Years before the 2022 massacre at Uvalde, Texas' Robb Elementary School, shooter Salvador Ramos told a friend he planned to carry out a school shooting and confirmed to police that he had been thinking about it for months, according to documents released by the city of Uvalde, reports the Washington Post. A 2018 police investigation found that Ramos was obsessed with the 1999 Columbine High School shooting and wrote about one of the gunmen there in a journal entry seen by a teacher show. Ramos, then 14, was committed to a hospital for psychological evaluation and put on medication for depression. The report was released by the city after it was sued by a coalition of news organizations. The records include body-cam footage from five police officers, dash-cam video, recorded 911 calls, radio and emergency communications, and text messages between various officials.
In a 911 call released by the city, a 10-year-old student inside a classroom can be heard counting the survivors and trying to quiet crying, screaming classmates. Other students can be heard screaming out to officers, pleading for help. The newly released records come more than two years after the massacre that left 19 children and two teachers dead, and as victims’ families clamor for greater transparency into the actions of law enforcement. The records released Saturday shed new light on how the tragedy unfolded and the police response. The records also offer further insight into the shooter, Ramos, who just after his 18th birthday purchased the AR-15 style rifle used in the shooting. The Uvalde Police Department was called to the gunman’s junior high school on April 19, 2018 after a friend reported comments Ramos had made about “shooting up” his school during his senior year. At the time, he was in eighth grade.
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