The cousin of Texas gunman Salvador Ramos has revealed the teenage killer had asked her young son for details about his elementary school, just a week before going on a murderous rampage.
Shelby Celeste Salazar said her son was a third grade student at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where her 18-year-old cousin opened fire Tuesday in a horrific shooting spree that killed 19 children and two teachers.
Speaking to DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview, Salazar, 28, said days before the massacre, Ramos had spoken to her son and had asked him which school he attended and what time students were let out for lunch.
‘At the time I didn’t think anything of it, they had a good relationship. They are second cousins,’ the mother-of-four said.
Salazar and her children were living with Ramos and their grandmother, Celia Gonzalez, who was shot in the face by her grandson just before the massacre. She is the daughter of Ramos’s mother’s half-sister.
Shelby Celeste Salazar, 28, told DailyMail.com how her cousin Salvador Ramos had asked her young son for details about his school, a week before going on his deadly rampage
Salazar is still trying to understand why her cousin would target an elementary school let alone their grandmother Celia Gonzalez (pictured with Salazar’s son)
Ramos, who was living with Salazar and their grandmother in Uvalde, Texas, drove to her son’s school armed with an AR-15 assault rifle Tuesday before storming inside and killing 21 people
Salazar’s son, a third grade student at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was in class when Ramos opened fire, but was fortunately not harmed in the shooting
A week after his conversation with Salazar’s son, Ramos would drive to the little boy’s school armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and shoot up the building and kill 21 people.
The third grader was in class when Ramos began his killing spree, but was fortunately unscathed in the mass shooting.
Salazar said she has no idea if her cousin targeted her son or intentionally avoided going into his classroom.
‘No one knows why he did what he did. That’s the truth,’ she said.
‘No one can say they knew what he was thinking or how he felt, or even why he felt he need to shoot our grandmother and all those innocent babies.’
Salazar said Ramos had been living with them after he was kicked out of his mom’s house across town.
Authorities revealed Ramos had shot and critically wounded his grandmother at her home before heading down to the school to continue his rampage.
Gonzalez, 66, is currently recovering in a hospital in San Antonio.
Salazar said she is still struggling to wrap her head around her cousin’s senseless act of violence and why he would target a school and even their own grandmother.
‘I don’t know why he would have targeted an elementary school. I mean, he didn’t know how to drive, so I really do not know. I’m at a total loss for words,’ she said.
Salazar (far left) who was related to the shooter through her mother Natalie and his mother Adriana Reyes, said Ramos had been living with her family (pictured) at their grandmother’s home in Uvalde
The mother-of-four said she does not know if Ramos had targeted her son or intentionally avoided going into his classroom during his killing spree. Pictured: Salazar’s four young children
Salazar is still trying to understand why her cousin would target an elementary school let alone their grandmother Celia Gonzalez (pictured with Salazar’s son)
Ramos was shot dead after his shooting spree left 19 children and two teachers dead as well as his grandmother Celia Gonzalez (pictured) fighting for her life after he blasted her in the face
‘He knew my baby went to school there. I can’t grasp this. That’s why I’m at a loss for words. I just saw the news with text messages and started freaking out.’
‘If he could do that to my grandma I don’t know how to feel about the school thing, knowing my baby went to school there.
‘My son and him were so close this is why I’m shocked.
‘I thought nothing of it when they were talking about school and his grade and lunch. I mean you don’t just assume someone will do something like this, you know?’
Salazar said Ramos was a quiet teen but had changed in the past couple of months after his mother threw him out of the house and called the police.
‘Before he would joke and laugh, and then he was quiet. He didn’t speak much, no more smiles, just silence. He became less and less of any communication with us.’
She said she never saw any guns around their grandmother’s house where they lived.
She said she last saw Ramos on Friday evening and last spoke with him on Saturday.
Salazar left Uvalde for the weekend to visit friends and was in San Antonio when Ramos shot up the elementary school.
Police said he had bought two AR-15 assault rifles for his 18th birthday days before the shooting, bragged about them on social media and suggested he would commit an atrocity before the deadly attack.
Salvador Ramos first shot his grandmother at her house, before driving half a mile to Robb Elementary and crashing a truck outside the school. He stormed the building and killed 21 before he was shot dead
Ramos’s home in Uvalde is seen on Tuesday as police try to fathom a motive for the shooting
One video at the scene appears to show the suspected gunman, named by Governor Greg Abbott as Salvador Ramos, approach the school while what sounds like gunfire is going off in the background
Ramos reportedly had a strained relationship with his mother Adriana Reyes, which she denies.
In an interview with DailyMail.com on Wednesday, Reyes said she was ‘surprised’ by her son’s murderous act but admitted he was a loner who ‘kept to himself and didn’t have many friends’.
She shot down reports that she had a toxic relationship with him. She also did not address claims she was a drug addict who saw the boy ditch her and go to live with his grandma.
In an interview with CNN in Spanish on Friday, Reyes said of her son: ‘I have no words. I have no words to say. I don’t know what he was thinking.
‘He had his reasons for doing what he did and please don’t judge him,’ she continued.
‘I only want the innocent children who died to forgive me. Forgive me, forgive my son. I know he had his reasons.’
When asked why he targeted the elementary school, she simply said it was ‘to get closer to those children.’
Salazar was related to the shooter through her mother Natalie (far right) and his mother Adriana Reyes (far left). The two sisters are pictured with their mother Celia
Adriana Reyes, who said she was ‘surprised’ at her son’s horrific killing spree at Robb Elementary School, was seen leaving home clutching her glasses and keys one day after she attended church where she broke down in tears
‘Instead of paying attention to the other bad things, I have no words. I don’t know,’ she said.
But Salazar has claimed her aunt ‘has been the problem’, and ironically, had threatened to shoot her own mother last week.
‘She (Reyes) has been the problem. This is ridiculous how everyone believes the filth that comes from her mouth,’ she said.
‘She was a sh***y mother and sh***y daughter, and all over just a just sh***y person.’
‘She hasn’t been at her mother’s bedside the entire time as she has been quoted. She had been by the hospital for short stays and then left.’
She claims Reyes has now been banned from seeing her mother at the hospital.