CBS pulls ‘FBI’ season finale after Texas school shooting
CBS has pulled the season finale of “FBI” in the wake of Tuesday’s deadly mass shooting because its storyline dealt with a school shooting.
The season four finale, “Prodigal Son,” had been due to air Tuesday night.
The synopsis of the pulled episode reads: “As the team investigates a deadly robbery that garnered a cache of automatic weapons for the killers, they discover one of the perps is a classmate of Jubal’s son, who is reluctant to cooperate with the case.”
CBS will air a rebroadcast of “FBI” instead, the spokesperson said.
Fourteen students and a teacher were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a town west of San Antonio, on Tuesday. The gunman, 18, is dead, Texas’ governor said.
Texas elementary school shooting echoes the Sandy Hook massacre
The killings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a town about 85 miles west of San Antonio, recalls the agony of other tragedies, such as the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999 and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
But the violence stirs especially painful memories of Dec. 14, 2012, the day 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
In an especially grim parallel between the two events, two senior law enforcement officials told NBC News they were investigating whether the Texas suspect shot his grandmother before the incident. Lanza shot and killed his mother before he drove to Sandy Hook.
Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization founded by the parents of victims, reacted to the Texas news on Twitter: “We are devastated about reports that multiple people are dead, including children.”
A look at the students who attend Robb Elementary School
The elementary school where 14 students and a teacher were killed Tuesday is one of four elementary schools in the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District.
The school serves second-, third- and fourth-grade students. Almost 90 percent of Robb Elementary School’s 574 students are Latino, according to its 2021-2022 Campus Improvement Plan, while almost 9 percent are white.
About 87 percent of the students at Robb Elementary are considered economically disadvantaged. The state average is about 60 percent.
Police investigating whether gunman shot grandmother first
Investigators are looking into whether the gunman who killed 14 students and a teacher at a Texas elementary school Tuesday morning shot his grandmother before the attack, officials said.
Two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the shooting in Uvalde said law enforcement was investigating whether the grandmother was shot.
The gunman, 18, is dead, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. He has been identified as Salvador Rolando Ramos, 18. He lived in Uvalde, about 80 miles west of San Antonio, Abbott said.
Biden orders flags lowered to half-staff
President Joe Biden ordered flags lowered to half-staff as a mark of respect for the victims of Tuesday’s mass shooting at a Texas elementary school.
Fourteen students and a teacher were killed in what Biden called “senseless acts of violence” carried out by a gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. The gunman, 18, is also dead, Texas’ governor said.
Flags will be lowered to half-staff at the White House, at all public buildings, at military installations and naval ships, and at embassies and other facilities until sunset Saturday.
Texas shooting is 51st school shooting in U.S. since 2013
Tuesday’s mass shooting at a Texas elementary school was at least the 51st deadly school shooting in the U.S. since 2013, according to tracking by NBC News.
A total of 88 people have been killed in those shootings, including the 14 students and one teacher who the governor said were killed Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
The deaths do not include the gunman in Tuesday’s mass shooting. The gunman, 18, was killed by law enforcement officers, Gov. Greg Abbott said.
NBC News is tracking school shootings as part of an effort to provide more consistent information. There can be differing definitions of school shootings. It is the fourth school shooting in the U.S. this year, according to NBC News tracker.
Biden to make remarks on deadly shooting Tuesday evening
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden plans to make remarks on the Texas elementary school shooting that left 14 students and one teacher dead when he returns to the White House on Tuesday evening from his trip to Asia.
Biden was briefed on the shooting aboard Air Force One, the White House said.
“President Biden has been briefed on the horrific news of the elementary school shooting in Texas and will continue to be briefed regularly as information becomes available,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a tweet. “His prayers are with the families impacted by this awful event, and he will speak this evening when he arrives back at the White House.”