Tuesday’s deadly shooting rampage at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, left 22 victims and the shooter dead and an unknown number injured. While many details are not yet known, basic details of the shooting are coming to light. Here is what we know so far.
Uvalde is a small South Texas town of about 16,000 people located about 60 miles from the border. The population is mostly Hispanic and poor (around 90 percent of the students at Robb Elementary are Hispanic and the school reports that right at 81 percent are “economically disadvantaged”).
The shooter, Salvador Rolando Ramos, was an 18-year-old student at nearby Uvalde High School. He was born in North Dakota. It is not known how long he lived in Uvalde, but he had worked at a local Wendy’s fast food restaurant for a year before quitting his job a month before the shooting. Consistent reports show that Ramos was bullied as a result of a strong lisp and stutter as well as wearing eye liner. He had just turned 18 on May 16 and celebrated his birthday by purchasing two semi-automatic rifles on May 17 and May 20 and purchasing 375 rounds of ammunition on May 18.
It is apparent that Ramos — a troubled young man who often got into fights at school and had missed so much school that he was not on track to graduate with his classmates — planned the attack and purchased the guns and ammunition as part of that plan.
It is reported that he posted on Facebook that he was “going to shoot an elementary school.” He also hinted at his intentions to an acquaintance on Instagram, telling her he had “a lil secret” that he was “going to air” at 11:00 a.m. His Facebook posts reportedly started at about 11:00 a.m. beginning with, “I’m going to shoot my grandmother.” That post was soon followed by, “I shot my grandmother.” Then, about 15 minutes before he arrived at the school, Ramos is reported to have posted, “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.”
No one appears to have done anything to stop him.
Sometime before 11:30 a.m., Ramos shot his grandmother (with whom he was living due to problems at his parent’s home), injuring her severely enough that she had to be transported by airlift to a local hospital where she was reported to be in critical condition. He then left and headed to Robb Elementary School. Ramos — dressed in his usual all-black clothing and wearing a tactical vest that did not include armor plates — crashed his truck in a ditch outside the school. Armed with an AR-15 variant and a handgun, he exited the vehicle and approached the school just before 11:30 a.m., where he was engaged by a Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) police officer who attempted to prevent him from gaining entrance to the building. He shot the officer and entered the building through its south entrance at approximately 11:30 a.m. The UCISD officer was injured, but not critically.
Once Ramos entered the building, he entered a classroom occupied by two teachers and an unknown number of children. He barricaded himself and his victims in the room and opened fire, killing 19 children and both teachers. The children were all in grades two through four and ranged in ages from seven to 10.
Ramos had been in the building two minutes before he started shooting.
The school went into lockdown at 11:43 a.m. and police outside the building — saying they lacked sufficient manpower to enter the building and confront Ramos — began breaking windows and evacuating students and adults from the building.
At 1:17 p.m., UCISD tweeted that there was an active shooter situation at the school.
At some point, Border Patrol agents working nearby — some of whom had children in the school — arrived and assisted local law enforcement. The Los Angeles Times reported that a source told them Ramos was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent.
In the aftermath of the shooting, some parents were not notified until late in the evening that their children were numbered among the casualties of this senseless act by a deranged young man. UCISD announced that the school year — scheduled to end Thursday with a graduation ceremony — was concluded and there will be no further activities, including graduation.
While there is much speculation as to his motives — he was bullied, he was angry about not graduating, etc. — it is not known at this time whether Ramos left a note or any explanation of his reasons for the shooting.
This is a rapidly developing story and The New American will keep our readers updated.
