In an interview with ABC News this week, the mother of the 18-year-old gunman who killed 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, said her son was “not a monster” but that he could “be aggressive.”
“I had an uneasy feeling sometimes, like ‘what are you up to?” Adriana Reyes told ABC News, “He can be aggressive… If he really got mad.”
Authorities said Reyes’ son, suspected shooter Salvador Ramos, bought two assault rifles in the days after turning 18 and used them to carry out the country’s second-deadliest school shooting.
According to law enforcement officials, the attack killed twenty-one people, 19 children, and two teachers. Three law enforcement officers were also among the 17 others who were injured. Ramos’ grandmother, the accused gunman’s first victim, is in stable condition at the hospital.
Reyes said, “We all have a rage that some people have it more than others.”
Throughout the interview, Reyes expressed sympathy for the children who were killed and the parents who lost them, but she said she was unaware that her son was purchasing the guns.
“Those kids… I have no words,” Reyes said through tears. “I don’t know what to say about those poor kids.”
According to Ramos’ classmates, he was known for fighting and intimidating other students. They stated he had been acting strangely for the past two years, threatening at least one classmate and stalking others, and claiming to have cut marks on his face.
Ramos is accused of shooting his grandmother and then driving to Robb Elementary School and opening fire on multiple students and teachers.
“Anyone who shoots his grandmother in the face has to have evil in his heart,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday. “But it is far more evil for someone to gun down little kids.”
