Authorities in Texas are learning more about the man accused of killing 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde — including that he was apparently confronted by a school officer before he entered the building.
Investigators said during an update on Wednesday that the shooter, Salvador Ramos, was stopped by the officer but still managed to slip in through a back door before the attack Tuesday. Moments later, he began the shooting rampage that killed 19 children and two adults.
Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Erick Estrada said the confrontation occurred after the 18-year-old Ramos crashed his truck near Robb Elementary School, where he went after shooting his grandmother at home. She survived and is being treated at a San Antonio hospital.
Estrada said Ramos dropped a bag of ammunition before he entered the school building and barricaded himself inside. DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez said once inside, Ramos entered two adjoining classrooms and opened fire.
Authorities said Ramos was inside the school for 40 to 60 minutes before responding police entered the building and shot him dead.
DPS Director Steven McCraw said investigators are looking at private social media messages that Ramos sent saying he’d shot his grandmother and was heading to the school.
In an interview with ABC News, Ramos’ mother, Adrianna Reyes, said her son could be aggressive at times — but he wasn’t a “monster.”
“I had an uneasy feeling sometimes, like ‘what are you up to?'” Reyes said in the interview. “He can be aggressive… If he really got mad.”
“We all have a rage,” she said. “Some people have it more than others.”
Related Story: Texas school shooting suspect Salvador Ramos’ mom ‘feeling bad for everybody’ but ‘lost her son, too’: Grandpa
President Joe Biden is planning to travel to the community in south-central Texas.
“Jill and I will be traveling to Texas in the coming days to meet with the families and let them know we have a sense of their pain, and hopefully bring some little comfort to a community in shock, in grief and in trauma,” Biden said Wednesday during a signing ceremony at the White House.
“As a nation, I think we all must be for them. And we must ask when in God’s name will we do what needs to be done to … fundamentally change the amount of the carnage that goes on in this country?”
McCraw said earlier on Wednesday that Ramos did not have a criminal history before the attack, which was the deadliest school shooting in the United States since the Sandy Hook attack in Connecticut in 2012.
Ramous bought a semiautomatic rifle at a local sporting goods store on March 17, just after his 18th birthday, and bought 375 rounds of ammunition the following day. Three days later, he bought another semiautomatic rifle at the same store.
At a news conference Wednesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Ramos had no known history of mental health issues, but also said that mental health issues were partly to blame.
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I get angry sometimes. Never thought of shooting my grandmother IN THE FACE!
Maybe not a self made “monster” but when you set out to murder little kids…YES! That is a monster. He was a mortally disturbed person who needed to be, should have been, housed away from the population.
Mom didn’t want to deal with it apparently and now it’s left to the grieving families and community….sounds like grandma was the only one with a backbone.
“In an interview with ABC News, Ramos’ mother, Adrianna Reyes, said her son could be aggressive at times — but he wasn’t a “monster.”
“I had an uneasy feeling sometimes, like ‘what are you up to?’” Reyes said in the interview. “He can be aggressive… If he really got mad.”
“We all have a rage,” she said. “Some people have it more than others.”
Not a monster?? Just anybody’s worst nightmare. Yes, we all have a rage, but we learn how to channel and control anger—when and how to express it depending on the circumstance. Thankfully, we don’t go off the deep end like Ramos.
I still have not heard about WAS HE or his granny, LEGALLY HERE?
We have “Hearts without love, Homes without discipline, Schools without prayer, and Courts without justice”, and now one sect of the country wanting to blame it all on an inanimate object.
What would you call the creep?
Authorities said Ramos was inside the school for 40 to 60 minutes before responding police entered the building and shot him dead.
*** took them so long? I’m completely outraged at the ineptness of the authorities.
a border patrol agent took him down not police.
The mother’s excuse? If it was because she was afraid of him, it would be understandable.
But to leave him with older people is not very understandable if she was afraid of him.
Biden needs to be attending to his own son – HUNTER!
So, they had an unlocked, unmonitored, unguarded back door. If this is how they are going to do it, why bother even having school security?
If you visit a school here, you have to be buzzed in the front door. Someone is watching you on video at the door. There are no other doors that can be opened from outside (and yes, you can open the door from inside to exit the building in an emergency – someone ridiculed Ted Cruz yesterday about this topic)
Kids today get exposed to all manner of violent movies. They play violent video games – Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto come to mind. They grow up in what we once called “broken homes” (i.e. no Dad or positive male role model). Drugs are plentiful, and some states make it easy to score weed. But yes, Liberals, do blame guns for disasters like this one!
It was reported by a law enforcement officer in Uvaldi today that their information indicated there was no School Resource Officer on duty at the school. A major failure. A second failure there was an unlocked door that the shooter was able to enter the school through. Then the shooter entered a classroom with an adjoining room where he shot the occupants immediately. The police arrived and confronted him sustaining injuries causing them to pull back and reassess their assets and tactics. It’s unclear how long they waited and if the wait was for backup forces. It was following that pull back that a trained Border Patrol Officer was able to gain entry and kill the shooter who had time to barricade himself in a room. Many questions will have to be answered. And all we get are bloviating politicians spewing standard bovine excrement.
That’s my concern too.. AND WHY on such a largish campus, was there only ONE GUARD?? IS he supposed to have eyes everywhere?
The monster’s mom doesn’t need to stand around waiting for me to feel sorry because she lost her son. I would guess that she has a lot of responsibility for what he did.
What is different now from what we had in the past? Even mentioning our Lord Jesus Christ makes anyone who does so a pariah in our society now. When I was a boy growing up, every kid I knew went to services every week; just at different places. Prayers were given at school functions. Unless we return to those days things will get worse, and no amount of security can stop it. The big lie is the “separation of church and state”, because there is no such thing. Our Constitution states that no laws respecting an establishment of religion shall be made. We once had laws outlawing everything which is an abomination to God. The fact is that unless we bring Jesus Christ into our hearts, the downward spiral into hell will continue and our great country will be no more. That is exactly the problem with our country and it is the responsibility of all Christians to spread the gospel.
THis is why i say, BRING BACK MORNING PRAYER and pledges of allegiance, to schools!
Several years ago I was watching the 700 Club and they showed a graph of what has happened to our country when prayer was removed from the public schools. Crime, broken homes, drug use, and suicide have skyrocketed. You expect a gradual increase as the population increases but this graph practically went straight up. Reagan tried to bring back some sort of prayer by allowing a few minutes of silent time for any student to say a quick quiet prayer in their faith, but the dummycrats put an end to that when the draft dodging perverted coward became president. The Oboob shows up and ONLY Muslims are allowed to pray in school, but no one else. The so called separation of church and state the left likes to use is nothing more than a letter which Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1803. This letter did nothing but reaffirm what is in the constitution and had nothing to do with separating prayer from public school or any other government function.
YEa, they always seem to cry sep of church and state, when its ANYTHING To do with christians/catholics and the like. BUT IF ITS MUDSLIMES, they are good to go..
“…and let them know we have a sense of their pain, and hopefully bring some little comfort to a community in shock, in grief and in trauma,” Biden said. Guess what, Biden? That could be a comment about every community in America! You have made us all suffer under your insanity. You have never brought even a little bit of comfort to any of us during your reign of terror so quit pretending like you can! Instead of bringing us comfort you have brought lots of misery to all of us with no end in sight. You are a liar and a despicable human being. You pretend to care about murdered schoolchildren but you’re OK with murdering unborn babies up to birth.
Not a monster???? Spare me the BS.