Salvador Ramos

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“	It's time to die.	„
	~ Ramos during the shooting.

Salvador Rolando Ramos (May 16, 2004 – May 24, 2022) was an American mass shooter who perpetrated a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022, ten days after the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. Ramos killed 21 (19 children and 2 teachers) and injured 17 before being shot and killed by a Border Patrol officer. He also shot his grandmother at his home prior to the shooting, but she survived. Ramos' motive for committing the shooting is currently unknown.

The shooting was the deadliest mass shooting to have taken place in 2022, the third deadliest school shooting in American history (behind the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and the Virginia Tech shooting), the deadliest shooting to take place in Texas history, and the ninth deadliest mass shooting in American history overall.

Biography

Prior to the shooting

Ramos, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, was a resident of Uvalde and a former student at Uvalde High School who was born in North Dakota. Prior to the shooting, he had neither a criminal record nor any documented mental health issues.

According to his classmates and some of his friends, he had a stutter and a strong lisp, for which he was often bullied; he frequently had fistfights with classmates, occasionally with boxing gloves, which he carried around with him, and he had few friends. He was expected to graduate from high school in 2022, but his frequent absences made his graduation unlikely. He eventually dropped out of school.

Ramos' social media acquaintances said he openly abused animals such as cats and would livestream the abuse on Yubo. Up until a month before the shooting, he worked at a local Wendy's and had been employed there for at least a year. According to the store's night manager, he went out of his way to keep to himself. One of his coworkers said he was occasionally rude to his female coworkers, to whom he sent inappropriate text messages, and would threaten cooks at his job by asking them, "Do you know who I am?"

A year before the shooting, Ramos started posting pictures to his Instagram account of automatic rifles that were on his wish list. He would drive around at night with a friend and shoot at people with a BB gun and throw eggs at cars. According to a man who was in a relationship with his mother, Ramos moved out of his mother's house and into his grandparents' house two months before the shooting, after an argument broke out between him and his mother over her turning off the Wi-Fi. He posted a video of himself on Instagram aggressively arguing with his mother and referring to her as a "bitch". People close to the perpetrator's family described his mother as a drug user. His grandfather said that he did not have a driver's license, and did not know how to drive.

Ramos legally purchased a semi-automatic rifle from a local gun store on May 17, 2022, a day after his 18th birthday, and he purchased another rifle three days later. He also sent an Instagram message to an acquaintance he met through Yubo, which showed a receipt for an AR-15 style rifle purchased from Georgia-based online retailer Daniel Defense eight days before the shooting. He then posted a picture of two rifles on his Instagram account three days before the shooting. On May 18, 2022, he purchased 375 rounds of 5.56 NATO ammunition.

The shooting

On May 24, 2022, Ramos and his 66-year-old grandmother had an argument at their home in Uvalde about his failure to graduate from high school, during which he shot her in the forehead before taking her truck. She survived and sought help from neighbors while police were called, and was then airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio in critical condition.

Using his Facebook account, Ramos sent three private messages to a 15-year-old girl from Germany whom he met online prior to the shooting: the first to say that he was going to shoot his grandmother, a second to say that he had shot his grandmother, and a third, about 15 minutes before the shooting, to say that he was going to open fire at an elementary school. A spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said the posts were "private one-to-one text messages" discovered after the shooting took place.

Ramos crashed his grandmother's truck through a barricade and into a concrete ditch outside Robb Elementary School at 11:28 a.m. CDT (UTC–5). According to police and security camera footage, he was wearing a plate carrier—a type of tactical vest—without armor inserts, a backpack, and all-black clothing while carrying a handgun, an AR-15 style rifle, and standard capacity magazines. A witness said he first fired at two people at a nearby funeral home, both of whom escaped uninjured. He then dropped a black bag with ammunition inside and ventured further into the school. Soon after, police reported receiving 9-1-1 calls about a vehicle having crashed near the school and a person armed with a rifle who had been seen heading inside. The perpetrator walked into the school through its south entrance between 11:30 and 11:40.

The majority of the shooting occurred inside the building within the first few minutes; Ramos was in the building for 40 to 60 minutes while armed police remained outside the classroom and building. Officers arrived four minutes after the perpetrator entered the school and attempted to make entry, but retreated after he fired at them. Officers were not successful in establishing negotiations with Ramos. The United States Marshals Service drove nearly 70 miles to the school and arrived at 12:10 p.m. where they helped officers initially confront the shooter, render first aid, and secure the perimeter.

After entering the building, Ramos walked down two short hallways, entered a classroom that was internally connected to another classroom, and opened fire on the children and two teachers in the room. All of the victims were located in the fourth grade classroom where he locked the door. According to a male student who hid in the adjoining classroom, Ramos came in and crouched a bit, saying "it's time to die", before starting shooting. Afterwards, an officer had called out "Yell if you need help!" In response, a girl in the same classroom said "Help", Ramos heard the girl, entered the classroom, and shot her. The student said that the officer then barged into the classroom, Ramos shot at the officer, and then more officers started shooting. Ramos fired a total of 116 rounds.

The UCISD police chief estimated that the shooting began at 11:32; according to a Facebook post by the school, the school was locked down at 11:43 in response to gunshots heard in the vicinity. According to a Texas DPS lieutenant, first responding officers had insufficient manpower and were unable to enter the classroom, and they instead evacuated children and teachers by breaking windows around the school.

Ramos stayed in the classroom for around one hour, hiding behind a steel door that officers were unable to open until they obtained a master key from the principal. At 12:17 p.m., UCISD sent out a message on Twitter that there was an active shooter at the elementary school. A Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) agent rushed to the scene after receiving a text message from his wife, a teacher there. Prior to this, the officer had been off duty and was about to get a haircut before receiving the news. The officer immediately set out with a shotgun his barber had lent him and arrived on scene approximately an hour after the first responders arrived. As UCISD officers exchanged fire with the shooter, BORTAC agents joined them in response to a request for assistance; one sustained an injury. According to Governor Greg Abbott, the injured Border Patrol agent shot Ramos.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are assisting local police in the investigation. Ramos's guns and magazines were recovered by law enforcement for analysis.

Victims

• Neveah Bravo, 10
• Jacklyn Cazares, 10
• Mackenzie Elrod, 10
• Jose Flores Jr., 10
• Eliana Garcia, 9
• Irma Garcia, 46 (teacher)
• Uziyah Garcia, 9
• Amerie Garza, 10
• Xavier Lopez, 10
• Jayce Luevanos, 10
• Tess Mata, 10
• Miranda Mathis, 11
• Eva Mireles, 44 (teacher)
• Alithia Ramirez, 10
• Annabell Rodriguez, 10
• Mayte Rodriguez, 10
• Lexi Rubio, 10
• Jailah Silguero, 11
• Eliahana Torres, 10
• Rogelio Torres, 10