Editing Salvador Ramos (section)

===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<ref>[https://www.newsweek.com/salvador-ramos-was-bullied-stutter-wearing-black-eyeliner-friend-1710062 Salvador Ramos Was Bullied for Stutter, Wearing Black Eyeliner: Friend], ''Newsweek''</ref>; 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?"<ref>[https://www.kwtx.com/2022/07/18/year-before-uvalde-shooting-gunman-had-threatened-women-carried-around-dead-cat-been-nicknamed-school-shooter/ A year before Uvalde massacre, gunman had threatened women, carried around a dead cat and been nicknamed “school shooter”], ''KWTX''</ref>

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.<ref>[https://www.newsweek.com/salvador-ramos-knives-face-bb-gun-1709987 Salvador Ramos Cut His Face for Fun, Would Shoot People With BB Gun—Friend], ''Newsweek''</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-gunman-left-home-fight-mom-wi-fi-mothers-boyfriend-says-rcna30495 Texas gunman left home after fight with mom about Wi-Fi, mother's boyfriend says], ''NBC News''</ref>

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.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/25/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-gunman/ Gunman bought two rifles, hundreds of rounds in days before massacre], ''The Washington Post''</ref>