Classmates Say Texas School Shooter Was ‘Violent Towards Women’

Salvador Ramos, the man who opened fire at Robb Elementary School and killed 21 people—19 of whom were children—was “violent toward women,” according to former classmates. 

In an interview with the San Antonio Express News, classmates like Keanna Baxter opened up about Ramos’ time as a student, and his reported violent tendencies back then at Uvalde High School. 

“He dated my ex-friend. And then they broke up,” Baxter said. “And then he tried to date me after that, but I told him no. Because he always had this kind of eerie sense about him.”

As Baxter recalled, Ramos’ girlfriend at the time told her “that he was scary” when they were together. “Like he would get super violent. And when he would lose his temper, she would literally be scared for her life, basically. He would send her these really nasty messages, where he’d go from super sweet to screaming at her back to super sweet.”

Baxter claimed that Ramos was both “aggressive” and “violent,” and that he would often attempt to “fight women.” Another student, Crystal Foutz, claims Ramos would threaten her in Instagram comments after another altercation. 

“It was just harassing. And I never like provoked him or anything like that,” Foutz. “He was aggressive for no reason. … I just blocked him.”

Foutz also recalled another altercation Ramos had with a girl, and that he was “pushy” and “aggressive.” “The people that did try and give him a chance to be friends with, he scared them away,” Foutz said. “He was a bully, really. If you didn’t give him what he wanted, he was a bully to you.”

Since then shooting took place, police were determined to have made “the wrong decision” in their delay in confronting the gunman, per Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. He claimed that the on-site commander was “convinced” children were no longer in danger during the active shooting. 

“He was convinced at the time that there was no more threat to the children and that the subject was barricaded and that they had time to organize” before entering the classroom, McCraw said, per an Associated Press report.