By BERNARD CONDON
The Uvalde, Texas, gunman gave off so many warning indicators that he was obsessive about violence and notoriety within the months main as much as the assault that teenagers who knew him started calling him “school shooter.”
He was as soon as bullied as a fourth-grader in one of many similar lecture rooms the place he killed 19 youngsters and two lecturers. And within the planning for the May 24 bloodbath, he collected articles concerning the Buffalo, New York, grocery store capturing and performed video video games with a younger scholar whereas quizzing him concerning the college schedule.
A state investigative report that highlighted legislation enforcement’s bungled response to the mass capturing at Robb Elementary School has additionally offered essentially the most in-depth account so far about missed crimson flags and potential motivations surrounding 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. Despite many warning indicators, he nonetheless managed to legally amass greater than $5,000 in weapons, ammunition and kit within the weeks main as much as the killings.
Just days earlier than the assault, Ramos spoke out on social media of his plans to do one thing that may “put him all over the news.” He wrote of a want to kill himself, shared on-line movies of beheadings and violent intercourse, and despatched footage of himself driving round with “someone he met on the internet” holding a plastic bag containing a useless cat and pointing BB weapons at individuals out the window.
“The attacker became focused on achieving notoriety,” in accordance the interim report launched Sunday by an investigative panel of the Texas House of Representatives. “He believed his TikTok and YouTube channels would be successful. The small number of views he received led him to tell those with whom he interacted that he was ‘famous,’ that they were mere ‘randoms’ by comparison.”
The 77-page report — primarily based on interviews with relations, testimony and knowledge from Ramos’ telephone — lays out a protracted path of missed indicators previous to the bloodbath however notes these clues had been identified solely to “private individuals” and never reported to authorities. It additionally discovered Ramos had no identified ideological or political beliefs that may have made his rantings extra broadly identified.
The report traces the descent of a shy, quiet boy as soon as thought by a trainer as a “wonderful student” with a “positive attitude” right into a mass assassin who gave loads of indicators on-line and to relations that he was susceptible to violence as he amassed an arsenal of rifles, physique armor and ammunition.
A former girlfriend advised the FBI that she believed Ramos had been sexually assaulted by considered one of his mom’s boyfriends at an early age, the report mentioned, however when Ramos advised his mom on the time, she didn’t consider him.
Without assigning a selected motive, the report famous that Ramos talked about painful fourth-grade reminiscences to an acquaintance weeks earlier than the capturing.
Family members advised investigators how Ramos had been bullied as a fourth-grader in one of many similar linked lecture rooms the place he carried out the assault. They mentioned he confronted ridicule over his stutter, brief hair and for carrying the identical clothes practically daily.
At one level, the report mentioned, a fellow scholar tied his shoelaces collectively and Ramos fell on his face, injuring himself. The report famous that Ramos was flagged by college officers as “at risk,” however by no means obtained any particular schooling providers.
Failing grades quickly had been accompanied by frequent absences — greater than 100 a 12 months starting in 2018. The report famous it was unclear if a faculty useful resource officer ever visited Ramos’ dwelling. Uvalde High School officers involuntarily withdrew him final fall, when he had solely accomplished the ninth grade. That was about the identical time he moved out of his mom’s home and started residing along with his grandmother, simply blocks from the elementary college.
Months earlier than the capturing, Ramos started contacting acquaintances with “vague but ominous messages” about doing one thing quickly.
In March 2022, two months earlier than the capturing, a scholar on Instagram advised him that “people at school talk (expletive) about you and call you school shooter.”
The subsequent month Ramos requested in a direct message on Instagram, “Are you still gonna remember me in 50 something days?” After the reply — “probably not” — Ramos replied, “Hmm alright we’ll see in might.“
Crystal Foutz, who attended college with Ramos, advised The Associated Press he was incessantly offended and gave off “vibes” like he might shoot up the place, although it was taken extra as joke than severe.
“You heard people joke and say, ‘He looks like a school shooter,’” mentioned Foutz, although she shortly added, “I’ve heard it said about other people.”
Ramos took jobs at two fast-food eating places to economize for what he advised acquaintances was “something big,” which relations assumed was his personal residence or automobile. Instead it was weapons and bullets, which he tried to get two individuals to purchase for him whereas he was 17 and unable to acquire legally.
But on May 16, the gunman turned 18, and started buying firearms and ammunition, persuading an uncle to drive him to a gun retailer. He finally spent greater than $5,000 on two AR-style rifles, ammunition and different gear. And with no felony historical past and even arrest, Ramos handed all background checks.
He had earlier written on-line “10 more days,” eliciting hypothesis from readers that he was planning to “shoot up a school or something” or commit “mass murder.” A good friend advised him that an acquaintance was “telling everyone u shooting up the school.”
He additionally hung out taking part in the youngsters’s videogame Roblox along with his cousin’s son, a scholar on the Robb Elementary, and “elicited from him details about his schedule and how lunch periods worked at the school.”
“I got a lil secret,” Ramos wrote on Snapchat to a German teenager he had befriended days earlier than the May 24 capturing, including that first he was ready for one thing “being delivered” on Monday. His order of 1,740 hollow-point bullets that develop in our bodies upon influence, extra simply killing, arrived later that day.
“None of his online behavior was ever reported to law enforcement,” the report mentioned, “and if it was reported by other users to any social media platform, it does not appear that actions were taken to restrict his access or to report him to authorities as a threat.”
Shortly earlier than coming into Robb Elementary, the gunman reached out to the German teenager he had befriended earlier, posting a message that he had simply shot his grandmother within the face and was about to “shoot up” an elementary college.
Not certain he was severe, the German teenager replied: “Cool.”
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Condon reported from New York. AP reporter Jim Mustian in New York contributed to this report.
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More on the varsity capturing in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings
Source: www.bostonherald.com”