A gunman killed at least 18 children and a teacher on Tuesday in a rural Texas elementary school, officials said, in the deadliest American elementary school shooting since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary a decade ago.

The slayings took place just before noon at Robb Elementary School, where second through fourth graders in Uvalde, a small city west of San Antonio, were preparing to start summer break this week.

Eva Mireles, a teacher of 17 years who taught fourth graders at Robb Elementary, was shot and killed by the gunman while trying to protect her students, her aunt, Lydia Martinez Delgado, said by phone. Ms. Mireles — who was in her early 40s, married and had a child — was “very loved” and an avid hiker who took pride in teaching mostly students of Latino heritage, Ms. Delgado said. “She was the fun of the party.”

 

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