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.
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.”
“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.”
“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.