President Biden directs flags to fly at half-staff to honor victims in Texas elementary school shooting

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Following an elementary school shooting that left 14 children and one teacher dead in Texas, President Joe Biden announced a proclamation directing all flags to be flown at half-staff.

As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on May 24, 2022, by a gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, May 28, 2022.  I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.

President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police Chief Pete Arredondo said there also were multiple injuries from a “mass casualty incident” at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. The gunman is believed to have acted alone and is dead, he said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said two law enforcement officers were hit by bullets but didn't have serious injuries.

The names of the victims have yet to be released.