More details about the life of gunman Salvador Rolando Ramos are now emerging as friends and family who knew him are coming forward.
According to the details, it seems like he had a very unstable home life and was not very happy at school either.
Authorities report that Salvador Rolando Ramos purchased weapons days after his 18th birthday. He used the same weapons to shoot and critically wound his grandmother before going to Robb Elementary School near his home in Uvalde, Texas to continue his violent rampage.
Friends and family members of the shooter are now coming forward with information they have about the suspect’s life. Santos Valdez Jr., 18, who says he knew Ramos since early elementary school made some disturbing revelations.
He says the two were close friends till Ramos started displaying concerning behavior which drew a wedge in the friendship between the boys.
He said Ramos once turned up to the park where they routinely played basketball with scratches all over his face. When asked about them, he said a cat had scratched him.
Valdez said thats when Ramos told him the truth about the scratches. He recalls, “Then he told me the truth, that he’d cut up his face with knives over and over and over. I was like, ‘You’re crazy, bro, why would you do that?’”
He said Ramos responded with the fact that he found cutting his face fun.
Multiple friends and family members have reported that in middle school and junior high, Ramos was bullied for having a stutter and a strong lisp.
Stephen Garcia, who says he was Ramos’ best friend in the eighth grade shared that Ramos did not have an easy time in school because of bullying. He said he would get bulled by a lot of people and was “bullied hard”, saying the teen was targeted everywhere. He said the bullying happened “Over social media, over gaming, over everything.”
He went on to add that Ramos was a good kid. Garcia said, “He was the nicest kid, the most shyest kid. He just needed to break out of his shell.”
He said that Garcia routinely tried to defend his friend but couldn’t after he had to move away because his mother got a job in another part of Texas. He says, “he just started being a different person. “He kept getting worse and worse, and I don’t even know.”
When Garcia left school, Ramos dropped out as well. According to Garcia, after dropping out Ramos took to wearing all black and would sport large military-style boots.
He had missed a long period of high school and according to his classmates, he was not on track to graduate with them this year.
Ramos’s cousin Mia said she routinely saw him being bullied for his speech impediment. She said the teenager brushed off the bullying as it happened but would later complain to his grandmother and say he did not want to go back to school.
“He wasn’t very much of a social person after being bullied for the stutter,” said his cousin Mia, who did not want her official name published since her family wants to distance themselves from this tragedy.
His old friend Valdez also reported that Ramos would sometimes drive around in a car with one of his friends and shoot random people with BB guns. He also had a habit of egging people’s cars.
A year ago, according to friends, Ramos posted pictures of guns he had on his wish list. A few days ago, he reportedly posted pictures of two rifles, saying these were his guns.
Nadia Reyes, a high school classmate said that a few weeks ago Ramos posted a story where he was screaming at his mother because he said she was trying to kick him out of the house.
“He posted videos on his Instagram where the cops were there and he’d call his mom a b—- and say she wanted to kick him out,” Reyes said.
Ramos’ neighbor, Ruben Flores said that the teenager had a “rough life” with his mom. He said in recent times, he had become sort of like a father figure to Ramos.
Flores said he and his family would routinely invite the troubled teenager over for barbeques or sleepovers with their son.
He said as Ramos got older, things at home worsened as he and his mother’s blowout became more apparent as often police would be involved in them. Flores and others who knew the family talked about the drug problem that Ramos’ mother had which caused a lot of friction between mother and son.
According to Flores, a few months ago Ramos had moved in with his grandmother. His grandmother also owned the house that he lived in with his mother and apparently she was in the process of evicting her daughter from it because of her drug problem.
Reyes mentioned that Ramos had friendships that were short-lived. She said she could recall at least five times when the teenager had had fistfights in middle school and junior high.
As for Valdez, he said he last interacted with Ramos two hours before the incident when the teenager replied to his story. He said he replied to Ramos but he never even checked his message.
Garcia on the other hand says he called Ramos a month ago but found him to be busy. Ramos told him he was going on a hunting trip with his uncle. Thus when he later saw the pictures of large guns the teen had posted to his profile, he thought they were for his hunting trip.
But when Garcia saw Ramos’ name associated with the school shooting he was beside himself. He never expected his friend would hurt so many people and become a school shooter.
“I think he needed mental help. And more closure with his family. And love,” Garcia said.
It will take a long time for people affected by this tragedy to recover from it.
Please join us in praying for the lives lost and for the families who lost loved ones in this senseless tragedy.
