UVALDE, Texas—President Biden visited on Sunday at the site of the nation’s latest mass shooting, an elementary school festooned with flowers and photographs of the young victims, as the Justice Department said it would investigate how law enforcement responded to the incident and lawmakers debated tougher gun-control measures.
Mr. Biden’s travel came as the nation is grappling with the tragedy of 19 children and two teachers killed in Tuesday’s attack at Robb Elementary School. The attack was carried out by an 18-year-old, who was shot to death, but only after a lengthy delay by the police that has provoked community outrage.
The president’s trip to Uvalde, about 80 miles west of San Antonio, took place less than two weeks after he traveled to Buffalo, N.Y., where 10 people were killed in a mass shooting at a grocery store in a largely Black neighborhood.
Mr. Biden and first lady Jill Biden placed flowers at the memorial, joined by local officials and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. “We need help,” a man in the crowd shouted.
The Bidens walked along a row of large photos of the victims, pausing and touching the images. The couple then attended Mass at a local church, where Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller called children to the front and said they would help the community heal.
“We must move forward together,” he said, urging congregants to “resolve to support one another with respect for our differences.”
Mr. Biden didn’t give a speech inside, said Mary Adame, a nurse from Dallas who drove six hours to attend the service Sunday and pray for victims, not expecting the president. The Bidens walked to the front of the church and prayed and knelt along with the other parishioners, she said.
As the president left the church, someone yelled, “Do something,” and Mr. Biden replied, “We will.”
The Bidens later met privately with families of victims and survivors as well as paramedics, mental-health services providers, firefighters and law-enforcement officials.
Uvalde was choked with police and security including officers from other towns in Texas. On the blistering sunny day, the town seemed split between mourning and moving on. A charity sent emotional support dogs to the entrance of several supermarkets, where shoppers embraced them with some glee. One downtown shop around the corner from the memorial hired an actor to dress as the videogame character Sonic the Hedgehog and dance with passing children.
At St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, under ceiling fans swirling a stifling heat, school-board members, teachers and family members of victims listened as Rev. Michael Marsh dispensed with any notion that relief was near.
“We will never get over this,” Mr. Marsh told parishioners, wiping tears from his eyes. “The image of our hometown has been shattered.”
Attendees sat, some sobbing as Mickey Gerdes, an attorney and former school-board president, read the names of the victims of the shooting. He stopped several times as his voice caught. Two of his daughter’s friends were among the names, he said afterward.
After the service, former Uvalde High School teacher Willie Edwards said, “We just need to begin to grieve.”
Mr. Gerdes, however, said that he wanted answers first. In an interview outside of the church, he said he remained aghast at the police response. Police waited about an hour and a half from when the shooter started shooting outside the school to enter the building, during which time children made repeated 911 calls. The on-scene commander told officers not to go in, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday, in what it said was a mistake.
“They are trying to pin it all on him, and it’s not right,” he said of the on-scene commander.
“How could you listen to those gunshots, and not go in?” he asked. “It makes no sense.”
Memorials have popped up around Uvalde. A row of 21 empty chairs—19 child-size ones and two larger ones—faced a church. Crosses with red and blue butterflies were put in the grass by the main road. And many stores have put up signs saying “Uvalde Strong.”
A stream of mourners came to the town square Sunday morning to leave flowers, balloons and candles around a fountain. Some wiped tears, others stood silently.
“We just came to pray,” said Raquel Martinez, 69, who has lived in the town for about 35 years. “It’s very sad.”
The Justice Department will review law enforcement’s response to the mass shooting at the Texas elementary school, a spokesman said Sunday.
The review comes at the request of Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin and will seek to provide “an independent account of law enforcement actions and response that day,” as well as to identify best practices for responding to future active shooting events, the spokesman, Anthony Coley, said.
The department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing, which works closely with local police departments, will lead the review.
“This assessment will be fair, transparent, and independent,” Mr. Coley said. “The Justice Department will publish a report with its findings at the conclusion of its review.”
In Washington, leaders of both parties have expressed support for talks over new gun policies but face tough odds given how stark the divide is. Conservatives, including former President Donald Trump, appeared Friday at a National Rifle Association convention in Houston and dismissed calls for more gun regulation, saying the answer lies in a better mental-health system and fortifying schools.
Democrats are pushing for further regulating gun ownership and the types of weapons that can be sold. One area of compromise could be in so-called red-flag laws, which allow court-ordered seizures of guns when a holder is shown to be a risk to himself or others.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) said that talks with Republicans over the Memorial Day recess are progressing with the aim of reaching an agreement when Congress reconvenes in a week.
In addition to wider application of red-flag laws, there are also calls among Democrats for stronger background checks as a way to help prevent another school shooting.
Uvalde is the second-deadliest U.S. school shooting after the 2012 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six staff died. The 2018 attack at a high school in Parkland, Fla., left 17 students and staff dead.
Alabama Republican Congressman Mo Brooks also pushed back at gun-control proposals, saying that the root cause of the recent violence stems from deep social problems. “If we teach proper moral values, if we teach respect for human life, if we properly address mental-health issues that may somehow be associated with all these things then that is the way to face the problem,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”
Streams of mourners visited the site over the weekend, carrying flowers and stuffed animals.
“The whole town just feels broken,” said Armando Garcia, a 17-year-old who attends Uvalde High School. “I don’t know when it will stop feeling this way, or if it ever will.”
The grieving has been mixed with anger over the time it took to end the massacre and shifting details from officials about the timeline of events on Tuesday.
Janie Martinez, 66, came to the Mass that the Bidens attended with her great granddaughter, Julissa Reyna, who was in the school during the shooting. Julissa, who is 10, said a bullet came through the wall of her classroom and almost hit her friend. They escaped through a window.
“She’s scared,” Ms. Martinez said of her great granddaughter. Mr. Biden’s visit “let us know that we’re not by ourselves,” she said.
