COLUMBUS, Ohio — After the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left at least 21 people dead Tuesday, the question many people are asking is, "When will school shootings stop, and what else can be done?"
10TV spoke with Gary Sigrist Jr., the CEO and President of Safeguard Risk Solutions. He travels across the country to teach emergency preparedness, in hopes to prevent what happened in Uvalde.
“There were distinct warning signs that people ignored,” he said.
Sigrist said some of those warning signs can include unusual behavior, animal cruelty or destructive behaviors that build over time.
Governor of Texas Greg Abbott said in an update Wednesday that the gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, posted on Facebook nearly 30 minutes before he barged into the Robb Elementary School, opened fire and killed 19 kids and two teachers.
"The first post was to the point of, 'I’m going to shoot my grandmother.' The second post was, 'I shot my grandmother.' The third post, maybe less than 15 minutes before arriving at the school was, 'I’m going to shoot an elementary school,'” Abbott said.
A Texas lawmaker briefed by law enforcement said Ramos purchased two AR-platform rifles on May 17 and May 20 from a local federal firearms licensee. On May 18, investigators said Ramos also bought 375 rounds of ammunition.
Officials believe he also posted on Instagram photos of the two guns he bought.
"We need to have all these ways of looking at the signs and tell people what the signs are, and then let’s tell them what to do,” Sigrist said. “When we identify who they are, we're going to be able to get them the help they need.”