• Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Newsletter
Faithfully Magazine
Monday, June 5, 2023
  • About
    • Staff and Advisors
    • Advertise With Us
    • Submissions
  • Q&As
    John Blake photo by John Nowak for CNN

    CNN Reporter Talks Race, Faith and Reconciliation in Powerful Memoir ‘More Than I Imagined’

    Brown Baby Jesus author Dorena Williamson

    Author Celebrates Jesus’ Messy, Multiethnic Family Tree in ‘Brown Baby Jesus’

    KevOnStage and MrsKevOnStage in an interview with Faithfully Magazine.

    Interview: KevOnStage and MrsKevOnStage Talk Sex, Therapy, and Why ‘Marriage Be Hard’ (Video)

    Christina Edmondson and Ekemini Uwan on Truth's Table book

    ‘Truth’s Table’ Authors Talk Early Beginnings, Centering Black Women, and Inspiring One Another

  • Exclusives
    Karen Abercrombie

    After Award-Winning Role in Top-Grossing Christian Movie, Karen Abercrombie Is Leading Change From Within

    black women group

    ‘Righteous and Ratchet’ Black Women of Faith Embraced on Jemele Hill’s ‘Sanctified’ Podcast

    Josh McDowell

    Apologist Josh McDowell Backtracks After Claiming Black Families Don’t Value Education

    Christian author and preacher Dr. Voddie Baucham

    ‘Fault Lines’ Author Voddie Baucham Confused or Making Things Up, Richard Delgado Says in Response to Misquote on ‘Righteous Actions’ of Whites

  • Profiled
    Chris Broussard

    Sports Analyst Chris Broussard Uses Hoops and Christianity to Address Needs of Young Men

    Bishop Noel Jones

    Bishop Noel Jones: Engagement, Life, Family and Ministry (Profiled)

    nadine raphael

    From Prison to the Pulpit: Nadine Raphael on God’s ‘Greater Plan’ for Her Life (Profiled)

    lisa sharon harper

    Lisa Sharon Harper Is Her ‘Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams’ (Profiled)

  • Remember
    Rev. Dr. William Hiram Bentley

    Black Evangelicalism and the Reforming Influence of William H. Bentley

    Marie Bassili Assaad and Mother Irene

    Knitting Together the Community of Love: Lessons From Marie Bassili Assaad and Mother Irene

    Rev. Sutton E. Griggs

    The Complex Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs: From Respected Leader to Race Traitor?

    fannie lou hamer

    Fannie Lou Hamer: Forerunner of Faith-Driven, Pro-Life Democrats (Remember)

  • Opinion & Analysis
    migrants

    When Faith Says to Help Migrants — and the Law Says Don’t

    couple with child

    Missionary System That Brought US Man Accused of Abusing African ‘Orphans’ Was Always Deeply Flawed

    Civil Rights March 1963

    The Women Who Stood With Martin Luther King Jr. and Sustained a Movement for Social Change

    pile of books

    In New Jersey, School Segregation Didn’t End; It Evolved

  • Specials
    • All
    • Growing a Green Church
    clean energy

    Can Money-Making Microgrids Empower Black Churches to Close the Clean Energy Gap?

    laudato trees earthbeat

    Laudato Trees Planting Program Enlists Catholic Properties to Help Increase DC’s Canopy

SUBSCRIBE
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
Faithfully Magazine
No Result
View All Result

‘It’s Time to Die,’ Uvalde Shooter Salvador Ramos Told Schoolchildren Before Opening Fire

Mass shooter was confronted by law enforcement before entering elementary school

FM Editors by FM Editors
May 26, 2022
Reading Time: 5 mins read
Salvador Ramos, identified as the gunman who killed 19 students and teachers Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas May 24, 2022

Salvador Ramos, identified as the gunman who killed 19 at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas May 24, 2022. (Photo: Texas Department of Public Safety

72
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It

By Joshua Fechter, The Texas Tribune, May 25, 2022

The gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde on Tuesday was confronted by a law enforcement officer before he entered the elementary school that became the site of his massacre, authorities said Wednesday.

But many questions remained about the circumstances that led up to his attack, after state leaders and law enforcement officers laid out a broad but horrific sequence of events during a tense press conference Wednesday. Authorities also revealed that 17 more people were injured in the rampage.

About 30 minutes before he entered Robb Elementary School, the gunman — Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old Uvalde resident — shared messages through Facebook that he was going to shoot his grandmother, Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters. Ramos then shot her in the face, confirming that in a Facebook message, Abbott said.

Soon after, he wrote on Facebook that he planned to shoot an elementary school, Abbott said. But Facebook’s parent company Meta, quickly clarified the messages Abbott described were “private one-to-one text messages that were discovered after the terrible tragedy occurred,” not public posts.

“We are closely cooperating with law enforcement in their ongoing investigation,” said Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta.

RELATED POSTS

6-Year-Old Boy Survives But Loses Parents, Sibling in Allen Mall Shooting in Texas

Visions of Hell, Meeting Jesus, and Followed by Demons — This New Media Ministry Is *Not* Your Mother’s ‘I Am Second’

Will Smith’s ‘Emancipation’ Inspired by True Story of ‘Whipped Peter,’ Escaped Slave With Scarred Back

After shooting his grandmother, the gunman fled in her truck as she called police, Abbott said. He crashed near the school, about two minutes away from his grandmother’s home. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said at the press conference that the shooter approached a back door of the school and was confronted by a school resource officer who “engaged him at that time” but “the subject was able to make it into the school.” It’s unclear whether the school officer and the gunman exchanged gunfire.

“He went down a hallway, turned right and then turned left and there were two classrooms that were adjoining,” McCraw said. “And that is where the carnage began.”

All 19 children and two teachers killed were in the same classroom, a state law enforcement official said Wednesday morning.

The gunman barricaded himself inside a classroom and “began shooting anyone that was in his way,” Lt. Chris Olivarez, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson, said in an appearance on “The Today Show.”

Ramos was “able to make entry into a classroom, barricaded himself inside that classroom and … just began shooting numerous children and teachers that were in that classroom, having no regard for human life,” Olivarez said.

One fourth-grader boy hid under a table with four others during the attack, according to a Kens5 article.

“When he came in, he said, ‘It’s time to die,'” the boy recollected.

Law enforcement officers arriving on the scene could hear gunshots inside the classroom, Olivarez said. Officers tried to enter the school, but the shooter fired on them, hitting some of the officers, Olivarez said. At that point, police officers “began breaking windows around the school” in an attempt to evacuate children, teachers and staff, he said.

Officers were eventually able to force their way into the classroom and kill the shooter, who wore a tactical vest, Olivarez said.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent killed Ramos, Abbott said.

University Hospital in San Antonio admitted four patients from Uvalde, three children ages 9 and 10 and a 66-year-old woman. The woman and a 10-year-old girl are in serious condition while two girls age 9 and 10 are in good condition, the hospital system tweeted Wednesday morning.

“The reality is as horrible as what happened, it could have been worse,” Abbott said.

Investigators “don’t see a motive or catalyst right now” for the shooting, McCraw said.

More details about the shooter have come to light. Ramos had reportedly dropped out of high school, Abbott said, and had no known criminal history.

Ariana Diaz, a senior at Uvalde High School and one of Ramos’ former classmates, described Ramos as a “popular loner” — someone everyone knew and who had friends, but still kept to himself.

Ramos was bullied over his speech impediment, Diaz said, and would occasionally bully others.

Ramos missed a lot of school prior to the pandemic, Diaz said. The teacher in a leadership class they were in together sophomore year often harangued Ramos for his absences, Diaz recalled.

“I feel like right now we’re all just too in shock to like even think about why he could have done this,” Diaz said. “We’re still grieving and it’s difficult to know that he was one of our classmates back in the day and he did this to so many innocent children.”

Neither Facebook nor authorities said Wednesday who the shooter was messaging, but CNN reported the gunman sent messages to a 15-year-old girl he met online, telling her that he “just shot my grandma in her head” and planned to “shoot up” an elementary school.

On Monday, the shooter told the 15-year-old girl, who lives in Germany, that he had obtained a package of ammunition. When she asked him how he intended to use the ammunition, the gunman said it was a surprise and to “just wait for it,” CNN reported.

The Uvalde shooter legally bought two rifles along with 375 rounds of ammunition just after his 18th birthday earlier this month, according to a briefing state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston and chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, received from state authorities late Tuesday. One of the rifles was left in the truck, according to the briefing.

Emotions ran high as the small South Texas town reeled from tragedy and loss. During Wednesday’s press conference, Beto O’Rourke, Abbott’s Democratic opponent in the November election, dramatically confronted the governor, yelling, “This on you.”

O’Rourke had called on Abbott on Tuesday night to ditch his planned appearance at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Houston this week and tell the gun advocacy group to move the gathering outside of Texas. Abbott said Wednesday he was unsure whether he would attend the meeting.

“As far as future plans are concerned, listen, I’m living moment to moment right now,” he said when asked about the convention during the news conference.

In the wake of the shooting, President Joe Biden has called for legislation addressing firearms, an ambition that has low expectations among Democrats on Capitol Hill after Republicans blocked most major efforts to address mass shootings over the last 10 years. Biden said Wednesday afternoon he plans to travel to Texas “in the coming days.”

Abbott, meanwhile, focused much of his solutions around boosting mental health services, noting that resources are sparse in the region around Uvalde.

Texas invests relatively little in mental health services. A recent report by Mental Health America ranked the state last in the country in access.

“We as a state, we as a society, need to do a better job with mental health,” Abbott said.

He added that anyone who commits such a heinous crime has some kind of mental health issue. But he also conceded that authorities had so far found few signs of illness before the shooting.

“There is no known mental health history of the gunman,” he said.

Disclosure: Facebook has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune.


Share This Post

Share via

Share This Post

  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • Flipboard
  • SMS
More
  • Report
72
SHARES
ShareTweetPin It
Tags: CrimeNews
FM Editors

FM Editors

Faithfully Magazine is a fresh, bold and exciting news and culture publication that covers issues, conversations and events impacting Christian communities of color.

Related Posts

Allen mall shooting in Texas makeshift memorial photo by Evan L'Roy for the Texas Tribune
Crime

6-Year-Old Boy Survives But Loses Parents, Sibling in Allen Mall Shooting in Texas

May 9, 2023
Emilia "Amy" Marin, a school staffer at Robb Elementary, speaks with ABC News' John Quinones about her struggles after the shooting

‘I Died That Day’ — Uvalde Teacher Falsely Accused of Propping Door Open for Gunman Speaks Out

November 4, 2022

Recommended Stories

President Barack Obama church

Obama to Speak at Lay Evangelical Church Gathering in Germany

April 11, 2017
Steven Anderson

Will Jamaica Ban US Preacher Who Has Called for Gays to Be Killed?

January 13, 2018
Hitler

German Village Votes to Keep Hitler Bell as Memorial

February 28, 2018

Popular Stories

  • stream movies laptop

    Free Christian Movies: How and Where to Watch Free Christian Movies Online

    463 shares
    Share 185 Tweet 116
  • Are Jesus and John the Baptist Cousins or Related in Anyway?

    417 shares
    Share 166 Tweet 104
  • Paige Hilken, Wife of North Coast Church Pastor Christopher Hilken, Dies by Suicide

    408 shares
    Share 163 Tweet 102
  • After 20 Years, Bishop Noel Jones Says He’s Finally Ready to Marry Partner Loretta Jones

    364 shares
    Share 146 Tweet 91
  • NYC Megachurch Pastor A.R. Bernard’s Son Dies After Losing Battle With Alcoholism

    286 shares
    Share 114 Tweet 71

Copyright © 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC. This website participates in affiliate programs.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
    • Staff and Advisors
    • Advertise With Us
    • Submissions
  • Q&As
  • Exclusives
  • Profiled
  • Remember
  • Opinion & Analysis
  • Specials

Copyright © 2023 Faithfully Media, LLC. This website participates in affiliate programs.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Share via

Share This Post

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link
  • Tumblr
  • Digg
  • Flipboard
  • SMS

Add New Playlist

Add to Collection

  • Public collection title

  • Private collection title

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?
Send this to a friend