Texas school shooting: A look at some of the deadliest shootings in US

Texas school shooting news: There have been dozens of shootings and other attacks in United States schools and colleges over the years, but until the massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School in 1999, the number of dead tended to be in the single digits. Since then, the number of shootings that included schools and killed 10 or more people has mounted. The most recent two were both in Texas.

Know more about such tragic incidents:

ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, May 2022:

An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two adults, officials said. The 18-year-old attacker was killed by law enforcement.

UVALDE SCHOOL SHOOTING

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Law enforcement personnel stand outside Robb Elementary School following a shooting, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. 

Law enforcement personnel walk outside Uvalde High School after shooting a was reported earlier in the day at Robb Elementary School, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.

Also Read: 19 children killed in shooting at Texas school; Biden orders US flags be flown at half-mast

SANTA FE HIGH SCHOOL, May 2018:

A 17-year-old armed with a shotgun and a pistol opened fire at a Houston-area high school Friday, killing 10 people, most of them students, authorities said. It was the nation’s deadliest such attack since the massacre in Florida that gave rise to a campaign by teens for gun control.

The suspected shooter, who was in custody on murder charges, also had explosive devices that were found in the school and nearby, said Gov. Greg Abbott, who called the assault “one of the most heinous attacks that we’ve ever seen in the history of Texas schools.”

Investigators offered no immediate motive for the shooting. The governor said the assailant intended to kill himself but gave up and told police that he did not have the courage to take his own life.

US school shootings: Take a look at some of the deadliest incidents. 

MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL, February 2018: 

An attack left 14 students and three staff members dead at the school in Parkland, Florida, and injured many others. The 20-year-old suspect was charged with murder.

Ft. Lauderdale : Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz is escorted from the courtroom following jury pre-selection in the penalty phase of his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, May 9, 2022. Cruz previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings. 

UMPQUA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, October 13, 2015: 

Hundreds of people lined the road leading to the Oregon community college where a gunman killed nine people, holding signs reading “UCC Strong” as students returned Monday to the scene of the deadliest shooting in state history.

The Umpqua Community College campus in the small town of Roseburg reopened last week, but students are heading back to class for the first time since the Oct. 1 shooting, which also wounded nine people.

Residents waving American flags and signs greeted students driving into campus. Volunteers and dogs came to offer comfort, and tissues were available in every classroom. State troopers and sheriff’s deputies patrolled the grounds.

A family visits the memorial crosses dedicated to the the 13 people killed in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting attack, at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in Littleton, Colo., Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014. There have been dozens of shootings and other attacks in U.S. schools and colleges over the years, but until the massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999, the number of dead tended to be in the single digits. Since then, the number of shootings that included schools and killed 10 or more people has mounted. 

SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, December 2012: 

A 19-year-old man killed his mother at their home in Newtown, Connecticut, then went to the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 first graders and six educators. He took his own life.

The 2012 shooting was the deadliest attack at an elementary school in the US. Twenty of the 26 victims were between the ages of five and six.

The shooter was later identified as Adam Lanza. According to a November 2013 report, issued by the Connecticut State Attorney’s office, Lanza acted alone and planned his actions. However, it provided no indication of why he carried out the killings or targeted the school.

Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018, This photo shows radio show host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones at Capitol Hill in Washington. The Sandy Hook families' lawsuits against Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Jones for calling the 2012 Newtown school shooting in Connecticut a hoax appear poised to resume soon. That is based on agreements revealed Friday, May 13, 2022, in a Texas bankruptcy court. 

VIRGINIA TECH, April 2007: 

A 23-year-old student killed 32 people on the campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, in April 2007; more than two dozen others were wounded. The gunman then killed himself.

Kevin Sterne has spent 10 years trying not to let himself be defined by the mass shooting that nearly killed him at Virginia Tech. But now that he’s a new father, Sterne grapples with knowing that one day he must tell his son about the horror he worked so hard to put behind him.

In a Monday, April 16, 2007 file photo, Blacksburg police officers run from Norris Hall on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. as multiple shootings occur at the engineering building. Kevin Sterne has spent 10 years trying not to let himself be defined by the mass shooting that nearly killed him at Virginia Tech. But now that he's a new father, Sterne grapples with the knowledge that one day he must tell his son about the horror he worked so hard to put behind him.   

“How do I approach that? Do I talk about it? What age is appropriate to go into what kind of detail?” Sterne asked, seated outside the building where he was taking a German class on April 16, 2007, when a mentally ill student with a gun chained the doors shut and killed 30 people before killing himself.

Not until months after the shootings did Sterne’s mother hear him talk about what he saw that day. Even now, he doesn’t discuss it much: the day a bullet cut through his right leg and another one ripped his femoral artery. The day he wrapped a power cord around his leg as a tourniquet, likely saving his own life. The day four officers carried his bloody body out of Norris Hall — an image plastered on the front pages of newspapers across the country.

Jillian Soto, center, thanks the hundreds of people who came out to attend a candlelight vigil in memory of victims from the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., which was held behind Stratford High School on the Town Hall Green in Stratford, Conn., Dec. 15, 2012. Jillian's sister Vicki, a Stratford native, was a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School and was one of the victims in the shooting. There have been dozens of shootings and other attacks in U.S. schools and colleges over the years, but until the massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999, the number of dead tended to be in the single digits. Since then, the number of shootings that included schools and killed 10 or more people has mounted. 

RED LAKE HIGH SCHOOL, March 27, 2005: 

A 16-year-old student killed his grandfather and the man’s companion at their Minnesota home, then went to nearby Red Lake High School, where he killed five students, a teacher and a security guard before shooting himself.

With the bang of a drum and a high-pitched wail, the first funerals began on Saturday for victims of the shootings on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in which 10 people died.

A lone man’s sad cry gave way to songs and more drumming from a circle of a dozen men and soon hundreds of people who had gathered in the community center began filing past a pair of open caskets.

Daryl Lussier, 58, a tribal police officer, and his longtime companion Michelle Sigana, 31, were the first victims in Monday’s attack by his grandson, Jeff Weise, 16.

Lillie Perez, 11, holds a sign during a "March for Our Lives" protest for gun legislation and school safety March 24, 2018, in Houston. Students and activists across the country planned events Saturday in conjunction with a Washington march spearheaded by teens from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where over a dozen people were killed in February. There have been dozens of shootings and other attacks in US schools and colleges over the years, but until the massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999, the number of dead tended to be in the single digits. 

COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL, April 1999: 

Two students killed 12 of their peers and one teacher at the school in Littleton, Colorado, and injured many others before killing themselves.

On April 20, 1999, two teenage boys dressed in black trench coats went on a killing rampage at Columbine High School in suburban Denver. They shot and killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded two dozen others before taking their own lives.

Twenty years later, The Associated Press is republishing this story about the attack, the product of reporting from more than a dozen AP journalists who conducted interviews in the hours after it happened. The article first appeared on April 22, 1999.

In this April 21, 1999, file photo, from left, Rachel Ruth, Rhianna Cheek and Mandi Annibel, all 16-year-old sophomores at Heritage High School in Littleton, Colo., console each other during a vigil service to honor the victims of the shooting spree in Columbine High School in the southwest Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo. Twelve students and one teacher were killed in a murderous rampage at the school on April 20, 1999, by two students who killed themselves in the aftermath. 

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(With AP inputs) 

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