Salvador Ramos; Events leading to the Robb Elementary School Shooting
Who was Salvador Ramos?
Salvador Ramos was an 18 years boy born on May 16, 2004, in North Dakota. He went to Uvalde High School where it is reported that he was frequently absent from school. According to his family and classmates, Ramos was often bullied in school for his stutter and strong lisp.
He hardly had friends and was always getting into fistfights with his schoolmates. He worked at a Wendy’s for a year but quit last month. Ramos would share on his Instagram cryptic photos of automatic rifles that he would wish to buy when he turned 18.
On his 18th birthday, which was May 16 this year, he legally purchased two semi-automatic rifles from the online retailer Daniel Defense through a local gun store. He shared photos of his guns on his Instagram page three days before the shooting.
According to CNN Ramos also texted one of his former classmates a photo of a firearm and a bag full of ammunition days before the attack.
The classmate said; “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,”
“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’.”
The shooting events of the Robb Elementary School
Days before the shooting, Salvador messaged a girl he had tagged on his gun photos on his Instagram saying; ”
He wrote from his account @sal8dor_: ‘You gonna repost my gun pics.’ She replied: ‘What your guns gotta do with me.’
‘Just wanted to tag you,’ he said back. Then at 5:43 am on Tuesday, @salv8dor_ messaged her and said: ‘I’m about to’.
The girl asked ‘about to what’ to which he answered: ‘I’ll tell you before 11.’ He said he’d text her in an hour and urged her to respond.
‘I got a lil secret I wanna tell u,’ he messaged with a smiley face emoji covering its mouth. ‘Be grateful I tagged you,’ he wrote.
She replied: ‘No it’s just scary,’ adding: ‘I barely know you and you tag me in a picture with some guns?’
His last message at 9:16 am on Tuesday was ‘Ima air out’. The shooting started around 11:32 am.
His Instagram account @salv8dor_ has been reported.
According to police, Ramos shot his grandmother leaving her critically wounded. He headed to Robb Elementary School wearing body armor, a backpack, and all-black clothing while carrying a handgun, an AR-15 style rifle, and high capacity magazines.
He crashed his vehicle into a ditch outside of the school and entered the school through its south entrance at around 11:30 a.m. CDT.
According to police, Ramos shot a UCISD police officer who attempted to stop him from entering the building. The UCISD police chief estimated that the shooting of students and teachers at the school began two minutes later and, according to a Facebook post by the school, the school was placed on lockdown at 11:43 a.m. in response to gunshots in the vicinity.
At 1:17 p.m., UCISD sent out a message on Twitter that there was an active shooter at the elementary school.
As UCISD officers exchanged fire with Ramos, Border Patrol Tactical Unit agents joined them in response to a request for assistance; one sustained a head injury. It was reported that a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Ramos.
The woman Ramos was texting reacted with horror when she learned what he had done. ‘He’s a stranger I know nothing about him he decided to tag me in his gun post,’ she wrote.
‘I’m so sorry for the victims and their families I really don’t know what to say.’
She then added: ‘The only reason I responded to him was because I was afraid of him I wish I stayed awake to at least try to convince him to not commit his crime. I didn’t know.’
When an Instagram user asked if she was his girlfriend, she replied: ‘I don’t know him and I don’t even live in Texas.’
Robb Elementary School School Victims
Ramos opened fire and shot children who were between grades two to four. Nineteen children and two adults—including a fourth-grade teacher—were killed in the shooting.
Thirteen children were taken to the same hospital, according to the hospital’s CEO Several other victims were taken to the University Hospital in San Antonio. Governor Greg Abbott said two officers were struck by bullets but had no serious injuries.
