Salvador Ramos, the gunman in the Uvalde, Tx., mass shooting, came from a broken family and unsettled classmates and co-workers with sometimes aggressive behavior and disturbing social-media posts, say people who knew him. Texas officials said Ramos, who was killed after a shootout with Border Patrol agents, didn't have any documented mental health issues and had no adult arrest record, reports the Wall Street Journal. “He gave me such an odd vibe,” said Crystal Foutz, a 17-year-old junior who attended Uvalde High School with him and knew him through her ex-boyfriend. “He always seemed scary.” Ramos, 18, seemed to have a distant and troubled relationship with his parents, according to a longtime neighbor who was a friend of one of his grandmothers. His father left to work out of town when Ramos was young and rarely returned, and his mother grappled with personal issues. He lived with his other grandmother. Officials said he shot that grandmother in the face before carrying out his attack at Robb Elementary School, killing 19 students and two teachers. Yarelli Vasquez, a 17-year-old junior at Uvalde High School who had known Ramos since seventh grade, said he didn’t seem as troubled when he was younger. He was mostly quiet and kept to himself. After entering high school, he began acting out more, suddenly turning angry if someone said something that perturbed him, Vasquez said. Ramos actively posted on social-media platforms, and the messages and images could be macabre or violent. He displayed photos of guns and knives. He made a TikTok video showing him punching a wall and saying he would take on anyone who messed with him, Foutz said. In another video, he was seated in the passenger seat of a car holding a bag with what appeared to be a dead cat in it. Ramos posted pictures on Instagram of him cutting himself, with blood in a sink, Vasquez said. Earlier this year, he showed up to school one day with a mask on, and when he took it off, his face had scars and scratches that he said he had inflicted on himself.
top of page
bottom of page
Comments