Texas shooter's mum makes shock claim about son
The mother of the teenager who shot and killed 21 people at the elementary school in Texas has spoken out following the massacre, claiming her son was not a "violent" person.
Horrifying details about the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas continue to emerge.
At the school, 19 students and two teachers were murdered by the gunman who has been identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.
Shortly before Ramos opened fire at the school, he shot his grandmother, Celia Gonzalez, in the face, however, she survived and called the police.
Ms Gonzalez remains in hospital, with her daughter Ramos's mother Adriana Reyes, by her side.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Ms Reyes reportedly said her son didn't have many friends and kept to himself, and she said she was surprised Ramos committed such an atrocity.
"My son wasn't a violent person. I'm surprised by what he did," she said from her mother's hospital bed.
"I pray for those families. I'm praying for all of those innocent children, yes I am. They [the children] had no part in this."
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Ms Reyes also said she had a good relationship with her son, who lived with Ms Gonzalez and the last time she spoke to him was on his birthday on May 16.
Ramos purchased his weapons for his 18th birthday, and bought them just two days before the massacre, ABC News reported.
Rolando Reyes, 72, Ramos's grandfather said he was oblivious to the weapons.
Reyes is a felon, ABC News reported, so having firearms in his home is illegal and he claims if he knew, he would have turned his grandson in.
He also told the news station there were no signs of anything unusual on the day of the shooting, though Ramos reportedly had a small argument with Ms Gonzalez over a phone bill.
The 'only' warning sign
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said online messages shared by Ramos were the only warning sign, as he did not appear to have a criminal record, or a history with mental health problems.
A spokesperson for Facebook's parent company Meta Platforms said Ramos sent private messages which were only discovered after the shooting.
The company declined to say who received the messages or which of Meta's platforms, such as Messenger or Instagram, was used to send them.
Ramos barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom, killing the students and teacher before he was fatally shot by a US Border Patrol officer, Mr Abbott said.
The online messages were sent minutes before the attack.
Change in the wake of the massacre is 'unlikely'
The attack was the deadliest school shooting in the US since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
The Uvalde tragedy was the latest in a seemingly unending wave of mass shootings across the US in recent years.
Just 10 days earlier, 10 Black people were shot to death in a racist attack at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket carried out by an avowed white supremacist.
The shooting came days before the National Rifle Association annual convention was set to begin in Houston, with the Texas governor and both of the state’s Republican US senators scheduled to speak.
Texas has some of the country's most permissive firearm laws.
Despite President Joe Biden questioning when politicians will stand up to the gun lobby, it's unlikely new legislation will pass in Washington.
Virtually all Republicans in Congress oppose new gun restrictions, citing the US Constitution's guarantee of a right to bear arms, and there was no sign the massacre would alter that position.
With Associated Press
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