Gov. Greg Abbott (R) speaks on May 25, 2022, about a massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the day prior.
The Texas Rangers are leading an investigation into a massacre at an elementary school on Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said during a Wednesday afternoon speech. Other state, local, and federal officials are also involved in a sprawling probe into the actions and motives of Salvador Rolando Ramos, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen and high school dropout who Abbott and other officials earlier named as the dead perpetrator of the Tuesday crime spree. Ramos “may have had a juvenile record” but had no adult record, Abbott said; he said Ramos used an AR-15 and 223 rounds.
“There was no known mental health history of the gunman,” according to Abbott, who then proceeded to say local leaders complained to him about the lack of mental health resources in their community just prior to the speech.
Some interpreted the overall tone of the speech as a suggestion or insinuation that mental health issues were the cause of the shooting, but the governor pivoted to suggest that survivors and law enforcement agents working the case needed to avail themselves of mental health checks in order to carry on. The governor did not explicitly say whether the shooter could or should have availed himself of mental health services, where those services might have been or might be provided, or what the outcome of those services might have entailed.
Abbott also called for a law enforcement presence in schools after explaining that police were in the school but failed to immediately stop the gunman’s attack.
Abbott…
