right now let's go to newsy national
correspondent john moan he's in uvalde
tonight john
the first question is always why and in
this case why a school second third
fourth graders pure innocence in a
school
at this grade i understand you've talked
to some neighbors who live around the
school what they say
okay so about 10 minutes ago i spoke
with a man across the way here
says he knows
this
suspect's grandmother who
uh police say he shot
um said he knew her from
you know family connections
uh he described a scene in which
this young man 18 years old
was reportedly according to this this
neighbor his name is eduardo i just
spoke with eduardo trinidad
he said that the suspect was angry that
he did not graduate
and
he got into an argument with the
grandmother and
she was screaming he shot me he shot me
and then got in
a zoomed down the street there was some
kind of crash according to mr trinidad
uh the suspect got out uh he had
two weapons
uh and then started engaging
gunfire uh from that point on uh
apparently according to mr trinidad the
suspect walks into the school and uh
unfortunately the rest is history um
i've also spoken to other neighbors
around the corner here
who have school-aged children like
ourselves again two days away from
summer break for my son
two days away from summer break for the
600 children either go to this
elementary school again
a school which my son very well could
have attended had we lived
in uvalde
yeah the man down the road here who i
spoke with as well uh he had told me
that
he was on the other side
of uvalde when this all occurred
he rushed over here
and was beside himself
his son
uh
has a friend who is in the school at the
time
and or sorry apologies let me get my
facts right here his nephew was in the
school at the time and he tells me his
nephew had witnessed the shooting and
obviously is trying to process this he
said his nephew was uninjured but he saw
his friends
uh being shot
what we do know is that there was a
news conference at about 6 50 local time
police say there are no other suspects
school official here duvalies saying
grief counselors are available to
students starting tomorrow and school is
done no more school for the year
so uh that's uh that's what we've
learned in the last 15-20 minutes
i see john and i do want to confirm for
viewers at home that we are learning and
confirming with local authorities that
18 children
are dead
officials say that three adults are dead
right now we believe that is one teacher
we don't know if the shooter and his
grandmother or any of the other adults
are being included in that so at this
moment
we now know 18 students from the school
and one teacher have passed away
john
can i confirm with you
that
what someone told you who was who was
nearby said that
the shooter
essentially shot his way into this
school that
it started outside and then went inside
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yeah so
he had spoken to some of the law
enforcement officials that were on the
scene
they thought
this guy got into an accident he got out
of the car and then started you know he
drew his weapons and started firing and
then from that point on uh approached
the school
so
again it's a breaking news situation
we're obviously not going to learn uh
all of the details there everything is
fluid but this is what i've learned from
an eyewitness i have recorded that
interview and i'm gonna do our very
level best uh in the circumstances to
send that in uh so you can hear his
words uh he describes the situation
probably better than i can uh and
because he was there and secondly he
took a picture of what he believed to be
the suspect's vehicle and some weapons
outside of it he described he saw he saw
those uh on the street
um john on the screen we're showing
video from outside the school it says
welcome bienvenidos rob elementary and
then it says we're glad you're here
which is just
heartbreaking because
i think we're all just dreading the
composite picture of these victims
just these precious
lives stolen um
this elementary school they did post a
message asking parents not to come to
the school which goes against every
instinct of a parent who will run
through a brick wall to find their child
in this moment and police are still
notifying families we believe
yeah there's a reunification center in
the other side of the town here it's a
place we obviously have to visit at some
point um and that's where i believe most
of this activity is being facilitated
what i can tell you is right before our
live shot i saw a hearse pulling in
again uh this this is this happened
uh so recently uh they're obviously
still processing things and they are
still
um
they're still evaluating the scene and
they're still they're still victims in
there
so uh
again it's uh
it's it's very all hard to take in um
you know um just to give some personal
perspective unfortunately i've covered
way too many of these things and uh
it's uh
you can feel the gravity in a town like
uvalde when a tragedy like this happens
it uh regardless of the weather right
now uh it feels like there is a giant
dark cloud over the city uh and that is
a cloud of grief
one more thing john um if we could just
take one more moment summer break was
about to start on thursday
and these are the special moments that
kids look forward to all year long that
parents hear about you plan for you know
the field day and the
the concert and the class parties
have you heard from anyone else at the
scene or any more from the community
because
you know the the what happened in the
suspect and the laws and the guns are
important but the people
are the most important
yeah again the neighbor that i i spoke
with uh just he lives like in that
direction for him talking to you uh he
he went to this uh elementary school so
uh you know having a casual conversation
with him outside uh he was visibly
affected uh he was talking about you
know yeah this is the time when you know
the children are looking forward to this
time of year right because it's the end
of the school year and we've got a
little bit of freedom for the summer
so uh
you know everybody here is um
in shock
as would be the case if this happened in
any community
and um
again you know we've we've had
recent situations like this in texas and
uh i guess
the question is as we see we'll see what
happens uh next in terms of uh the
people you know we elect and put in
charge of this state how they approach
the situation because
all eyes will be on them
john moon in gevalde texas tonight
thank you
please keep us updated