Ruben Flores lived across the street from where Ramos grew up. He would often come over to play video games and sports with his son, a quiet kid who would respond in quick and short answers.
He was a normal kid when he was here. He completely changed after he hit high school freshman year, Flores told USA TODAY, speaking at his home in a modest neighborhood about 75 miles from the Mexico border.
Flores said that some of that made sense. Teenagers change a lot. He could see the tumult in Ramos from across the street even after he stopped coming over. He didn't get along with his mother. Flores heard yelling. Ramos' grandmother, a regular presence, talked about their family's difficulties.
The last time Ramos came over, he was alone on New Year's Eve. He stayed with them to set off fireworks.
Eduardo Trinidad, whose son attended the same high school as Flores, is struggling to reconcile his past with his present. Nineteen children and two adults have died.
I don't want to say it, but Salvador deserved what he got. I mean little kids. "You don't kill kids, you know?" Flores asked.
There is a list of what went wrong in the Texas school massacre.
An official says police should have confronted the Texas school shooter sooner.
In the wake of the worst US school shooting in nearly a decade, interviews and published reports portray a teen who may have spiraled out of control as he approached his 18th birthday.
It's not known what triggered Ramos to buy two semi-automatic rifles just after his 18th birthday, wounding his grandmother before the school massacre.
Texas Department of Public Safety officials said Ramos asked his sister to buy him a gun, but she refused. He talked about buying a gun in online chats. The investigators are looking into whether anyone helped him.
Ramos lived in Uvalde with his mother for many years, in a majority-Latino town 85 miles west of San Antonio. They lived in a neighborhood with a dirt road lined with mobile homes and pooled water. It was not clear if his father played a role in his life.
In March, he moved to his grandmother's house in another part of town after an intense fight with his girlfriend, according to NBC.
He said that he didn't get along with his son.
His mother said her son could be aggressive if he got angry. He said that he wasn't a monster. She told the Daily Mail that she had a good relationship with her son, who kept to himself and didn't have many friends. She was surprised by the attack.
She told CNN that she wanted to forgive her son.
According to interviews with former friends and classmates, Ramos faced isolation and ridicule at the Uvalde High School.
He told The New York Times that students made fun of him when he was a freshman. The student said he thought Ramos was provoking people rather than being bullied.
One former classmate who sat with Ramos in high school would get severely bullied and made fun of for the clothes he wore and his family's financial situation.
Some people who knew him said he had troubling behavior. The Washington Post reported that a man who once played video games such as "Fortnite" and "Call of Duty" suggested his behavior deteriorated.
Eduardo Trinidad told USA TODAY that his son went to high school with Ramos. He said Ramos didn't fit in.
Trinidad said he didn't know the shooter personally, but urged his friend to engage those who were picked on, like Ramos.
Trinidad said to be friendly with everybody, not to ignore him.
Trinidad wouldn't speculate about Ramos' home life, but he said he knew the attacker's grandmother well and that any family in the neighborhood was probably struggling financially.
Trinidad said that the kid was in poverty and that everyone wanted money.
There is a lot of dark secrets behind all this, according to the media.
According to several former friends, Ramos stopped showing up at school and was not going to graduate with the senior class.
He worked five days a week at Wendy's. Adrian Mendes told CNN he was quiet, while other co-workers told the Daily Beast he had an aggressive streak and sent inappropriate messages to female employees.
In March, he moved in with his grandmother. Her husband told ABC that he lived in a front room and slept on a mattress on the floor. He said that Reyes would encourage him to finish school.
Wendy Arrillos, a convenience store worker who lives three doors down from Ramos, told USA TODAY she never saw him.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said at a news conference Friday that online chats suggested Ramos planned to buy a gun.
On March 3, Ramos was part of an online four-person chat that included the line "Word on the street is you buying a gun", according to the Texas Department of Public Safety Director.
On March 14, he referenced ten more days in a social media post. A user asked Ramos if he was going to shoot up a school. Ask dumb questions. You will see.
Two weeks before the shooting, Ramos stopped showing up to his job at Wendy's, according to an employee who declined to give their name to the Los Angeles Times.
The last time she talked to him was on his 18th birthday. She told the Daily Mail that she had a card and a stuffed animal for him.
According to a state police report, Ramos legally bought a rifle from a Uvalde gun store on his 18th birthday. He bought a second one on May 20.
On social media, Ramos shared hints of the plans and guns. He sent a picture of his gun and a backpack to me four days ago.
I was wondering why you have this, and he told me not to worry about it.
The shooter sent messages to a 15-year-old girl in Germany before the attack, saying he had bought bullets, CNN reported. He replied "Just wait for it" when asked what he was going to do with it.
The Ramos family didn't know he had weapons. He told ABC that he would have reported it if he had known.
Ramos' grandfather said there were no warning signs the morning of the shooting.
The man who lives across the street from Gilbert said he heard the shots and saw the man get into a truck and drive away. She was flown to a hospital in San Antonio after being shot in the face.
Ramos sent a message on social media that said he was going to shoot his grandmother.
Flores told USA TODAY that he rushed to the high school to get his son after he heard about the shooting. He had to wait for several hours because students were placed on lock down. Flores said his son was in disbelief when he picked up his 15-year-old.
Ramos was not among the two Uvalde youths who were arrested for planning to target students in a mass casualty event.
It's not known if Ramos or his family ever sought mental health support, but Uvalde Justice of the Peace Eulalio Diaz lamented the lack of mental health support after the shooting.
He said that the child was probably suffering from something that was never diagnosed. The kid never made it to jail.
Flores is left with a lot of memories, but also a lot of grief, because he watched someone grow up in front of him.
Martha Pskowski is a contributor to the El Paso Times.
The Uvalde shooter was teased before the Texas school massacre.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
