Salvador Ramos: Everything we know about Texas school mass shooter

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 who lived in the small city 80 miles west of San Antonio, according to Mr Abbott.

Ramos had hinted on social media that an attack could be coming, state Sen Roland Gutierrez, who was briefed by police, told reporters. “He suggested the kids should watch out,” the lawmaker said.

He shot his grandmother before driving to Robb Elementary just before midday on Tuesday, Mr Abbott said at a news briefing on Tuesday afternoon. She is in a critical condition, Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt Erick Estrada told CNN.

Ramos is believed to have abandoned his car outside the school and entered the school grounds with a handgun and possibly a rifle. Police said the killer was 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 told local media.

Officers responding to the scene reportedly shot Ramos dead.

Roland Gutierrez, a state senator who was briefed by the Texas Rangers said that Ramos had purchased the guns on his 18th birthday.

“That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday,” he said.

An Instagram friend of Ramos’ said that teenager had sent him a photo showing a receipt for a gun he bought from Daniel Defense, a gun manufacturer, reported The Daily Dot.

Investigators are also attempting to trace Ramos’ relatives.

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, the evening manager at Wendy’s, said.

In a statement, Mr Abbott said Texans were grieving for the victims of this “senseless crime and for the community of Uvalde”.

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?”

Border Patrol agents were involved in response to the shooting, though officials have confirmed Ramos was a US citizen.

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and San Antonio Police Department have said they are sending resources to aid in the police response.

The Houston office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting in the investigation, as are the state Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers.

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 risen, with officials revising it from 14 to 19 students and two adult victims by Tuesday evening.

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.

Mr Valdez said Ramos and another friend would drive around and shoot strangers with a BB gun, adding that he also would throw eggs at cars.

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.”

Nextdoor 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 and several other people told The Post that the mother used drugs, adding to the tension in the home.

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. Mr Flores said the grandmother visited the mother’s home on Sunday when she told him she was evicting the mother because of her drug issues.

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.

Additional reporting by agencies