San Francisco Frontiers - Biden prays, lays wreath in Texas school massacre town

Biden, accompanied by his wife, Jill Biden, was in the small Texas town less than two weeks after making a similar trip to the site of another mass shooting -- this time targeting African Americans in a racist attack -- in Buffalo, New York.

Both wearing black, the first couple held hands in front of a memorial outside Robb Elementary School and walked slowly along the thicket of wreaths, bouquets, white crosses and blown-up photos of the slain children. Biden made the sign of the cross.

Reprising the increasingly familiar role of national mourner-in-chief, Biden was next to attend a Catholic Mass, as well as meet privately with first responders and grieving relatives of the dead.

Applause broke out from a crowd gathered at the school when the Bidens' motorcade arrived. However, illustrating the tension in the town after the massacre, there were boos at the appearance of Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

"We need changes," shouted one man.

Biden was not scheduled to speak publicly in Texas, but on Saturday he renewed his call for Congress to overcome years of paralysis to toughen firearms regulations.

"We cannot outlaw tragedy, I know, but we can make America safer. We can finally do what we have to do to protect the lives of the people and of our children," Biden said in a speech at the University of Delaware.

- Playing dead -

Harrowing accounts emerged of the ordeal faced by survivors of Tuesday's attack, where the behavior of the police is under severe scrutiny.

Ten-year-old Samuel Salinas was sitting in his fourth-grade classroom when the shooter, later identified as Salvador Ramos, 18, barged in and announced: "You're all going to die."

Then "he just started shooting," Salinas told ABC News.

Texas authorities admitted Friday that as many as 19 police officers were in the school hallway for nearly an hour before finally breaching the room and killing Ramos, saying the officers mistakenly thought that he had stopped killing and was now barricaded.

Officials now call this delay a "wrong decision" but parents have expressed fury.

Survivors describe making desperate, whispered pleas for help in 911 phone calls during the lengthy assault, while some played dead to avoid drawing the shooter's attention.

Eleven-year-old Miah Cerrillo even smeared the blood of a dead friend on herself as she feigned death.

- 'Don't move' -

Salinas said he thinks Ramos fired at him, but the bullet struck a chair, sending shrapnel into the boy's leg. "I played dead so he wouldn't shoot me," he said.

Another student, Daniel, whose mother would not provide his last name, said he saw Ramos fire through the glass in the classroom door, striking his teacher.

The bullets were "hot," he told The Washington Post, and when another bullet ricocheted and struck a fellow student in the nose, he said he could hear the sickening sound it made.

Though his teacher lay on the floor bleeding, she repeatedly told the students, "'Stay calm. Stay where you are. Don't move,'" Daniel recalled.

He was finally rescued by police who broke the windows of his classroom. Since then, he has had recurring nightmares.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday attended the funeral of a victim of the Buffalo mass shooting -- Ruth Whitfield, who was among 10 people killed on May 14, allegedly by a self-described white supremacist.

- 'Have the courage' -

Like Biden, she urged US lawmakers to take action on curbing access to firearms.

"Congress must have the courage to stand up, once and for all, to the gun lobby and pass reasonable gun safety laws," Harris tweeted.

The Uvalde shooting was the deadliest school attack since 20 children and six staff were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.

But despite the epidemic of mass shootings and ever growing flood of private gun purchases, Congress has repeatedly failed to agree on possible new regulations.

This time might be different, some lawmakers say.

Democratic Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said Sunday there were "serious negotiations" underway involving members of both parties.

I.Wright--SFF