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Following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, authorities have probed the family history of alleged gunman Salvador Ramos.
On May 24, 2020, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos allegedly began his rampage by shooting his grandmother Celia Martinez Gonzales, who can no longer speak due to her injuries. After this initial attack, Salvador Ramos is reported to have travelled to Robb Elementary school in his SUV. After crashing the vehicle, he entered the school premises armed with a handgun and a semi-automatic rifle, killing 19 students and 2 members of staff.
As the investigation continues into the attack, authorities have discovered that Salvador Ramos had not only a long history of violent and abusive behavior, but also a fraught home life. The suspect has been accused by classmates and acquaintances of stalking, assault, harassment and animal cruelty.
As per Uvalde County Court records obtained by The Post, the divorced parents of the alleged gunman, Adriana Martinez and Salvador Ramos Sr., were arrested for fraud and assault, respectively. The suspect's grandmother, Cecilia “Sally” Martinez Gonzalez, was charged with a misdemeanor in 1993.
The family of Salvador Ramos
According to the New York Post, the relatives of Salvador Ramos had a turbulent, dysfunctional home life.
Around the time of the suspects' birth in 2003, his mother Adriana Reyes was charged with attempting to write a bad check of $22.62 to a general store. Reports show that at the time, she had been reported single in the documents, indicating that she had separated from Salvador Ramos Sr.
At the time, Reyes had severe financial issues. She had a job at the Golden Dragon restaurant in Uvalde, however due to low pay she was living in an apartment with six other people, relying on public assistance and food stamps to sustain herself.
Reyes pleaded guilty to the charges of fraud in 2005. She paid a fine of $250 and received probation with a mandatory 25 hours of community service. Two years later, she was charged with another crime, this time the assault of a family member. As a result, Reyes was forced to undergo mandatory Anger Management Counselling.
Salvador Ramos Sr., on the other hand, was charged with resisting arrest in 2000. While court records do not reveal what instigated the situation, it is reported that Ramos Sr. attempted to flee from officer Daniel Rodriguez after a brief struggle. After pleading no contest, Ramos Sr. served 180 days in county jail and had to apologize in writing to Uvalde PD.
In 2011, following a disagreement, Ramos Sr. struck a man named Jesus Perez with a beer bottle. Following this, he was subjected to drug and alcohol testing before facing a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon.
The older Ramos pleaded no contest to the charge. After this, it was dropped to a misdemeanor. While he was initially sentenced to 30 days in jail, the court decided that he would do his jail time on the weekends. He was also required to go through a rehabilitation program for substance abuse.
In 1993 Salvador Ramos' grandmother, Celia Martinez Gonzales, was charged with a misdemeanor that remains unclear in court records. Gonzalez was sentenced to a maximum of two years of probation. Along with this, she had to pay the court a fine of $500, and a court fee of $157.
The history of Salvador Ramos
Following the attack, family members of Salvador Ramos described the suspected gunman’s troubled history and childhood.
Ramos’ cousin, Mia, told The Washington Post that he had been bullied in middle school for a speech impediment. Stephen Garcia, an old friend of Ramos', corroborated this to The Post.
He said:
“He would get bullied hard, like bullied by a lot of people.”
Salvador Ramos Sr. also explained the challenges the suspected gunman was facing. He told reporters from the Daily Beast:
“My son was a good person who stuck to himself.”
However, he acknowledged that there had been issues at home and at school. Salvador Ramos Sr. claimed that his son would frequently fight and get into arguments with Adriana Reyes. He claimed she would not buy him clothes and school supplies, which according to him was the reason the younger Ramos was frequently bullied at school. He said that this was the primary reason his son dropped out of school.
However, he also mentioned that he himself did not have a good relationship with his son. He told interviewers that due to Covid 19 regulations, he was unable to visit the younger Ramos, straining their relationship. He also said that he was no longer in contact with his daughter, as she was upset at him for not seeing his children frequently enough.
He said:
“My daughter, I guess, changed her life, she went to the Navy. I wish my son would have gone and changed his life.”
He also told reporters:
“I want my sons story out there. I don’t want them calling him a monster… they don’t know nothing, man. They don’t know anything he was going through.”
He explained, however, that the younger Ramos did have growing violent tendencies. He bought a pair of boxing gloves and would stand in the park training, and provoking those who passed by. Despite this, the mass shooting was still completely unprecedented for him.
He said:
“I never expected my son to do something like that. He should’ve just killed me, you know, instead of doing something like that to someone.”
In an interview with ABC News, Salvador Ramos' mother, Adriana Reyes, also expressed her shock at her sons’ actions. However, she too was vocal about his anger issues.
She said:
“I had an uneasy feeling sometimes, like ‘what are you up to?’ He can be aggressive… If he got really mad.”
As per the Daily Beast, many former classmates and co-workers of Salvador Ramos refuse to see him as a victim. They claimed that his behavior had become more turbulent over the years. He had reportedly threatened classmates, harassed people online and in person, and stalked several women. He was also known to partake in self-harm and live stream videos of himself killing and torturing cats.
While mass shootings such as the one in Uvalde typically promote arguments concerning America’s relaxed gun laws, Texas governor Greg Abbott believes the true issue lies with mental health institutions in America.
He said:
"We as a State, we as a society, need to do a better job with mental health.”
The massacre in Uvalde has once more turned the nation's attention towards mass shooting, a phenomenon that most frequently occurs in the United States. As per the Gun Violence Archive, America has seen 230 mass shootings in 2022, with 256 dead and 996 injured in attacks across the country.
