The Texas shooter who killed 21 people including 19 children in the United States had been often bullied over a childhood speech impediment and suffered from troubled home life, according to friends and relatives.
Citing the shooter's friends and relatives, The Washington Post reported that the 18-year-old Salvador Rolando Ramos was bullied "over a childhood speech impediment" and "suffered from a fraught home life".
According to the authorities, Salvador Rolando Ramos shot and critically injured his grandmother using weapons purchased this month, days after his 18th birthday.
Santos Valdez Jr., a friend of Ramos said that he had known him since elementary school. "We were friends until Ramos's behaviour started to deteriorate," he said.
They used to play video games such as Fortnite and Call of Duty. But then Ramos changed. Once, Valdez said, Ramos, pulled up to a park where they often played basketball and had cuts all over his face. He first said a cat had scratched his face.
"Then he told me the truth, that he'd cut up his face with knives over and over and over," Valdez said. "I was like, 'You're crazy, bro, why would you do that?'" Ramos said he did it for fun, Valdez recalled as cited by The Washington Post.
In middle school and junior high, Ramos was bullied for having a stutter and a strong lisp, friends and family said.
Stephen Garcia, who considered himself Ramos's best friend in eighth grade, said Ramos didn't have it easy in school. "He would get bullied hard like bullied by a lot of people," Garcia said. "Over social media, over gaming, over everything."
The incident took place on Tuesday (local time) after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The gunman was later killed by law enforcement officers, CNN reported.
This is the deadliest attack since the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed, according to CNN.
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