Salvador Ramos, 18, shot his grandmother before going to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde; engaging border patrol agents nearby in a shootout; and then barricading himself inside the school, killing 19 students and two teachers
The 18-year-old Texas shooter who killed 19 children and two teachers chillingly messaged a random girl saying: 'I got a lil secret I wanna tell u. I'm about to...'
Salvador Ramos sent an Instagram private chat to the California woman appearing to hint at the terror he would inflict on Robb Elementary in Uvalde.
The sick killer asked her to repost pictures of two of his AR-15s as well as a magazine of ammunition that he bought last week.
He also sent her a haunting post at 9.16am on Tuesday - just two hours before the deadly attack got underway - saying: 'Ima air out.'
And as the shooting got underway it emerged he had also tagged her in a highlighted post on his page with pictures of his guns.
The girl was initially confused by the apparently random messages, which started on May 12, but engaged with him because she said she was scared.
She reacted with horror last night when she heard of the devastation he had inflicted on the young children in the close-knit Texas community.
Ramos shared photos on social media of guns. His account was taken down shortly after Governor Greg Abbott confirmed his name.
Ramos is believed to have shot his grandmother before racing away in a truck and crashing it outside the school.
The vicious high school dropout is then said to have rushed into the school before spraying gunfire indiscriminately at teachers and children.
Horrific reports said the youngsters were seen trying to scramble out of windows amid the hail of bullets.
Ramos' messages to the girl - believed to be from LA - on Instagram from May 12 painted a picture of a twisted freak plotting to carry out an attack.
He wrote from his account @sal8dor_: 'You gonna repost my gun pics.' She replied: 'What your guns gotta do with me.'
'Just wanted to tag you,' he said back. Then at 5:43am on Tuesday, @salv8dor_ messaged her and said: 'I'm about to'.
The girl asked 'about to what' to which he answered: 'I'll tell you before 11.' He said he'd text her in an hour and urged her to respond.
'I got a lil secret I wanna tell u,' he messaged with a smiley face emoji covering its mouth. 'Be grateful I tagged you,' he wrote.
She replied: 'No it's just scary,' adding: 'I barely know you and you tag me in a picture with some guns?'
His last message at 9:16am on Tuesday was 'Ima air out'. The shooting started around 11:32am.
One video at the scene appears to show the suspected gunman, named by Governor Greg Abbott as Salvador Ramos, approach the school while what sounds like gunfire is going off in the background
The woman reacted with horror when she learnt what he had done. 'He's a stranger I know nothing about him he decided to tag me in his gun post,' she wrote.
'I'm so sorry for the victims and their families I really don't know what to say.'
She then added: 'The only reason I responded to him was because I was afraid of him I wish I stayed awake to at least try to convince him to not commit his crime. I didn't know.'
When an Instagram user asked if she was his girlfriend, she replied: 'I don't know him and I don't even live in Texas.'
Ramos, born in North Dakota but who lived in Uvalde, was a student at Uvalde High School before finding work at a Wendy's.
He had bought the guns he used in the shooting legally when he turned 18.
Under a new Texan law passed in September, those aged 18-21 could buy guns if they had a protective order, because they were at risk of family violence, stalking, prostitution or sex trafficking.
The law also removed the requirement for a permit for a handgun. Rifles were already permitted in Texas without licenses.
Ramos's social media was full of photos of his new guns, which he bought on his 18th birthday, state senator Roland Gutierrez said.
Robb Elementary School, which has 600 students enrolled, is located in the city of Uvalde, hometown of Matthew McConaughey, 60 miles east of the Mexican border and 80 miles west of San Antonio.
A school friend of Ramos's said that he sent him the photos of his guns too.
'He would message me here and there, and four days ago he sent me a picture of the AR he was using … and a backpack full of 5.56 rounds, probably like seven mags,' the friend told CNN.
'I was like, 'bro, why do you have this?' and he was like, 'Don't worry about it.'
'He proceeded to text me, 'I look very different now. You wouldn't recognize me,' he added.
The friend said Ramos was mocked by others for the clothes he wore and his family's financial situation, and eventually was seen less in class.
He largely dropped out, and took the job at Wendy's, where co-workers remember him as quiet.
Adrian Mendes, evening manager at the Wendy's, said Ramos 'kept to himself mostly.'
'He felt like the quiet type, the one who doesn't say much. He didn't really socialize with the other employees,' Mendes told CNN.
'He just worked, got paid, and came in to get his check.'
Mendes said that he did not know Ramos well - he was already employed when Mendes began in February - and didn't see him most of the time because they were on different shifts.
Ramos worked from 11am to 4pm or 5pm, five days a week.
