(WWJ) – Police officials in Texas say 14 students and a teacher were killed on Tuesday when a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The gunman, an 18-year-old who lived in the community, was also killed. Authorities initially believed he was shot by responding law enforcement personnel, but the investigation was still in its early stages.
It was not immediately clear how many other people were injured in the shooting at Robb Elementary School, which has an enrollment of about 600 students.
Officials say it is the deadliest school shooting ever in Texas and the worst in the U.S. since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., when 26 were killed.
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard says the shooting comes as emotions are still raw from the mass shooting last Nov. 30 that killed four students at Oxford High School.
Speaking to WWJ Tuesday afternoon, he said other than training to respond - there isn't much that can be done to prevent gunmen from getting into schools.
"There's no 100% foolproof way of keeping weapons out of anything," he said. "You could do metal detectors, but you have a porous environment in schools. You've got windows and other doors. So you try to do the job as it's laid out before you. Each school district makes their own decision about protocols as it relates to security."
Bouchard says the sheriff's department tries to work within the parameters of school districts' security plans and makes suggestions. He says it's important for law enforcement, students, teachers, parents and others to try to stay ahead of everything they can.
"One of the biggest things we can do is communicate," Bouchard said. "If somebody sees or is aware of something, they need to share that information. We know that students and teachers are the first to probably hear of something that's concerning and we all have to communicate together and then interdict that potential threat."
Bouchard says his department is preparing for potential copycat threats in Oakland County, as happened all across Metro Detroit in the wake of the Oxford shooting. More than 70 students in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne Counties were charged with such threats in December and January.
“It happens all across the country,” Bouchard said. “We saw, after Parkland, our threats here went up quite a bit and once we had our tragedy here, they went up exponentially. People were calling from all over the world.”
Bouchard and other officials made it clear last winter that threats – even if they are not credible – will be taken seriously and those who make threats of violence will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
He said Tuesday’s news out of Texas is tough for those still suffering with trauma from the Oxford shooting – including students, parents, community members and, of course, the first responders who were on-scene at Oxford.
“Because of the recent experience that is so personal and is so raw still to so many people in our community, but it’s also something that we train for and think about and have for years, tragically -- that’s the kind of world that we live in.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday ordered U.S. and Michigan flags within the State Capitol Complex and upon all public buildings and grounds across the State of Michigan to be lowered to half-staff in honor of the victims in Texas.
"My heart breaks for the students, teachers, staff, and families of Robb Elementary School," Whitmer said. "The death of multiple students and the shooting of many others is horrific. Our state is in mourning alongside the parents who had their children taken from them today and the entire community in Uvalde, Texas."