The gunman who killed at least 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday has been named as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.
Governor Greg Abbott said Ramos “horrifically and incomprehensibly” carried out the mass shooting alone before being shot dead by law enforcement officers.
Ramos was a student at Uvalde High School and lived in the small city 80 miles west of San Antonio.
Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, state Sen Roland Gutierrez told reporters. “He suggested the kids should watch out,” the lawmaker said.
He shot his grandmother before driving to Robb Elementary School just before midday on Tuesday, leaving her in critical condition.
Ramos is believed to have then abandoned his car outside the school, entered a classroom armed with a handgun and an AR-15 and barricaded himself in. Police said the killer was also wearing body armour.
‘He started shooting children, teachers, whoever’s in his way’
“The suspect made entry into the school and as soon as he made entry into the school he started shooting children, teachers, whoever’s in his way,” Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
Officers responding to the scene reportedly shot Ramos dead. Border Patrol agents were involved in response to the shooting, though officials have confirmed Ramos was a US citizen.
Ramos allegedly purchased the guns on his 18th birthday.
“That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday,” Roland Gutierrez said.
An Instagram friend of Ramos’ said that the teenager had sent him a photo showing a receipt for a gun he bought from Daniel Defense, a gun manufacturer, reported The Daily Dot.
Former classmate says Ramos sent images of firearm and ammunition
An Instagram account identified by news outlets as belonging to Ramos showed him posing with what appears to be a semi-automatic weapon. A former classmate said that Ramos texted him photos of a firearm and a bag full of ammunition days before the attack.
“He would message me here and there, and four days ago he sent me a picture of the AR he was using… and a backpack full of 5.56 rounds, probably like seven mags,” the former classmate said.
“I was like, ‘Bro, why do you have this?’ and he was like, ‘Don’t worry about it’,” the student said. “He proceeded to text me, ‘I look very different now. You wouldn’t recognise me’.”
A manager at the local Wendy’s said that Ramos worked the day shift at the restaurant.
“He felt like the quiet type, the one who doesn’t say much. He didn’t really socialise with the other employees,” Adrian Mendes said.
Friends say gunman was bullied and would lash out violently
Friends and relatives have said that Ramos was bullied, cut his own face, fired a BB gun at random people and egged cars in the years leading up to the deadly attack.
Family and friends have also said that he had a difficult home life, that he was bullied over a childhood speech impediment and that he lashed out violently towards both friends and strangers – both recently and over the years.
Santos Valdez Jr, 18, told The Washington Post that he had known Ramos since their early days of elementary school, adding that they were friends until Ramos’ behaviour began to grow worse.
They used to play video games together before Ramos changed. Mr Valdez described an encounter when Ramos arrived at a park where they used to play basketball with cuts all over his face, initially saying he had been scratched by a cat.
“Then he told me the truth, that he’d cut up his face with knives over and over and over,” Mr Valdez said. “I was like, ‘You’re crazy, bro, why would you do that?’”
Ramos said he had done it for fun, Mr Valdez noted.
Mocked over stutter and lisp
Friends and family members said Ramos was bullied in middle school and junior high for his stutter and lisp. Considering himself Ramos’ best friend in eighth grade, Stephen Garcia said he had a difficult school experience.
“He would get bullied hard, like bullied by a lot of people,” Mr Garcia told The Washington Post. “Over social media, over gaming, over everything.”
“He was the nicest kid, the most shyest kid. He just needed to break out of his shell,” he added.
Mr Garcia said Ramos once posted a photo of himself with black eyeliner, prompting a large number of comments that included derogatory language levelled at gay people.
Mr Garcia said he tried to defend Ramos, but when he moved to another area of Texas because of his mother’s job, Ramos “just started being a different person”.
“He kept getting worse and worse, and I don’t even know,” Mr Garcia said. Ramos left school when Mr Garcia moved away and began dressing in all black, he grew out his hair and started using military boots.
Missed large parts of school year, wasn’t set to graduate alongside classmates
Classmates said he missed large parts of the school year and wasn’t set to graduate with the others this year.
Ramos’s cousin Mia, who asked that her last name not be used, told The Post that “he wasn’t very much of a social person after being bullied for the stutter”.
“I think he just didn’t feel comfortable anymore at school,” she said.
Ramos posted images of automatic rifles on social media about a year ago that “he would have on his wish list,” Mr Valdez said. He posted images four days ago of two rifles that he called “my gun pics”.
Strained relationship with mother
High school classmate Nadia Reyes told The Post that Ramos posted an Instagram story two months ago that showed him screaming at his mother, who he said was trying to make him leave the home.
“He posted videos on his Instagram where the cops were there and he’d call his mom a b**** and say she wanted to kick him out,” Ms Reyes said. “He’d be screaming and talking to his mom really aggressively.”
Next door neighbour Ruben Flores, 41, told the paper that Ramos had “a pretty rough life with his mom”.
Mr Flores said the issues grew more clear over the years, as police would show up at Ramos’s home and neighbours saw fights between the mother and son.
Mr Flores said Ramos moved from his mother’s home to live with his grandmother a few months ago. The grandmother also owned the home where Ramos’s mother lived.
Gunman was involved in several fistfights in years leading up to attack, classmate says
Ms Reyes said she remembers around five fistfights involving Ramos in middle school and junior high. Any friendships he managed to form didn’t last long, she added. She said he once told a friend who wanted to join the Marines that he only had that goal because then he would be able to kill people. The boy ended the friendship then and there.
“He would take things too far, say something that shouldn’t be said, and then he would go into defence mode about it,” Ms Reyes told The Post.
Mr Valdez told The Post that his final interaction with Ramos took place around two hours before the shooting. They messaged via Instagram Stories after Mr Valdez had shared a meme saying “why tf is school still open”.
A screenshot shows Ramos replying “facts” and “that’s good tho right?”
“[I don’t even know] I don’t even go to school lmao,” Mr Valdez wrote back, but he told the paper that Ramos never opened that message.
“I couldn’t even think, I couldn’t even talk to anyone,” Mr Garcia told the paper about the moment he found out about the shooting. “I just walked out of class, really upset, you know, bawling my eyes out ... I never expected him to hurt people.”
“I think he needed mental help. And more closure with his family. And love,” he added.
Deadliest elementary school attack since 2012
The death toll of 19 students and two adults is the deadliest attack on an elementary school since the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which claimed the lives of 20 students and six teachers.
Joe Biden told the nation it was time to “turn this pain into action” and change gun laws following the shooting massacre. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” he said at the White House. “Where in God’s name is our backbone, to have the courage to deal with this and stand up to the [gun] lobbies?”
The South Texas Blood and Tissue Center has called on local residents to donate blood, as hospitals in the area were already facing a blood shortage before the shooting occured.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital initially said 13 students and an adult were transported from the school by a bus and ambulance. Two of the students were pronounced dead on arrival. But the death toll rose steadily with officials revising it from 14 to 19 students and two adult victims by Tuesday evening.
