The killer of at least 19 children and two adults at a Texas nursery school is an 18-year-old. His name was Salvador Ramos and he was a former student of the same school, to which he returned with two rifles and, on target, children between 7 and 10 years old. Little is known about him yet, but the police have released a photo: long jet-black hair, staring. The skin with signs of some adolescent impurities. The face of a little boy who is about to become a man.
And then another clue: his Instagram account. In one image, posted four days before the school attack, two semi-automatic shotguns can be seen with the magazine attached. Also an excerpt from a dialogue a young woman posted yesterday, minutes after learning of the Robb Elementary School massacre. The conversation began on May 12, and they did not know each other.
Last Friday, Salvador shared a photo of two rifles with this girl and warned her: “Answer me in an hour, I want to tell you a secret.” After seeing the weapons, the young woman asked that disturbing interlocutor: “What do your weapons have to do with me?” Ramos replied: “I just wanted to share the images with you and find out if you will publish them.”
The young woman now remembers: “The only reason I answered him was because he scared me. Now I regret not having stayed up talking to him to try to prevent this crime.”
It will be up to investigators to piece together a personality obviously obsessed with guns, with chargers, ultimately with violence. Perhaps a disturbed personality with mental problems, or perhaps just intoxicated by the poisons of our time, by the conspiracy theories that flow undisturbed on social networks.
The Texas shooter was bullied as a child because he had difficulty speaking and because of his family’s financial situation
Salvador Ramos was a lonely young man who suffered bullying as a child because he had speech difficulties and because of his family’s difficult financial situation, according to US media such as the Washington Post and CNN after speaking with friends and classmates of the murderer. .
Santos Valdez Jr. has assured the Washington Post that he and Salvador were friends until “his behavior began to deteriorate.” He assures that one day he appeared with his face full of cuts: “he told me that he had cut his face with knives over and over again for fun”.
During high school, he was bullied because he stuttered and lisped when speaking, according to several friends and family members. Also, Ramos was skipping high school for long periods of time, so he wasn’t going to graduate this year with his classmates.
The gunman bought his weapons immediately after his 18th birthday on May 16, a Texas state senator has reported.
Unfortunately, this is an all too common profile in a country where prevention and assistance networks for people in difficulty are practically non-existent. We still do not have elements to understand if Salvador wanted to “punish” the community of Latinos, immigrants, of which perhaps, judging by the last name, he was also a part.
It also leaves some clues about his family life. Before leaving her on her crazy mission, Salvador shot her grandmother to death. The 66-year-old woman is admitted to a San Antonio hospital: there is still no precise information about her condition.
The boy probably had a plan. Maybe Grandma found out about her intentions. She maybe she saw him come out with the guns. Salvador got into the car with disconcerting coldness. He drove to his old elementary school. A security camera captures him as he is about to enter the building. He is dressed in black. He seems to want to hide his face with the hood of a sweatshirt.
The image, which is circulating on social media, is grainy, but a semi-automatic machine gun appears to be glimpsed. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has explained that the killer “was carrying a pistol and possibly a rifle.” But one thing is clear: this is another carefully studied, premeditated massacre. An eighteen-year-old boy becomes a murderer, ready to lay down his life as well. Salvador killed 19 children and two adults before being killed by the police.
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