Rolando Reyes Salvador Ramos Uvalde Texas shooter grandfather insists not knowing his grandson having weapons at the home before going on shooting spree.
A report has told of Uvalde, Texas gunman grandfather expressing disbelief of his 18 year old grandson’s involvement in single handedly shooting dead 19 children and two school teachers late Tuesday morning.
Rolando Reyes, speaking to ABC News, said, ‘it still hasn’t sunk in’ regarding 18 year old teen, Salvador Ramos gunning down a classroom full of children at Robb Elementary in the normally quiet town.
Ramos according to the grandfather had come to live with him and his grandmother (now in critical condition after her grandson shot her prior to yesterday’s school bloodbath) after domestic strife at the teen’s mother’s house led to the boy arriving at his Hood st, Uvalde residence.
Speaking to the outlet, Reyes described the 18 year old as quiet and keeping to himself, and working most days for the last year at a local Wendy’s after having dropped out of high school.
Asked if Ramos kept to himself, Reyes responded, ‘Yes, most of the time. Sometimes I would take him to work.’
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‘Did he ever talk about guns, weapons with you?
Asked if the grandfather noticed his grandson growing disturbed or upset, Reyes responded, ‘Yeah, he was very quiet.’
It is then that Reyes reveals that Ramos upon turning 18 last Monday going to a local gunstore where he acquired weapons, since posted on Instagram and thought to be the same ones used during Tuesday’s school mass shooting.
The grandfather insisted that he had no knowledge that Ramos had bought the weapons, while nothing it is ‘illegal for him to be around weapons,’ on account of a prior criminal history.
When asked by ABC’s Matt Gutman when he heard about the shooting, the grandfather said he was unaware that the alleged gunman involved was his own grandson. The relative went on to say he only found out what had happened after the neighbor told him his wife had been shot at the hands of his own grandson who then drove over to the school (despite not having his driver’s license) to impart further havoc.
‘What went through your mind when you heard it was your grandson,’ ABC News reporter Matt Gutman asks the seemingly incredulous grandfather.
‘It still hasn’t sunk in,’ the relative responds after pausing.
‘Did he ever talk about guns, weapons with you? Or ever being upset?’ Gutman continues to ask.
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‘Had I known, I would have reported him’
The grandfather shakes his head, saying no.
‘So it just came out of the blue?’ Gutman responds.
The disbelieving grandfather still can not fathom what has occurred or how to respond to the reporter’s question, before shrugging his shoulders.
‘If you could have done anything differently,’ Gutman continues before Reyes immediately responds, ‘I didn’t know he had weapons.’
Adding, ‘Had I known, I would have reported him’ the relative finally responds.
To date it continued to remain unclear what motivated the teen gunman and how he came to target the elementary school.
Tuesday’s bloodbath comes just 10 days after an 18-year-old white supremacist allegedly killed 10 people in an upstate New York supermarket in what had been, until now, the deadliest mass shooting of the year.
Tuesday’s horror is also the deadliest school shooting since 14 high school students and three adult staff were killed in Parkland, Florida in 2018 and the worse shooting at an elementary school since 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December of 2012.
