The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-25)

Behind bulletproof shields G ustavo Petro,

vying to become C olombia's first leftist leader,

campaigns amid a rise in death threats. A

FOOD

A lasting impact

Joyce Chen’s influence

outlived her TV show. E

STYLE

Online hostility

Fans of Amber Heard are

targeted by vitriol. C

In the News

THE NATION

T he panel tasked with

identifying new names

for Army bases that hon-

or Confederate officers

recommended the

names of women and

minorities. A

NOAA i s forecasting a

seventh straight above-

normal Atlantic hurri-

cane season, with 14 to

21 named storms and

three to six major hurri-

canes. A

THE WORLD

Doctors in Africa

noted a double standard

in the global attention to

monkeypox after people

in the West started get-

ting sick. A

A trove of Xinjiang po-

lice files, leaked during

the U.N. human rights

chief’s visit to China,

sheds fresh light on Bei-

jing’s crackdown on eth-

nic Uyghurs. A

President Biden said

that policy toward China

has not changed, a day

after saying the U.S. mil-

itary would defend Tai-

wan in the event of an in-

vasion. A

THE ECONOMY

A potential primary l oss

in Oregon could rekindle

Democrats’ interest in

pushing through pre-

scription drug legislation

before the midterms. A

At Davos, ongoing war,

the c oronavirus pan-

demic and fears of reces-

sion cast a cloud over the

economic summit. A

THE REGION

Metro will reinstate 64

of its 7000-series rail

cars over the summer in

an initial step that the

agency hopes will be fol-

lowed by the return of

the rest the fleet. B

D.C.’s mayor h as over-

seen significant progress

on her goal to end home-

lessness in the city. B

D efense attorneys and

prosecutors released a

22-minute video of

Proud Boys leader Hen-

ry “Enrique” Tarrio

meeting with the Oath

Keepers founder on the

eve of the Capitol riot. B

A Maryland man pos-

ing as a U.S. marshal was

arrested when he called

for backup, prosecutors

said. B

Inside

CAROLINA NAVAS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST BUSINESS NEWS.......................A

COMICS.......................................C

OPINION PAGES.........................A

LOTTERIES...................................B

OBITUARIES................................B

TELEVISION.................................C

WORLD NEWS............................A

CONTENT © 2022

The Washington Post / Year 145, No. 171

1

BY ARELIS R. HERNÁNDEZ,

JOANNA SLATER,

DEVLIN BARRETT

AND SILVIA FOSTER-FRAU

uvalde, tex. — A gunman

wearing body armor and carry-

ing a rifle killed at least 19

children and two teachers at an

elementary school in this Texas

city on Tuesday, authorities said.

It was the deadliest mass

shooting to unfold at an Ameri-

can school in nearly a decade.

The massacre began at 11:

a.m., police said, on the third-to-

last day of the school year. The

shooter opened fire in a fourth-

grade classroom, a parent said,

sending children fleeing for their

lives. They crawled through win-

dows and hid in a nearby funeral

home to escape, witnesses said.

Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the

Texas Department of Public Safe-

ty said that 19 children and two

teachers were confirmed dead.

The gunman was killed by law

enforcement officials.

Before the gunman drove to

the school, he shot his grand-

mother, police said. She was

airlifted to a hospital in San

Antonio, as were several other

victims.

The shooter barricaded himself

inside the school and exchanged

gunfire with officers as they en-

tered the building, said Marsha

Espinosa, a spokeswoman for the

SEE SHOOTING ON A

WILLIAM LUTHER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A woman cries as she leaves the Uvalde, Tex., civic center after a deadly mass shooting Tuesday at the city’s Robb Elementary School.

Children crawled out windows and hid in a nearby funeral home to escape the gunfire, witnesses said.

BY TYLER PAGER

AND DAVID NAKAMURA

President Biden will sign an

executive order Wednesday aimed

at bolstering police accountabili-

ty, White House officials said, a

step that could re-energize federal

reform efforts as the nation marks

the second anniversary of the po-

lice killing of George Floyd.

The order — which drew sup-

port from leaders of some major

policing organizations — will call

for the creation of national stan-

dards for the accreditation of po-

lice departments and a national

database of federal officers with

substantiated complaints and dis-

ciplinary records, including those

fired for misconduct. It also will

instruct federal law enforcement

agencies to update their use-of-

force policies to emphasize de-es-

calation, Biden aides said during a

background briefing for reporters

Tuesday.

Advocates have been urging the

White House to take such action

SEE POLICING ON A

Order on

policing set

for Floyd

anniversary

Biden to call for national

accreditation standards,

list of problem officers

ABCDE

Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington. M2V1 V2 V3 V

Cloudy 68/59 • Tomorrow: Mostly cloudy, humid 71/68 B8 Democracy Dies in Darkness WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 , 2022. $

19 children killed at Texas school

2 teachers also slain on elementary

campus west of San Antonio

18-year-old gunman, who engaged in

shootout with officers, is dead

Mass shooting is latest in spate

of violence plaguing nation

BY SARAH PULLIAM BAILEY

AND MICHELLE BOORSTEIN

Two days after an explosive re-

port concluded that its leaders

mishandled and covered up sex

abuse claims, leaders of the South-

ern Baptist Convention said at a

public meeting Tuesday that they

would release names from a list of

alleged abusers they kept secretly

for years. They also said that they

owe abuse survivors an apology

and that the huge denomination

must fundamentally change its

culture.

The report released Sunday

sent shock waves through the

country’s largest Protestant de-

nomination. It said leaders main-

tained a secret database of alleged

sexual abusers and found that a

top leader was credibly accused of

assaulting a woman a month after

leaving the presidency of the

13 million-member convention.

An attorney for the SBC’s ad-

ministrative arm, the Executive

Committee, said it is working on

making the list of sex abusers

available to the public Thursday

once the committee makes sure

the names of survivors are not

disclosed and ensures the names

of abusers are substantiated.

The report and Southern Bap-

tist leaders’ response come after

nearly 15 years of debates over

how to handle sex abuse claims

within the denomination. It took

years of several sex abuse survi-

vors sharing their stories with na-

tional media outlets, blogs and on

social media before Southern Bap-

tists requested a third-party inves-

tigation into how it was being

handled.

A 2007 investigation by the ABC

SEE CHURCH ON A

Southern Baptists to release list of alleged abusers

Convention’s board also

apologizes to survivors,

calls for culture change

BY SHANE HARRIS

Newly declassified U.S. intelli-
gence shows that a Russian naval
blockade has halted maritime
trade at Ukrainian ports, in what
world leaders call a deliberate
attack on the global food supply
chain that has raised fears of
political instability and shortages
unless grain and other essential
agricultural products are allowed
to flow freely from Ukraine.
Russia’s navy now effectively
controls all traffic in the northern
third of the Black Sea, making it
unsafe for commercial shipping,
according to a U.S. government
document obtained by The Wash-
ington Post.
The document, based on re-
cently declassified intelligence,
analyzed the density of Russian
naval activity along portions of
Ukraine’s southern coast and the
Crimean Peninsula, which Russia
occupied and annexed in 2014.
The blockade that ensued follow-
ing Russia’s invasion in February
SEE UKRAINE ON A

Russia has

sealed o≠

port trade,

U.S. finds

World leaders warn that

Ukraine blockade saps

global food supply chain

BY COLBY ITKOWITZ

AND DAVID WEIGEL

Georgia Republican primary

voters on Tuesday rejected former

president Donald Trump’s at-

tempt to unseat Gov. Brian Kemp

for refusing to join his fight to try

to overturn the 2020 election re-

sults, as Kemp easily defeated

challenger David Perdue for their

party’s gubernatorial nomination.

The race between Kemp and

Perdue, a former senator, unfold-

ed over the past five months as the

highest-profile test of Trump’s pull

in this year’s primaries on behalf

of candidates running heavily on

his false claims that the election

was stolen from him. He personal-

ly recruited Perdue and actively

promoted his candidacy against

Kemp. Trump has despised Kemp

since the governor certified Presi-

dent Biden’s win in the state.

“Even in the middle of a tough

primary, conservatives across our

state didn’t listen to the noise.

They didn’t get distracted,” Kemp

said in remarks to supporters after

Perdue conceded.

The governor didn’t mention

Trump by name but instead

bragged about his record of re-

opening Georgia during the pan-

demic and attacked Democratic

nominee Stacey Abrams.

“Georgia would be just one vari-

ant away from lockdowns, govern-

ment mandates, schools shuttered

and businesses closed,” he said.

Down the ballot in Georgia,

another statewide Republican

SEE PRIMARIES ON A

In a blow to Trump, Kemp defeats Perdue in Ga.

ELECTION 2022

DEMETRIUS FREEMAN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Supporters of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) cheer during a primary

event at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.

Governor wins primary

despite challenger's

backing b y ex-president

P ush toward default: U.S. set to
block Russian debt payments. A

Push for change: Justice Dept.

Arizona: Peter Thiel puts millions more behind Blake Masters. A9 effort relies on collaboration. A

Media: How two Texas newspapers

broke open the abuse scandal. C

BY MATT VISER

AND COLBY ITKOWITZ

President Biden, in remarks
that intermingled despair and
anger, attempted to shame Con-
gress on gun control Tuesday
while openly questioning why
the country he now leads has
been incapable of coming up
with an antidote to the mass
shootings that show no signs of
abating.
A father who has lost two of
his own children, a man who has
delivered perhaps more eulogies
than any living politician and a
president who is confronting
numerous challenges was forced,
once again, to console a country
reeling from tragedy.
“Why are we willing to live
with this carnage? Why do we
keep letting this happen? Where
in God’s name is our backbone?”
he said during a seven-minute
address from the Roosevelt
Room at the White House after
news of the mass killing at a
school in Uvalde, Tex. “It’s time
to turn this pain into action.”
SEE BIDEN ON A

Biden voices

his grief and

calls for action