Victim of school bullying, difficulties at home and self-harm history: The teenager who shot and killed 19 children in a Texas school on Tuesday had a troubled history similar to that of other school shooting perpetrators.
Salvador Ramos, 18, who was killed when police tried to arrest him, was a Hispanic-American citizen and a student in Uvalde, a small town near the border in the south of the United States where the tragedy took place. With Mexico..
The now-deleted Instagram account showed photos of a young man with shoulder-length hair and closed eyes. His profile also featured images of two semi-automatic rifles and a pistol magazine.
The day after the Robb Elementary School bombing that killed both teachers, details of Ramos were made public, who allegedly walked around the area and shot around, then barricaded himself in a classroom and fired at everyone present.
Her cousin Mia told The Washington Post that she was teased in elementary school for stuttering and speechless, and begged her grandmother not to attend classes.
Stephen Garcia, an old friend of Ramos’s, confirmed that bullying is a problem. “He was severely tortured by many people,” Garcia told the newspaper. Another friend, Santos Valdez, recalled that Ramos once cut his face “just for fun”.
The American media also reported that Ramos had problems with his mother, who, according to his neighbors, was a drug user. The clashes between the two were so serious that the police had already been called, they said.
Bullying and mental health issues have become common denominators in the tragic and often fatal school shootings in the United States.
More than 20 years ago, two teenagers harassed by fellow students killed 13 people and took their lives at their high school in Columbine, Colorado.
In 2007, a mentally retarded student killed 32 people in a massacre at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The attacker, who also committed suicide, referred to the Columbine attackers as “martyrs” in a video before the attack.
shooting grandma
In addition, the perpetrator of the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, and the student who was expelled for disciplinary reasons at a Parkland, Fla., high school in 2018, who later killed 17 people, were also mentally ill. .
Erick Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety said the first victim of Ramos’ attack on Tuesday was his grandmother, adding that the woman was transported by helicopter to a medical facility.
Shortly after the incident, a 66-year-old woman was admitted to a San Antonio hospital in critical condition, according to health experts, who did not provide further details.
After shooting his grandmother, Ramos fled in a car, dressed in a bulletproof vest and armed with an assault rifle, Estrada reported.
The young man crashed his car near a ditch outside Robb Elementary School, got off and was on his way to the scene where police tried but failed to stop him. Around 11:30 local time (13:30 GMT), he entered the school and opened fire.
Pete Arredondo, Uvalde school district police chief and investigator, said Ramos acted alone.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said investigators are still trying to piece together what happened.
Abbott explained that they are working to “gather detailed information about the subject’s background, motivation, types of weapons used, legal authority to possess them, and to conduct a thorough investigation and re-enactment of the crime scene.”
source: Noticias
