What We Know so Far About Salvador Ramos, Alleged Texas School Mass Shooter

Salvador Ramos. (Texas Department of Motor Vehicles)

The 18-year-old suspect who allegedly shot and killed 19 children at a Texas school allegedly messaged a stranger, saying: “I’m about to” hours before Tuesday’s incident.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott identified Ramos as the suspect of a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Tuesday afternoon. He was slain by law enforcement officials, according to the governor’s office.

Ramos is also accused of shooting his grandmother before driving to Robb Elementary armed with a handgun and possibly a rifle, said Abbott. The suspect had attended Uvalde’s high school.

A manager at a local Wendy’s in Uvalde confirmed Ramos had worked at the establishment but “kept to himself mostly.”

“He felt like the quiet type, the one who doesn’t say much. He didn’t really socialize with the other employees,” Adrian Mendes, the manager, told CNN. “He just worked, got paid, and came in to get his check.”

And a young woman who had worked with Ramos said he appeared to be aggressive.

“He would be very rude towards the girls sometimes, and one of the cooks, threatening them by asking, ‘Do you know who I am?’ And he would also send inappropriate texts to the ladies,” the former co-worker, who was not identified, told The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity.

Without elaborating, the female worker said, “At the park, there’d be videos of him trying to fight people with boxing gloves. He’d take them around with him.”

Santos Valdez Jr. told the Washington Post that they had been friends until Ramos’ behavior started to “deteriorate,“ adding that Ramos was often bullied because of a stutter and a lisp. At one point, Valdez recalled, Ramos cut his own face with a knife ”just for fun.“ He added: ”He’d cut up his face with knives over and over.” Another person who knew him said Ramos allegedly would shoot at strangers with a BB gun from a car.

Just hours before the shooting, Ramos allegedly messaged a young woman, who said that Ramos was a total stranger who tagged her in a gun photo.

“You gonna repost my gun pics,” his alleged account, “@sal8dor_,” direct messaged the girl on May 12, according to screenshots of the messages. The account appears to have been deleted.

The woman then told him “what your guns gotta do with me (sic).“ Ramos then allegedly replied: ”Just wanted to tag you,” as reported by the New York Post.

That Instagram account also posted several images three days ago of two rifles, including one that appears to be a Daniel Defense AR-15-style rifle. Another image showed an individual holding a magazine.

A former classmate, Nadia Reyes, told the Washington Post that he posted videos to Instagram showing Ramos screaming at his mother and cursing at her as she tried to kick him out of the house.

“He posted videos on his Instagram where the cops were there,” Reyes said. “He’d be screaming and talking to his mom really aggressively.”

Another classmate of Ramos said that he texted him photos of ammunition and firearms. “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 unidentified friend told CNN, adding: “I was like, ‘Bro, why do you have this?’ and he was like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’”

“He proceeded to text me, ‘I look very different now. You wouldn’t recognize me,’” the friend said, adding that Ramos “slowly dropped out” of school after he was allegedly bullied.