Texas school massacre: Community mourns lives lost

UVALDE, Texas — There were glimmering candles and prayers well into Thursday morning in Uvalde, Texas. The city west of the U.S.-Mexico border was home to the country’s latest school massacre involving an AR-15 rifle.

A group of women said they traveled from Dallas to deliver flowers outside of Robb Elementary School. The community was preparing for the funerals of two teachers and 19 fourth-grade students.

A family in anguish about an injured 66-year-old grandmother was also struggling to understand what motivated a young man to commit such evil acts about a week after celebrating his 18th birthday.

Timeline

Earlier this year, Salvador Ramos got into a fight with his mother and moved in with his grandparents. He turned 18 on May 16.

A day later, he walked into Oasis Outback and legally purchased a rifle. He also purchased 375 rounds of 5.56 ammunition on May 18 and another rifle on May 20.

Ramos was a quiet loner. His grandfather Rolando Reyes told ABC News he had stopped going to Uvalde High School. He had also lost his job at Wendy’s.

Ramos was communicating regularly with a 15-year-old girl from Frankfurt, Germany, and he used Instagram and Facebook on May 24.

Salvador Ramos was identified as the 18-year-old shooter at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday in Texas.

That day, he shot his grandmother, Celia Martinez, in the head and stole her pickup truck. Ramos crashed into a ditch outside of Robb Elementary School.

He was wearing body armor and was holding his rifle — manufactured by Daniel Defense — when he walked into the school shortly after 11:30 a.m.

Ramos barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom. Officers broke into the classroom and fatally shot him at about 1:05 p.m.