'I got a lil secret I wanna tell you': Texas school shooter Salvador Ramos hinted at plans to attack

On Tuesday afternoon, Salvador Ramos messaged a woman he barely knew online, telling her he had a "lil" secret to share.

Hours later, he massacred 19 children and two of their teachers in the second deadliest school shooting in America’s history.

Before driving to Robb Elementary School, the gunman shared a picture of two semi-automatic rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition he purchased in the week before the shooting after turning 18.

The photograph failed to impress the woman he was conversing with, who simply replied: "What your guns gotta do with me."

In the aftermath of the attack in Uvalde, San Antonio, friends and neighbours have told how Ramos, bullied for years for his childhood speech impediment, regularly "lashed out violently" at strangers.

His home life was described as "fraught" and he missed large periods of high school because he intermittently dropped out.

Nadia Reyes, a former classmate, told how he once posted a video of a screaming altercation he was having with his mother, who appeared to be trying to kick him out of her house.

"He posted videos on his Instagram where the cops were there and he’d call his mom a b---- and say she wanted to kick him out," Ms Reyes told the Washington Post. "He’d be screaming and talking to his mom really aggressively."

Ramos had "a pretty rough life" with his mother, according to former neighbour Ruben Flores, 41, with regular screaming arguments that occasionally resulted in the police being called.

As he grew older, the problems at home became worse, he said.

Before his bloody rampage, Ramos shot his grandmother, Celia Martinez, who had reportedly taken him in after a rift with his mother.

The 66-year-old was not killed but was in a serious condition on Wednesday. Her husband, Rolando Reyes, said Mrs Martinez had recently taken her grandson to Applebee’s to celebrate his birthday.

"I didn’t know he had weapons," Mr Reyes told ABC News. "If I’d have known, I would have reported it."

The shooter's mother, Adriana Reyes, claimed her son "wasn't a violent person" and said she was "surprised by what he did".

Speaking from the hospital where her mother is being treated for gunshot wounds, she said: "I had a good relationship with him. He kept to himself; he didn't have many friends."

Manuel Alvarez, the boyfriend of Ramos's mother, said the pair fell out recently over wifi.

Greg Abbott, the Texas Governor, said that investigators are now seeking "detailed background information on the subject, his motive, the types of weapons used, the legal authority to possess them, and conduct a comprehensive crime-scene investigation and reconstruction".

It remains unclear whether Ramos was previously known to law enforcement, according to Sergeant Erick Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The woman he spoke to on Instagram shortly before the shooting reacted with horror when she later learned what he had done.

Before he launched the attack, he tagged her in an Instagram photo of the guns he would take with him, asking her if she would share them on her profile. "What," she replied. "What [have] your guns got to do with me?"

The woman said she was "so confused" by his messages and behaviour.

At 7.30am the next day he messaged her saying: "I'm about to". She subsequently replied: "About to what."

"I got lil secret I wanna tell you," he said later. "I'll text you in an hour. But you HAVE TO RESPOND."

Following the attack, she said on social media: "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 [this] crime.

"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."

Adrian Mendez, a night manager at Wendy’s in Uvalde, where the shooter worked for a year until last month, said he "went out of the way to keep to himself".

"You know how my guys talk to each other and are friendly? He wasn’t like that. No one really knew him," Mr Mendez said.

One former friend, Santos Valdez Jr, 18, said he had known Ramos since they were young. They used to play shooter video games together, including Fortnite and Call of Duty.

He said Ramos once turned up to a park with cuts all over his face.

"Then he told me the truth, that he’d cut up his face with knives over and over and over," Mr Valdez told the Washington Post. "I was like, 'You’re crazy, bro, why would you do that?'"

Ramos said he did it for fun, according to Mr Valdez.

"About a year ago, Ramos posted on social media photos of automatic rifles that 'he would have on his wish list'... Four days ago, he posted images of two rifles he referred to as 'my gun pics'," a friend told the Washington Post.

He is believed to have bought the two AR15-style semi-automatic rifles shortly after his 18th birthday on May 16.