UVALDE, Texas – At a media briefing Friday morning, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety said there were clues on social media that indicated Uvalde school shooter, Salvador Ramos, 18, was planning something sinister.
DPS Director Steven C. McCraw corrected a previous statement by Gov. Greg Abbott that indicated that Ramos discussed his actions on Tuesday in a public post. Those posts were not public. Instead, the messages were sent to one individual in Germany over Facebook messenger. Those messages are now part of the investigation.
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But Ramos had also participated in conversations about guns and possible violence for months.
McCraw said in Sept. 2021, Ramos asked his sister to help him buy a gun.
“She flatly refused,” McCraw said.
McCraw also detailed the following posts investigators have found on Instagram:
- Feb. 28: In a chat on Instagram there was a discussion about Ramos “being a school shooter.”
- March 1: In a four-person chat on Instagram, Ramos discussed buying a gun.
- March 3: Someone posted in that chat “word on the street, you are buying a gun.” Ramos replied with “just bought something RN.”
- March 14: Ramos had an Instagram post that said “10 more days.” A user replied, “Are you going to shoot up a school or something?” Ramos replied “No. Stop asking dumb questions. You’ll see,” McCraw shared.
Ramos legally purchased two assault rifles and ammunition using a debit card just after he turned 18.
McCraw said Ramos possessed 60 magazines total with 1657 total rounds of ammunition. He fired more than 160 rounds on Tuesday.
McCraw said that anyone who reads any threat on social media should report it and indicated they were investigating the others who participated in the chats with Ramos to see how much they knew about the shooting.
Tips have been the key to thwarting many school shooting plots in the past including another unrelated plot in 2018 that led to the arrests of two middle school students.
A Seguin High School student was arrested Wednesday after making a terroristic threat about bringing a weapon to campus and police have uncovered other plots around the state this week.
Also this week, a man in Laredo was arrested on Thursday for making a terroristic threat after buying a firearm scope on social media and telling the seller he was going “human hunting.”