In the late morning on May 24, 2022, a man entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where he opened fire on students and teachers. At the time of writing the number of victims stands at 15 reported dead and many more injured, and the shooter's identity is reported to be Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old who was also killed during the attack.
Ramos had active accounts on Instagram and TikTok. On his Instagram, Ramos shared images of two AR-15 style rifles, and on TikTok his bio read "Kids be scared irl." In the image of his firearms Ramos tagged a woman with whom he seemingly had no prior connection. The woman said she "barely" knows him. He also messaged the woman saying that she should "be grateful" he tagged her and that he had "a lil secret." He last messaged her less than half an hour before the shooting saying, "Ima air out." The Instagram and TikTok accounts were taken down in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
The following report is an overview of the attacker's Instagram and TikTok accounts. This is a developing story. The MEMRI DTTM is monitoring extremist reactions to the attack and will be releasing further reports in the coming days.
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Ramos had an Instagram account. Prior to its removal the account had 211 followers, one post, and a story highlight. His bio reads: "TheBiggestOpp."
On April 28, he posted three photos to his Instagram story. The first photo is a selfie taken using a mirror, the second shows a blurry black and white photo of his face, and the third shows him holding an ammunition magazine on his lap.
On May 20, he shared a photo of two assault rifles to his Instagram story and tagged another Instagram user.
Ramos direct messaged the user before May 12 writing: "Hey." On May 12, he messaged again writing, "You gonna repost my gun pics?" On Friday, May 20 at 4:22 pm, Ramos mentioned her in his story that had included the photo of the assault rifles and her tagged username. The user replied, asking: "What your guns gotta do with me?" In a later message, the shooter wrote: "Be grateful I tagged you" to which she responded: "No, it's just scary fr... I barely know you and u tag me in a picture with some guns."
On May 23, Ramos sent her a message reading, "Hey... I'm about to" to which the other user replied: "what, about to what." In other messages, Ramos wrote: "I'll tell you before 11... I'll text you in an hour." He then wrote: "But you HAVE TO RESPOND I got a lil secret I wanna tell u." He added a shushing emoji. At 9:16 am on May 24, he wrote: "ima air out."
Following the shooting on May 24, the tagged user posted Instagram stories four minutes apart reading: "He's a stranger I know nothing about him he decided to tag me in his gun post. I'm so sorry for the victims and their families I really don't know what to say... The only reason I responded to him was because I was afraid of him I wish I stayed awake to at least try to convince him to not commit his crime. I didn't know."
TikTok
On TikTok, the shooter's bio stated: "Kids be scared irl." He had 246 followers and followed 46 individuals. His followers, following, and likes were locked and not available.
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