Uvalde gunman threatened rapes and school shootings on social media app Yubo weeks before massacre

The Texas school shooter made two FaceTime calls – one of them while topless – with a German girl he met on social media, who was told of his warped plot to murder.

Ramos, 18, was filmed posing with his shirt off in a call made to the girl, known only as CeCe, after meeting her on social media site Yubo.

Other new images obtained by CNN, show Ramos filming himself while holding the phone under his chin, and while wearing a face mask.

On the day of the massacre, Ramos messaged CeCe on Yubo to tell her he’d just shot his grandma Celia, and that ‘Ima go shoot up a elementary school rn.’

Ramos ultimately carried out the plan, killing 19 young children at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, as well as two female teachers, before being shot dead.  

Ramos threatened to rape girls he talked to on social media app Yubo and said that he would shoot up schools, just weeks before the massacre.

The three teenage users, who revealed the messages to several news outlets, said that they didn’t take Ramos’ threats seriously until the news of Tuesday’s shooting broke out. 

Ramos also sent creepy selfies to girls that he would meet on the app, and allegedly threatened to rape and murder them, as well as shoot up schools where they lived

Another new image uncovered by CNN featured a short clip of Ramos filming himself while wearing a face mask 

They also reported Ramos’ threats to the app’s support team, which included a series of messages sent by the gunman, threatening to commit sexual violence and carry out school shootings.

Yubo is a French social media app that was created in 2015 and that is designed to ‘meet new people,’ as well as create a sense of community. It was developed by  TWELVE APP in 2015 and allows users to create video livestreams with up to 10 friends. The app currently has 50 million users around the world.

Ramos was still able to keep his profile active on the platform despite reports made to safety teams about his disturbing behavior. CeCe his German Yubo friend says the shooter warned her on the app that he was going to shoot up Robb Elementary School just 15 minutes before he opened fire.  

Screenshots of the pair’s correspondence, provided by the girl to CNN, reveal they were exchanging messages just after 11:01am CT – less than half hour before the massacre had started. 

‘Ima tell you [right now] hold on’ he wrote at 11:08am. ‘Waiting for this b****,’ he then sent, referring to his grandmother, Cecilia Gonzalez. Further text messages that were sent revealed that Ramos had been annoyed by his grandmother, who called AT&T to discuss the teen’s phone bill. 

‘I just shot my grandma in her head’ he sent minutes later. ‘Ima go shoot up a elementary school [right now],’ his last sent text read. ‘I just saw the news…’ Cece responded exactly three hours later. 

In a series of text message exchanged with a girl from Germany that he met on social media app Yubo, Salvador Ramos, 18, revealed that he shot his grandmother after she complained to AT&T about her grandson’s phone bill. The last text he sent the girl was right before Tuesday’s massacre was: ‘Ima go shoot up a elementary school rn’

The girl later told CNN that she reported the chilling texts to US authorities but did not think Ramos would be capable of acting out the threats he made. 

‘I added everything up and it made sense now… I was just too dumb to notice all the signals he was giving,’ Cece told CNN in the aftermath of the shooting.

The girl, who lives in Frankfurt, said she began chatting with Ramos on May 9. Ramos reportedly sent the girl selfie videos, tried to FaceTime her and spoke of plans to eventually visit her in Europe in videos and text messages reviewed by CNN.

The gunman reportedly sent a screenshot of a Google flight itinerary from San Antonio, 80 miles from where the teen lived with his grandmother.

‘I’m coming over soon,’ he reportedly wrote.

Ramos turned 18 a week later on May 16. Cece said it was about this time that she received a video call from the shooter from a gun store, where he told her he was purchasing an AR-15 rifle.

In the days that followed, Cece says Ramos’ remarks grew more concerning, and began to revolve more around firearms.

Ramos excitedly texted the girl on Monday, the night before the shooting, bosting about receiving a box containing ammunition for the rifle, CNN reported.

The teen reportedly bragged about how the ammo was particularly deadly, citing how it expanded on impact.

Cece said Ramos also showed her over FaceTime a black bag containing several magazines of ammunition and at least one gun. Ramos and the girl spoke one last time on a video call at 10am on the day of the shooting during which he showed off the all-black outfit he would eventually don during the massacre.

Ramos shared photos on social media of guns. His account was taken down shortly after Governor Greg Abbott confirmed his name

Salvador Ramos, 18, shot his grandmother before going to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde; engaging border patrol agents nearby in a shootout; and then barricading himself inside the school, killing 19 students and two teachers

Children run to safety after escaping from a window during Tuesday’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School where a Ramos killed nineteen children and two teachers

In another direct message sent on the app, the shooter allegedly sent a $2,000 receipt to another user, referring to the online gun purchase he made from a firearm manufacturer based in Georgia, according to CNN. 

‘Guns are boring,’ the Yubo user replied. ‘No,’ said Ramos in response. 

In a statement released on Wednesday, a Yubo spokesperson said: ‘we are deeply saddened by this unspeakable loss and are fully cooperating with law enforcement on their investigation,’ later adding that the app is ‘investigating an account that has since been banned from the platform.’

Yubo, however, has declined to release any details on Ramos’ personal account.

The number of new members on Yubo skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the app saw a dramatic increase of users, who are 25 and younger, sign up then.  

An exclusive feature that the app has is a ‘second-by-second’ monitoring of live video calls, using artificial intelligence and human moderators.

However, Ramos still managed to make personal and graphic threats on calls, CNN reported. Another teen, Amanda Robbins, 19, said Ramos made verbal threats to her during a video call, including breaking down her door, raping and murdering her after she rebuffed his desire to have sex with her. 

She added that she previously witnessed Ramos making similar threats to other girls.

Robbins, who lives in California and only interacted with Ramos online, told CNN that she made Yubo aware of the gunman’s comments on several occasions, but that she would continue to watch him make the dark comments on livestreams on the app.

‘[Yubo] said if you see any behavior that’s not okay, they said to report it. But they’ve done nothing,” Robbins said. “That kid was allowed to be online and say this.’

Another Yubo user, 18-year-old Hannah, of Ontario, Canada, said she sent reports to on Ramos’ profile to Yubo in early April after he made threats to shoot students at her school. He also threatened to rape and kill the teen before suggesting that he would also rape her mother during one livestream session. Ramos was temporarily banned from the app at that point before being later being allowed back on the platform.

Hannah, who only shared her first name with news outlets for privacy concerns, said Ramos became careless in the weeks and days before Tuesday’s massacre. In a video call, she said, Ramos showed one of his guns laying on his bed. 

All three users said they didn’t record any of Ramos’ threats during video calls.

Yubo’s community guidelines says that it does not allow users to ‘threaten or intimidate’ others, and bans any content related to harassment or bullying. 

It further claims that any content promoting violence ‘such as violent acts, guns, knives, or other weapons’ is also banned.

A week prior to one of America’s deadliest shootings, the app tightened its age verification process, which involves new users submitting a selfie before artificial intelligence is used to determine their age. 

Only people 13 and older are allowed to sign up on the app. Users who are 18 or older are also not allowed to interact with users who are minors.