Behavioral history of Uvalde school shooter Salvador Ramos

The Robb Elementary School shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas, in which 18-year-old Salvador Ramos murdered 19 students and two teachers. The attack was not a sudden act but the culmination of a long, observable trajectory of psychological decline and escalating violent ideation. A comprehensive analysis of Ramos's life reveals numerous behavioral red flags—including a traumatic home life, social and academic collapse, online misogyny, and unambiguous acts of animal cruelty—that were missed or insufficiently addressed by those in a position to intervene.

Mass murderer and animal abuser
Salvador Ramos. Pic: Texas Department of Public Safety
Name	Salvador Ramos
Age	18 (at time of incident)
Occupation	Worked at a local Wendy’s fast-food restaurant for at least a year, but quit roughly a month before the attack.
Known Identifiers	—
Status	Perpetrator (deceased)
Involvement	Perpetrated the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School after shooting his grandmother. His pathway to violence included a documented history of family trauma, social isolation, online threats, and animal cruelty.
Punitive Measure	Killed by law enforcement at the scene.

Early life and social maladjustment

Ramos's formative years were characterized by a deeply unstable and traumatic home environment, marked by his mother's long-standing history of drug abuse and frequent, intense arguments that sometimes required police intervention. This culminated in a severe argument after which Ramos left to live with his grandmother, Celia Gonzales. According to a former girlfriend, Ramos disclosed that he had been sexually assaulted as a child by one of his mother's boyfriends, but his mother dismissed the allegation and did not believe him.

This trauma at home was compounded by failure and rejection at school. Beginning in the fourth grade, he was intensely bullied for a speech impediment and his appearance. This coincided with a complete academic collapse; starting in 2018, he had over 100 absences from school annually and was failing his classes. Despite being formally labeled "at-risk," he received no comprehensive special education services and eventually dropped out of high school altogether.

Online activity and violent ideation

Having disengaged from school, Ramos became increasingly isolated and spent most of his time online, where he developed an obsession with school shootings and the notoriety they brought to perpetrators. A year before his attack, online peers began calling him the "school shooter," a label he eventually stopped resisting and began to embody. He started actively researching other mass casualty events, including the supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York, which occurred just ten days before his own attack.

His online behavior was characterized by a virulent misogyny. He consistently targeted and terrorized women and teenage girls on platforms like Yubo with graphic threats of rape and kidnapping. On Yubo, he was recorded stating, "Everyone in this world deserves to get raped." This aggression also manifested offline; he was fired from a job at Whataburger for threatening a female coworker and sent intimidating text messages to others.

Ramos also exhibited signs of profound psychological distress, including suicidal ideations, telling a cousin he "didn't want to live anymore," and acts of self-harm, such as cutting his own face. His internet search history included queries about the term "sociopath," suggesting he was aware of his own antisocial and violent impulses.

Animal cruelty as a precursor

Among the myriad of warning signs, Ramos's history of animal cruelty was the most direct behavioral predictor of his violence against humans. These acts were not isolated incidents but a consistent pattern of sadistic violence that served as a functional rehearsal for mass murder, both as a private practice in desensitization and as a public performance to project a terrifying identity.

Salvador Ramos holding a bag of dead cats (NY Post)

The evidence of his zoosadism is extensive and corroborated by multiple sources:

• Performative Violence: A video circulated showing Ramos in a car holding a plastic bag containing dead cats he had allegedly tortured. The Texas House of Representatives' report noted that in the footage, he casually tossed the animals' carcasses onto the street and spat on them. A former friend, Stephen Garcia, confirmed that Ramos would post videos of himself holding dead cats on social media.
• Witness Accounts of Torture: A former high school classmate, Jamie Arellano, stated plainly, "He loved hurting animals." Arellano specified that Ramos would "go to the park and try to shoot animals" with a BB gun. Another user on the platform Yubo described how Ramos would put cats into plastic bags and violently throw them against the ground and at people's houses. His cruelty was not limited to cats; a former classmate recounted an incident in which Ramos beat a small dog "senseless."

From a criminological perspective, this history was the single most important behavioral harbinger of the Uvalde massacre. The well-established connection between animal cruelty and interpersonal violence, known as "The Link," is a reliable predictor of future dangerousness, and is a tragically consistent feature in the history of mass shooters. These acts served several critical psychological functions for Ramos: they desensitized him to violence, allowed him to rehearse feelings of dominance and control, and let him practice the objectification required to murder human beings.

Final pathway to the attack

Upon turning 18 on May 16, 2022, Ramos immediately began to legally purchase an arsenal. Between May 17 and May 23, he spent over $6,000 on two AR-style rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition, including hollow-point bullets. Because he had no criminal record or formal mental health diagnosis, he passed all required background checks.

In the weeks prior, he had questioned his young cousin, a student at Robb Elementary, about the school's schedule. In April, he sent an Instagram message to an online acquaintance hinting at his plans for May. On the morning of May 24, 2022, following an argument, Ramos shot his grandmother in the face. He then immediately sent a series of private messages to a girl in Germany, announcing what he had done and his final intention: "ima go shoot up a elementary school rn".

Chronology of missed opportunities

Date/Timeframe	Observable Behavior/Indicator	Observing Entity/System	Missed Opportunity for Intervention
Fourth Grade	Severe bullying over speech impediment, appearance; social isolation.	School System / Peers	Failure to implement effective anti-bullying interventions.
2018-2021	Chronic absenteeism (>100 days/year); academic failure; labeled "at-risk".	School System	Failure to provide comprehensive special education or mental health services despite "at-risk" designation.
Mid-2021	Harassment of ex-girlfriend and her friends following breakup.	Peers / Online Community	Lack of reporting to authorities or platforms.
Late 2021	Filmed video holding a dead cat, throwing the carcass on the street, and spitting on it.	Online Community / Peers	No report made to law enforcement; companion failed to intervene.
Late 2021-2022	Terrorized women online with graphic threats of rape and violence on Yubo.	Online Community / Social Media Platform	Failure of platform to act on user reports; threats not reported to law enforcement.
April 2, 2022	Sent cryptic message to online user hinting at an event in May.	Peers / Online Community	Recipient did not recognize or report the timed nature of the threat.
May 16-23, 2022	Legally purchased two AR-15 style rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition immediately upon turning 18.	Legal / Commercial System	Background check system failed to account for behavioral red flags, focusing only on the absence of a criminal record.

External links

• Texas school shooter Salvador Ramos holding a bag of dead cats