Salvador Ramos allegedly wreaked havoc at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, shooting and killing 18 children and three adults before the 18-year-old was killed himself. 

Hours before he opened fire, Ramos had cryptically messaged a stranger “I’m about to”. An Instagram account, which supposedly belonged to Ramos, had selfies of the 18-year-old and pictures of guns. Since his identity was disclosed by the authorities, the account going by the username “salv8dor_” has been taken down. 

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As per New York Post, the account had a single grid with three photos – one mirror selfie of Ramos in a sweatshirt, a closeup of his face, and a first-person picture of a person holding the magazine of a firearm in their hand. 

This account also shared an image of two rifles side by side, tagging another Instagram user @epnupues. 

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Ramos then reached out to the account and asked the person to repost the gun pictures, leading to the start of a very awkward conversation. Following the shootout, the user posted snippets of their chat on Instagram. 

The user quickly distanced themselves from Ramos, saying “he’s a stranger I know nothing about him he decided to tag me in his gun post”. They added, “I’m so sorry for the victims and their families I really don’t know what to say”. 

On the day of the shooting, the user responded to Ramos’ cryptic text asking “about to what” and wished the Uvalde resident a “good morning”. 

Ramos replied that he’d tell the user before 11, but they had to respond. When asked “what” by @epnupues, Ramos replied that he’d have an answer in an hour. 

The alleged shooter continued that he had a little secret that he wanted to tell the other Instagram user. The user told Ramos they might take a nap due to feeling sick but would respond if they were awake. 

The conversation then trailed off until Ramos typed in his last message at 9:16 “Ima air out”. 

Robb Elementary School was placed in lockdown around 11:43 AM local time when gunshots were heard. 

After the incident, @epnupues posted how they only responded to Ramos because they were afraid of him, and wished they’d stayed awake to at least try and convince him not to commit the crime.