the times | Thursday May 26 2022 2GM 13News
The governor of Texas was accused of
“doing nothing” to curb gun violence
yesterday as he gave an update on the
Uvalde school shooting.
Greg Abbott, 64, a Republican, has
relaxed gun laws in the state, and
insisted at a press conference in the
town that mental health problems may
have played a part in the attack. “What
is the problem here?” Abbott asked.
“Empathically we have a problem with
mental health in this community.”
Beto O’Rourke, 49, a Democratic
former congressman who is expected to
challenge Abbott in November’s mid-
term elections, approached the stage.
“You chose to do nothing,” he shouted.
He was led away by police and shouted
at by several people standing by Abbott,Governor accused of failing to act
including the Republican senator Ted
Cruz. Someone yelled that O’Rourke
was putting ambition ahead of the com-
munity.
Leading Republicans who relaxed the
gun laws in Texas have rejected calls for
tougher controls. Cruz, 61, who support-
ed Abbott last year in lowering age lim-
its on buying and carrying guns,
claimed that the deaths would be “polit-
icised” to attack the constitutional right
to bear arms. Both are due to attend the
annual meeting of the National Rifle
Association in Houston tomorrow.
Texas has some of the least restrictive
gun laws in America, and prides itself on
being a state where more than one mil-
lion people own firearms and mostly
use them responsibly. But legislation
passed in September ended the require-
ment for a licence to carry handguns, al-lowing people over the age of 21 to carry
one openly in public or on university
campuses, although not in schools. The
law allowed those aged 18 to 21 to buy
guns if they had a protective order
because they were at risk of family vio-
lence, stalking, prostitution or sex traf-
ficking. Although it is not confirmed
that Salvador Ramos had a protective
order, friends and relatives said he had a
“fraught home life”.
Yesterday Cruz, who received more
than $300,000 in campaign donations
from gun lobbyists during his last sena-
torial campaign in 2018, was accused of
hypocrisy over his offer on Twitter of
prayers for Ramos’s victims in Uvalde.
The NRA has not commented on the
Uvalde shooting or responded to calls
from Democrats and pressure groups to
cancel the event.David RoseIn the months before he joined Amer-
ica’s list of teenage mass murderers,
Salvador Ramos had begun to behave
more erratically, former friends said.
His relationship with his mother had
deteriorated and he started wearing
black and obsessing over guns.
Santos Valdez Jr, 18, who said he had
known Ramos since early primary
school, said Ramos had once arrived at
a local park where they played basket-
ball with cuts all over his face. He said at
first that a cat had scratched his face.
“Then he told me the truth: that he’d
cut up his face with knives over and
over and over,” Valdez told The Wash-
ington Post. “I was like, ‘You’re crazy,
bro, why would you do that?’ ” Ramos
had said he did it for “fun”, Valdez added.
In the small town of Uvalde, Texas,
where “everybody knows everybody”,
Ramos had been bullied for a stutter
and a lisp, and became increasingly iso-
lated over the past year.
Stephen Garcia, who said he had
known Ramos at school, said yesterday:
“He would get bullied hard, like bullied
by a lot of people. Over social media,
over gaming, over everything. He was
the nicest kid, the most shyest kid. He
just needed to break out of his shell.”
Ramos recently started wearing
black, friends said, grew his hair long
and stopped going to school. About a
year ago, on social media, he posted
photos of automatic rifles that he
“would have on his wish list”. On May
16 Ramos celebrated his 18th birthday
and was finally able to buy what he
wanted: two AR-15 type rifles. Over
three visits to an unidentified weapons
store during the following week he
bought two rifles and 375 rounds of
5.56-calibre ammunition. Only one
weapon was used in the attack.
Before that, those who knew him said
he had driven around at night and shot
at “random people” with a BB gun. Offi-
cials said last night, however, there had
been “no meaningful forewarning”. He
had no history of mental health prob-
lems, they said, but they could not rule
out a possible juvenile criminal record.
Police said concerns about his behav-
iour had been “relayed to someone in
California who did not report it”.
On Tuesday Ramos, described as a
“high school drop-out”, was up early. At
5.43am he began an online exchange
with an Instagram user who later said
that she did not know him. “I’m about
to,” he wrote, without elaborating. Two
hours later, after being asked what he
planned, he said: “I’ll tell you before 11.”
In another message he wrote: “I got a lil
secret. I wanna tell you.” He also sent
her pictures of the automatic weapons.
Ramos had lived with his mother,
Adriana Reyes, a reported drug user, in
an area of ramshackle single-storey
houses with corrugated roofs. The
change in his behaviour was linked in
local reports to his relationship with his
mother. Two months ago he posted an
Instagram story railing against her,
claiming she was attempting to evict
him from the family home.
Reyes said she was surprised that her
son attacked the school, insisting yes-
terday that he was not a violent person.Neighbours said he had “a pretty
rough life” at home. Ruben Flores, 41,
who lived next door, said police would
often be called to the house before
Ramos moved in with his grandmother,
Celia Martinez, 66, this year. Police said
he had been living with his grandpar-
ents before the attack.
Flores said that Ramos’s grandmoth-
er had told him this week that she was
evicting Ramos’s mother because of her
“drug problems”. His grandmother was
the first person Ramos shot, before he
went to the school. She had worked at
the school until two years ago, and had
since worked at a coffee shop. Ramos
shot her “in the face”, said Greg Abbott,
the state’s governor. She was able to call
police soon after. Her husband, Rolan-
do Reyes, 74, told ABC News: “I didn’t
know he had weapons. If I’d have
known, I would have reported it.”
Ramos was unemployed but had held
a job at a local Wendy’s fast food outlet.
Adrian Mendez, a manager, told The
New York Times that Ramos quit a
month ago. “He went out of the way to
keep by himself,” Mendez said. “No one
really knew him.”Cost: $500 - $
Range: 550 metres (600yds)
Magazine capacity: up to 30 rounds
Rate of fire: 1 round a second, up to
9 rounds per second with modificationAR-15 type rifleNews
told the kids: you’re going to die’
Bullied loner with
home woes boasted
of his little secret
MARCO BELLO/REUTERS; JAE C. HONG/APSalvador Ramos apparently posted
pictures of two AR-15 type guns on
social media before the attackJoshua Thurston
Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, ten,
described as “a bright light”Alithia Ramirez, ten — her
cousin spoke of heartbreakAnnabelle Rodriquez, ten,
died with her cousin, JacklynEliahana Cruz Torres, ten, was
identified on Tuesday nightEllie Garcia, nine, had made
a video for her fatherJailah Nicole Silguero, 11, was
killed with her cousin, JayceJayce Carmelo Luevanos, ten,
died with his cousin, JailahJose Flores Jr, ten, was a
“happy boy”, his uncle saidMaite Yuleana Rodriguez, ten,
was given an honour awardMakenna Elrod, ten, was
confirmed dead by a friendMiranda Mathis, 11: “We loved
you dearly,” a cousin wroteNevaeh Bravo, whose age
could not be confirmedRogelio Torres, ten: “It breaks
my heart,” a cousin tweetedTess Maria Mata was “loved
deeply” a relative tweetedUziyah Garcia, eight, was
“the sweetest little boy”Xavier Lopez, ten, had looked
forward to going swimming