Texas gunman warned online he was going to shoot up school

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The gunman who massacred 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas had warned in online messages minutes before the attack that he had shot his grandmother and was going to shoot up a school, the governor said Wednesday.

Salvador Ramos, 18, used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle in the bloodbath Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

He had legally bought two such rifles just days before, soon after his birthday, authorities said.

Investigators shed no immediate light on the motive.

Governor Greg Abbott said Ramos, a resident of the community about 85 miles west of San Antonio, had no known criminal or mental health history.

But about 30 minutes before the bloodbath, Ramos made three social media posts, Abbott said.

According to the governor, Ramos posted that he was going to shoot his grandmother, then that he had shot the woman, and finally that he was going to shoot up an elementary school.

Seventeen people were also injured in the attack.

“Evil swept across Uvalde yesterday. Anyone who shoots his grandmother in the face has to have evil in his heart,” Abbott said at a news conference.

“But it is far more evil for someone to gun down little kids. It is intolerable and it is unacceptable for us to have in the state anybody who would kill little kids in our schools.”

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