade class, watching a film. He stated she regarded out of the classroom window and noticed a person exterior with a gun, then alerted her trainer. Quickly the classroom might hear gunfire aimed towards close by home windows, she advised him.

Mr. Ybarra stated his sister described how she and her fellow classmates jumped out of the window, one after the other, and ran to a funeral dwelling throughout the road, searching for refuge.

The gunman entered the varsity. After he was inside, two officers from the Uvalde Police Division arrived, engaged the gunman and had been instantly met with gunfire, officers stated. Each had been shot.

Quickly, scores of cops responded to the scene, however the gunman had barricaded himself inside what Mr. Abbott described as internally linked lecture rooms. It might take a tactical staff, together with specialised Border Patrol brokers, to lastly breach the room.

As they entered, one of many brokers held up a protect so the opposite brokers might file in behind, an official briefed on the investigation stated. Three of the brokers fired their weapons as soon as they had been within the room, putting the gunman a number of occasions and killing him shortly after 1 p.m.

In Uvalde, which lies in a rural space close to the Mexican border dotted with desert willows and bigtooth maples, there are so few locations to host massive occasions that the governor’s information convention befell in the identical highschool the gunman had attended.

Lessons had been speculated to let loose on Thursday for the summer season. As an alternative the yr ended early as mother and father had been confronted with the unthinkable, ready for hours on Tuesday for the dreaded affirmation in regards to the destiny of their youngsters, some having supplied DNA swabs to show their relationship.

“They had been stunning, harmless youngsters,” stated George Rodriguez, who had ties to 2 youngsters killed in a taking pictures: a niece and a 10-year-old boy, Jose Flores, who he stated had been like a grandson. Mr. Rodriguez stated a counseling session on the native civic heart had provided little aid from the ache of dropping the boy whose photograph he stored in his pockets, “my little Josécito.”

Reporting was contributed by James Dobbins, Jesus Jiménez, Michael Levenson, David Montgomery, Josh Peck, Frances Robles, Edgar Sandoval, Michael D. Shear, Eileen Sullivan and Glenn Thrush. Susan C. Beachy, Jack Begg and Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.