Border Patrol Agent Credited With Killing Texas Mass Shooter

A Border Patrol agent is being credited with killing the gunman in a deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday.

An anonymous law enforcement official told the Associated Press that an agent rushed into Robb Elementary School without waiting for backup. The Border Patrol agent shot and killed the gunman, who was hiding behind a barricade, this source said. The as-yet-unidentified agent was wounded but able to walk out of the school, the source added.

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Border Patrol sources told Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin that the agent believed to have shot and killed the gunman was part of an “elite” tactical unit and had entered the school with a team while Texas law enforcement officials were engaged with the shooter.

“I’m told that that BORTAC agent went in with his technical group with other agents. They formed a stacking maneuver while Texas law enforcement was engaged with the shooter, who was barricaded,” Melugin reported to Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “They came in from opposite sides. The BORTAC agent ended up exchanging gunfire with the shooter, killed the shooter, and I am told that the agent was injured in his leg. They are trying to figure out if he was shot in the leg or hit by shrapnel.”

The Border Patrol is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

“U.S. Border Patrol Agents responded to a law enforcement request for assistance re an active shooter situation inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Upon entering the building, Agents & other law enforcement officers faced gun fire from the subject, who was barricaded inside,” Marsha Espinosa, the assistant secretary of public affairs for DHS, said in a tweet thread Thursday evening.

“Risking their own lives, these Border Patrol Agents and other officers put themselves between the shooter and children on the scene to draw the shooter’s attention away from potential victims and save lives,” Espinosa added. “At least one Border Patrol Agent was wounded by the shooter during the exchange of gunfire. On-and-off duty Border Patrol Agents arrived on the scene to assist with transferring students safely to their families and providing medical support.”

Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old who attended a nearby high school, has been identified as the suspected gunman. He is also suspected of shooting his grandmother before the school attack. Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Erick Estrada told CNN on Tuesday night she is in critical condition at a hospital. Beyond the gunman, officials said at least 21 people were killed, including 19 children and two adults, and several others were injured and transported to hospitals for treatment. A second law enforcement official who tried to engage with the shooter was also injured, but not badly, a law enforcement official told the New York Times.

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The gunman was wearing body armor and a backpack when he entered the school, and he made it into several classrooms before being taken down, Sgt. Erick Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. The shooter was armed with at least one of the two military-style rifles that he had purchased for his 18th birthday, according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who said he was briefed by state police. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said earlier in the day it was believed the shooter had a handgun and possibly a rifle.

Uvalde is a town of roughly 16,000 people, situated between San Antonio and Del Rio. The town is also dozens of miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border and has a Border Patrol station.