Texas Rep Tony Gonzalez: Uvalde gunman was arrested 4 years ago for threatening to shoot up school

Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez has said Salvador Ramos, the gunman in the Uvalde shooting, was arrested four years ago as a minor after telling people he planned to shoot up a school once he turned 18. 

Gonzalez made the claims on FOX News on Friday morning. 

‘This wasn’t hearsay. I got this late last night: ‘The shooter was arrested years ago, four years ago, for having this plan for basically saying, for saying, you know, when I’m a senior in 2022, I am going to shoot up a school.’

‘Something fell between the cracks between then and now to allow this to happen. We need to shake out all the facts. 

‘We need to figure out what happened. Where the holes and we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again. 

‘But if law enforcement, you know, identified him four years ago as a threat, we need to figure out why he wasn’t – you know, how he got removed from that,’ he said.

Gonzales later added: ‘I’m under the impression that him and another person were having a conversation, plotting things out. 

‘The police looked into it and arrested him. He went to juvenile, from what I can gather, he went to a correctional facility.’ 

There are new claims that Salvador Ramos was arrested as a juvenile after telling people he planned to ‘shoot up a school in 2022 when he was a senior’ 

Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez has said Salvador Ramos, the gunman in the Uvalde shooting, was arrested four years ago as a minor after telling people he planned to shoot up a school once he turned 18

Governor Greg Abbott has not yet commented on the juvenile arrest claims. He is due to give a press briefing at noon EST. 

At his press briefing on Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott admitted that police did not yet know whether Ramos had a juvenile record. 

The teenager legally purchased the two guns he used in Tuesday’s attack within days of turning 18 last week.

He had a difficult relationship with his mother, Adriana, and had gone to live with his grandparents. 

On Tuesday morning, he launched the attack by first shooting his grandmother Celia in the face. She survived, stumbled outside to her neighbor’s house then they called 911 together. 

Ramos fled in a stolen truck with his two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

There are growing questions now about how much authorities knew about him before the incident, and whether it could have been prevented before Tuesday. 

Tributes outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Thursday as questions grow over whether the shooting could have been prevented 

Ramos had communicated with teenagers from different countries on apps like Yubo, and he also spoke with friends through Facebook messenger. 

On Tuesday, he sent a private message to a girl in Germany telling her that he was about to ‘shoot an elementary school.’

There is also increasing anger and frustration over the police response on the ground, and the fact cops retreated when he first opened fire and then waited over an hour for SWAT back up while Ramos remained in a classroom, trapped with the 19 kids and two teachers he killed.