ULVADE, Texas–In the days before Salvador Ramos shot and killed 21 people at Robb Elementary School, his grandmother demanded he remove a gun from her house, according to a neighbor and a law-enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
Rudy Martinez, who lives in the same neighborhood as Ramos’ family, told The Daily Beast that on the Thursday prior to the deadly massacre, Celia Gonzales, also known as “Sally,” described Ramos becoming outraged at her for insisting he get at least one gun out of her house.
“We heard them yelling,” Martinez told The Daily Beast. “I asked Sally what they were fighting about this time, and she told me that her and her sister or someone had found out that Salvador had brought guns into her house. She didn’t want them there.”
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The mass murderer’s aunt, Natalie Salazar, told authorities that family had discovered a semi-automatic rifle in a duffle bag that day—May 19—and told him he had to take it out of the house because his grandfather has a criminal record and is not allowed to possess firearms, according to the law enforcement source. The source believes that the weapon was the Smith & Wesson M&P15 that Ramos legally purchased on May 17, one day after his 18th birthday. Salazar told authorities that Ramos left that residence following the grandmother’s discovery, according to the law-enforcement source.
Records show Ramos acquired a second rifle, a Daniel Defense M4 V7, that Friday. He did not did not appear to have either rifle in his immediate possession when he returned to the home on Sunday, according to the law-enforcement source. The shooting was carried out on Tuesday, May 24.
Celia Gonzales, the grandmother, was ultimately shot in the face by Ramos, and could not be reached for comment. Salazar declined to comment for this story, and attempts to reach her sister, the shooter’s mother, Adriana Reyes, were unsuccessful.
Martinez, the neighbor, said he could hear yelling and arguing coming from the direction of Gonzales’ house on the Thursday morning prior to the massacre at Robb Elementary.
“I didn’t know what they were fighting about,” Martinez told The Daily Beast. “I wish he would have just taken his anger out on me instead of everybody else. That would have been better than him killing all of those little babies in that school over there.”
Rolando Reyes, the shooter’s grandfather and Gonzales’ husband, has said that he would have never allowed guns into his home in the first place. He told The Daily Beast that he only learned about a gun’s potential presence that Sunday. At that point, according to the law-enforcement source, who cited Salazar’s account, the shooter had returned to the home and appeared to no longer have any guns.
“No, I would have made sure that he didn’t bring them into our house because I have a record and I cannot be around guns or anything like that,” Reyes said. “I am always really careful because they could send me to jail for even being around them.”
Martinez, the neighbor, affirmed that Reyes has always been very cautious when it comes to being around guns.
“Most of us around here go deer hunting,” Martinez said. “Rolando won’t even go out to the deer lease with us because of the guns. He is very careful about that.”
—with reporting in San Antonio by B. Kay Richter
