Biden grieves with Texas town after latest U.S. school shooting

Reuters Followed by-INA   
UVALDE, Texas, May 29 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden landed in the Texas town of Uvalde on Sunday to comfort families ripped apart by the worst U.S. school shooting in a decade as the public demands answers about why local police failed to act swiftly.
 
There was mounting anger over the decision by local law enforcement agencies in Uvalde to allow the shooter to remain in a classroom for nearly an hour while officers waited in the hallway and children inside the room made panicked 911 calls for help.
 
Biden will meet with victims' families, survivors and first responders, attend a church service and visit a memorial erected at the Robb Elementary School where the gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.

Julian Moreno, who was attending Sunday services at Primera Iglesia Bautista where he previously served as pastor, said the police had made “a huge mistake” but that he did not hold it against them.

"I feel sorry for them because they have to live with that mistake of just standing by," Moreno, whose great-granddaughter was among those killed in Tuesday's shooting, told Reuters.

Police say the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, entered the school with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle after earlier killing his grandmother at the house they shared.

Official accounts of how police responded to the shooting have flip-flopped wildly, with calls mounting for an independent probe.
 
Biden, a Democrat, has repeatedly called for major changes to America's gun laws but has been powerless to stop mass shootings or convince Republicans that stricter controls could stem the carnage.
 
The Texas visit is his third presidential trip to a mass shooting site, including earlier this month when he visited Buffalo, New York, after a gunman killed 10 Black people in a Saturday afternoon attack at a grocery store.
 
The Uvalde shooting has once again put gun control at the top of the nation's agenda, months ahead of the November midterm elections, with supporters of stronger gun laws arguing that the latest bloodshed represents a tipping point.
 
"The president has a real opportunity. The country is desperately asking for a leader to stop the slaughter from gun violence," said Igor Volsky, executive director of Guns Down America.