Users say Uvalde gunman frequently threatened sexual violence and school shootings online

According to multiple recent reports, Uvalde school shooter Salvador Ramos frequently threatened girls and young women online, saying that he would rape them. He also showed off a rifle he bought, and threatened to shoot up schools in livestreams on the social media app Yubo.

On the day of the massacre, Ramos messaged a girl to tell her he’d just shot his grandma Celia, and that “Ima go shoot up a elementary school rn.” Ramos ultimately carried out the plan, killing 19 children and 2 adults at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.

The girl said Ramos warned her on the app that he was going to shoot up Robb Elementary School just 15 minutes before he opened fire.

“Ima tell you [right now] hold on” he wrote at 11:08am last Tuesday. “Waiting for this b****,” he said, referring to his grandmother. Further text messages that were sent revealed that Ramos had been annoyed by his grandmother, who called AT&T to discuss the teen’s phone bill.

“I just shot my grandma in her head” he sent minutes later. “Ima go shoot up a elementary school [right now],” his last sent text read. The girl responded exactly three hours later: “I just saw the news…”

Those who spoke with Ramos online had done so mostly on Yubo, an app that mixed live-streaming and social networking and had become known as a “Tinder for teens.” On Yubo, people can gather in big real-time chatrooms, known as panels, to talk, type messages and share videos.

Use of Yubo skyrocketed during the pandemic, as teens who were trapped indoors sought some sort of human interaction. The company says it has 60 million users around the world and almost all of them are 25 and younger.

Ramos, users said, struck up side conversations with them and followed them onto other platforms, including Instagram, where he could send them direct messages.

Ramos had posted images of dead cats, texted them strange messages and joked about sexual assault, they said. In a video from a live Yubo chatroom that listeners had recorded and was reviewed by The Washington Post, Ramos could be heard saying, “Everyone in this world deserves to get raped.”

A 16-year-old boy in Austin who said he saw Ramos frequently in Yubo panels, told The Post Ramos frequently made aggressive, sexual comments to young women on the app and sent him a death threat during one panel in January.

“I witnessed him harass girls and threaten them with sexual assault, like rape and kidnapping,” said the teen. “It was not like a single occurrence. It was frequent.”

He and his friends reported Ramos’ account to Yubo for bullying and other infractions dozens of times. He never heard back, he said, and Ramos’ account remained active.

Another user, 18, from Ontario, Canada, said she reported Ramos to Yubo in early April after he threatened to shoot up her school and rape and kill her and her mother during one livestream session. She said Ramos was allowed back on the platform after a temporary ban.

Texas Department of Public Safety officials said Friday that Ramos had discussed buying a gun several times in private chats on Instagram.

CNN reviewed one Yubo direct message in which Ramos allegedly sent a user the $2,000 receipt for his online gun purchase. “Guns are boring,” the user responded. “No,” Ramos apparently replied.

Ten days before the shooting, he wrote in one of the messages, “10 more days,” according to the official. Another person wrote to him, “Are you going to shoot up a school or something?” to which Ramos responded, “No, stop asking dumb questions. You’ll see,” the official said.

In the week before the shooting, Ramos began to hint that something was going to happen on Tuesday to at least three girls. “I’ll tell you before 11. It’s our little secret,” one of the girls said he told them multiple times. On the morning of the shooting, he messaged her a photo of two rifles. She responded to ask why he’d sent them, but he never wrote back, according to a screenshot viewed by The Post.

“He would threaten everyone,” she said. “He would talk about shooting up schools but no one believed him, no one would think he would do it.”

Another 16-year-old said she met Ramos on Yubo in February and that he messaged her asking for her Instagram account. Earlier this month, he reacted to a meme she’d posted that referenced a weapon with a laughing emoji and said, “personally I wouldn’t use a AK-47″ but “a better gun.”