UVALDE, Texas (AP) – Gunman who massacred 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school warned in online messages minutes before the attack that he had shot his grandmother and would shoot at a school , the governor said on Wednesday. .
Salvador Ramos, 18, used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle in the bloodshed on Tuesday at Robb d’Uvalde Elementary School, which ended when police stormed a classroom and killed him. He legally bought the rifle and a second one like this last week, just after his birthday on May 16, authorities said.
“Evil ravaged Uvalde yesterday. Anyone who shoots his grandmother in the face must have evil in his heart,” Governor Greg Abbott said. “But it’s much worse for someone to kill young children.”
Investigators did not clarify the cause of the attack, which also left at least 17 injured. The governor said Ramos, a resident of the small town about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio, had no known criminal or mental health record.
But about half an hour before the mass shooting, Ramos sent the first of three messages online, Abbott said. Ramos wrote that he was going to shoot his grandmother, after he had shot the woman. On the last note, sent about 15 minutes before arriving at Robb Elementary, he said he was going to shoot an elementary school, according to Abbott. Investigators said Ramos did not specify which school.
Ramos sent private text messages one by one via Facebook and they were “discovered after the terrible tragedy,” company spokesman Andy Stone said. He said Facebook is cooperating with researchers.
As the details of the latest massacre that shook the United States emerged, mourning engulfed Uvalde, a population of 16,000.
Among the dead were Eliahna Garcia, an outgoing 10-year-old girl who loved to sing, dance, and play basketball; a roommate, Xavier Javier López, who was looking forward to a summer of swimming; and a teacher, Eva Mireles, with 17 years of experience whose husband is an officer in the school district’s police department.
“You can only tell by their angelic smiles that they were loved,” said Uvalde Superintendent of Schools Hal Harrell, struggling with tears as he remembered the murdered children and teachers. “That they liked coming to school, that they were beautiful people.”
Amid calls in the United States for stricter gun restrictions, the Republican governor has repeatedly spoken out about the mental health struggles among Texas youth and argued that tougher gun laws in Chicago, New York York and California are ineffective.
Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is running against Abbott as governor, interrupted Wednesday’s press conference, calling the tragedy “predictable.” Pointing to Abbott, he said, “That’s up to you until you decide to do something different. This will keep happening.” O’Rourke was escorted outside while some in the room called him, and the mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, called him a “sick son of a bitch.”
Texas has some of the most pro-gun laws in the nation and has been the site of some of the deadliest shootings in the United States in five years.
“I don’t know how people can sell this kind of weapon to an 18-year-old boy,” said Syria’s Arizmendi, the victim’s aunt Eliahna Garcia, angry in tears. “What will he use it for but this purpose?”
Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN that all the killings were in the same fourth-grade classroom.
The killer “barricaded himself by closing the door and started firing at the children and teachers who were inside this classroom,” Olivarez said. “It just shows you the complete evil of the shooter.”
Police and other people who responded to the attack also broke windows at the school to allow students and teachers to escape. Officers eventually broke into the classroom and killed Ramos in a final exchange of gunfire, authorities said.
The attack on the predominantly Latin city was the deadliest school shooting in the United States since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
The tragedy was the latest in a seemingly endless series of mass killings in churches, schools, shops and other places in the United States. Just 10 days earlier, 10 blacks were shot dead in a racist attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
In a grim address to the nation hours after the Texas attack, President Joe Biden called on Americans to “confront the gun lobby” and enact tougher restrictions, saying, “When, in the name of God, will we do what needs to be done? ”
But the prospect of any reform of national arms regulations seemed weak. Repeated attempts over the years to expand background checks and enact other brakes have met with Republican opposition in Congress.
The shooting came days before the annual National Rifle Association convention in Houston began, with the intervention of the governor of Texas and the two Republican senators from the United States.
On social media during the days and hours before the massacre, Ramos seemed to be hinting that something was going to happen.
The day he bought his second weapon last week, an Instagram account that investigators say belonged to Ramos apparently carried a photo of two AR-15-style rifles. This post tagged another Instagram user, one with over 10,000 followers, asking them to share the image.
“I barely know you and you tag me in a photo with some guns,” replied the Instagram user, who has since deleted his profile. “It’s just scary.”
On the morning of the attack, the account linked to the gunman replied, “I’m about to do it.”
Instagram confirmed to The Associated Press that it is working with law enforcement to review the account, but declined to answer questions about the posts.
Investigators are also looking at an account on TikTok, possibly belonging to the shooter, with a profile that says, “Kids are afraid of IRL,” which means “in real life.”
Investigators still don’t know why Ramos targeted the school, said Steve McCraw, director of the Department of Public Safety.
“Right now we don’t see any motive or catalyst,” he said.
Officers found one of the rifles in Ramos’ truck and the other in the school, according to information given to lawmakers. Ramos was wearing a tactical vest, but inside he had no hardened armored plate, lawmakers said. He also dropped a backpack containing several magazines full of ammunition near the school entrance.
One of the weapons was purchased from a federally licensed dealer in the Uvalde area on May 17, according to state Sen. John Whitmire, who was informed by investigators. Ramos bought 375 rounds of ammunition the next day, then bought the second rifle last Friday.
On Tuesday morning, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother at his home and then left. Neighbors called police when he staggered out and saw that his face had been shot, said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Travis Considine.
Ramos then crashed his truck through a railing on the school grounds and an officer from the Uvalde school district exchanged fire with him and was injured, Considine said. Ramos came in and exchanged more shots with two arriving UValde police officers, who were still outside, Considine said. Those officers were also injured.
Dillon Silva, whose nephew was in the classroom, said students were watching the Disney movie “Moana” when they heard several loud bangs and a bullet shattered a window. Moments later, his teacher saw the assailant pass in front of the door.
“Oh my God, he has a gun!” the teacher called twice, according to Silva. “The teacher didn’t even have time to close the door,” he said.
On Wednesday morning, volunteers were seen arriving at the city’s civic center with Bibles and therapy dogs. Three children and one adult remained in a San Antonio hospital, where two of them, a 66-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl, were in serious condition.
Uvalde is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the border with Mexico. Robb Elementary, which has about 600 second-, third-, and fourth-grade students, is a single-story brick structure in a predominantly residential neighborhood of modest homes.
The close-knit community, built around a shady central square, includes many Hispanic families who have lived there for generations. It is found among fields of cabbage, onions, carrots and other vegetables. But many of the most stable jobs are provided by companies that produce building materials.
The attack occurred when Robb Elementary was counting down to the last days of the school year with a series of themed days. Tuesday was “Footloose and Fancy,” with students in beautiful costumes.
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Eugene Garcia, Dario Lopez-Mills and Elliot Spagat in Uvalde, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas, Ben Fox, Michael Balsamo, Amanda Seitz and Eric Tucker in Washington, Paul J. Weber in Austin, Juan Lozano in Houston, Gene Johnson in Seattle and Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
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