Loner Salvador Ramos’ reign of terror inside a Texas elementary college lasted so long as an hour earlier than he was shot useless — a twisted chain of occasions that began when he bought a pair of AR-15-style rifles for his 18th birthday.
The highschool dropout celebrated his milestone birthday with a dinner at Applebee’s on Might 16 together with his grandmother, Celia Martinez Gonzales — whom he would go on to callously shoot within the face earlier than unleashing a massacre inside a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde.
Precisely one week earlier than the mass taking pictures, and the day after his birthday, Ramos headed to native sporting items retailer Oasis Outback to purchase a “semi-automatic rifle,” Texas Division of Public Security Director Steve McCraw confirmed at a press convention.
Ramos returned the subsequent day to purchase 375 rounds of ammunition, after which once more two days later, final Friday, to select up a Daniel Protection AR-style rifle, McCraw mentioned.
“It’s the very first thing he did when he turned 18,” Texas state Sen. Ronald Gutierrez informed CNN.
Each weapons have been bought legally and Ramos, who had no prior felony or psychological well being historical past, “had no drawback accessing these weapons,” the senator informed the community, citing a briefing he had from Texas Rangers.
The weapons sometimes retail for round $2,000, and Ramos’ on-line posts counsel he additionally purchased a battery-powered holographic sight that sometimes sells for round $725, ABC Information famous.
Social-media clues
Then got here the cryptic posts on social media. Ramos posted images of weapons on his Instagram, even tagging a lady who claims he was a whole stranger to her.
“I obtained a lil secret I wanna inform u,” he privately messaged her with a smiley-face emoji protecting its mouth on Tuesday morning — hours earlier than the slaughter.
Later that morning, he took to Fb, revealing his horrifying plans about half-hour earlier than opening fireplace on a category filled with helpless fourth-graders.
“The primary submit … mentioned, ‘I’m going to shoot my grandmother.’ The second submit was, ‘I shot my grandmother,’ ” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott mentioned at a press convention Wednesday, calling Ramos a “demented individual” who introduced “evil” to Uvalde.
In that house of time, the sick teen shot his 66-year-old grandmother within the face on the quaint dwelling they shared together with his grandfather on Diaz Avenue.
The aged girl “was in a position to run throughout the road to a neighbor and get assist,” McCraw mentioned.
“The third submit, possibly lower than quarter-hour earlier than arriving on the college, was, ‘I’m going to shoot an elementary college,’ ” the governor mentioned, with Fb later clarifying that the posts have been really personal messages to a recipient whom the platform didn’t establish.
At round 11:30 a.m., Ramos, who didn’t have a driver’s license, swiped Gonzales’ truck, crashing it lower than a half-mile away in a ditch close to Robb Elementary Faculty.
Lethal spree begins
Carrying a tactical vest, reportedly with out its hardened body-armor plates, he ran towards the varsity with “a backpack with one rifle with him,” McCraw mentioned, with the opposite rifle later recovered within the truck.
At a again door on the west aspect of the varsity constructing, Ramos was confronted by a college useful resource officer — although McCraw mentioned “gunfire was not exchanged.”
In some way, Ramos was in a position to get inside the varsity because the officer “adopted him in instantly” after which gunfire was exchanged, McCraw mentioned.
Ramos barricaded himself inside a fourth-grade classroom — “and that’s the place the carnage started,” McCraw continued.
The cold-blooded killer sprayed a hail of bullets into the room, slicing down 19 youngsters and two lecturers and sending some college students leaping out home windows in a bid to save lots of their lives.
One woman, Amerie Joe Garza, was frantically attempting to dial 911 when Ramos fatally shot her, telling her and her classmates, “You’re going to die,” her grandmother informed the Day by day Beast.
“As quickly as he made entry into the varsity he began taking pictures youngsters, lecturers, whoever’s in his approach,” Division of Public Security Lt. Christopher Olivarez informed San Antonio-based TV station KENS 5.
One other 17 have been injured, although it’s not clear whether or not they have been all in the identical classroom.
Chaos ensued — with the varsity sending out a lockdown alert greater than 10 minutes after cops obtained reviews of a taking pictures within the space — promising mother and father that “the scholars and workers are secure within the buildings.”
At 12:17 p.m. — practically 50 minutes after Ramos obtained into the varsity — the warning was upgraded to an “lively shooter,” the native station mentioned.
Officers together with a SWAT workforce of Border Patrol brokers then flooded the varsity, the place they “engaged” Ramos and saved him “pinned down” within the classroom, McCraw mentioned.
“They breached the classroom door. They went in, engaged Ramos and killed him on the scene,” he mentioned, confirming that the deadly shot was fired by one of many border brokers, who has been hailed as a “hero.”
Officers didn't reveal the precise time he was killed or how lengthy he was within the classroom, with McCraw solely estimating it was “inside 40 minutes or so, inside an hour.”
It might be one other two hours earlier than Abbott would reveal the true horror of the atrocity — asserting on the time that 14 college students and one trainer have been confirmed useless.
That tally would later rise by 5 college students and one other trainer.
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