The mother of the attacker suffers from addictions. Her father was not present. He lived with his maternal grandparents.
Introverted, victim of ‘bullying’ and son of dysfunctional parents. Broadly speaking, that is the profile of Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old who murdered 19 students and two teachers at a school in the city of Uvalde, Texas.
His friends remember him as a teenager who didn’t talk much. For some time, they say, he worked in a Wendy’s chain restaurant, where he hardly lived with his colleagues.
“I don’t think anyone really knew him. My boys talk to each other and are friendly with each other. He was not like that,” Adrián Méndez, one of the managers of the establishment, told The New York Times.
This withdrawn attitude seems to be a constant appreciation among those who knew Salvador Ramos, who before committing the massacre at Robb Elementary, shot his grandmother in the face, who tried to stop him.
The woman is in serious condition in a Uvalde hospital, according to the most recent report from the authorities.
“They harassed him a lot. He was the most tender and shy boy in the class », assured Stephen García, one of Ramos’s best friends, to The Washington Post.
According to him, the students teased Ramos because he stuttered a lot, because it was difficult for him to socialize with other people, because he mispronounced the letter “s” and because, at some point, he adopted an emo image, with eyeliner and dark clothes. For that reason, he remembers, they called him gay and homosexual.
In addition, Ramos was the son of a woman with addiction problems, according to testimonies collected by the US press. His father wasn’t even listed. He lived in the house of his maternal grandparents.
His grandfather was dedicated to installing air conditioners in houses and offices.
The Spanish newspaper El País also collected the testimony of Eric, the father of a classmate of Salvador Ramos. He agrees that the aggressor was a “quiet” young man.
“My son tells me he knows a boy who liked to hit him,” says Eric.
In recent months, Ramos has become a young gun enthusiast. In his social networks he used to post statuses and stories on this topic. He expressed that his dream was to own assault rifles, according to the first investigations by the Texas authorities.
“He was a nice guy, he just needed to get rid of the shell he was carrying,” Stephen Garcia said.
His friend Santos Valdez told The Washington Post that he once saw his face cut off. Ramos replied that he liked to cut himself with knives.
He also says that, before this violent stage, the teenager used to be like any other, with a special fondness for video games Call of Duty – a production with a war and weapons theme – and Minecraft.
The investigations of the authorities show that Salvador Ramos used his Facebook account to announce, first, that he would shoot his grandmother, and then, at Robb Elementary School.
How did you get the weapons?
Roland Gutierrez, a state senator, told USA Today that Ramos bought two assault rifles at a local store on their birthdays. “It was the first thing he did when he turned 18,” he said in an interview on CNN, citing data from police forces.
Before heading to the scene of the massacre, Ramos shot his grandmother. According to Gutierrez, the woman survived and is being treated for her injuries.
Investigators believe that the young man shared photos of the two weapons used in the attack on his Instagram account, which has since been deleted by the network itself. In addition, they are examining whether he made insinuating posts regarding the shooting hours before the event, the AP quotes an agent who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Also, the shooter allegedly posted several images on an Instagram account under the name TheBiggestOpp. Three days before the attack, he shared photos of two rifles, while another image posted on April 28 showed a large-capacity magazine.
A friend of Ramos, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity, said that days before the attack, Ramos sent him photos of a firearm and a bag full of ammunition.
In addition, he revealed that the young man was teased for the clothes he wore and the economic situation of his family. For this reason, Ramos hardly attended classes at his school.
Other testimonies also indicate that Ramos has become more aggressive in recent times.
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