Salvador Ramos’s father apologises to town of Uvalde: ‘He should’ve just killed me’

The father of the gunman who carried out the attack at a Texas elementary school that killed 21 people has apologised for his son’s actions.

Salvador Ramos, 42, said he could have never believed his son would do something like this.

“I just want the people to know I’m sorry man, [for] what my son did,” he told the Daily Beast in an interview on Thursday. “I never expected my son to do something like that. He should’ve just killed me, you know, instead of doing something like that to someone.”

His 18-year-old son, also called Salvador Ramos, was shot dead by law enforcement officers on Tuesday after he barged into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and killed 19 children, all aged 8-10, and two teachers.

Before carrying out the massacre, Ramos shot his grandmother in the face because he had been arguing with her about the wifi bill. She is alive but her condition is reportedly serious.

Mr Ramos, who got emotional and broke into tears at times during the interview, said he was at work on Tuesday and found out about the shooting from his mother.

He said the realisation of his son’s death dawned upon him moments after he started making frantic calls to the local jail.

“They killed my baby man,” he said. “I’m never gonna see my son again, just like they’re not gonna see their kids. And that hurts me.”

He said he had no idea what was brewing inside his son and why he became so violent in the days leading up to the attack as he insisted that his son was “a good person” and “stuck to himself”.

Mr Ramos started to notice behaviour changes in his son recently but was unable to see him for a month as the junior Ramos refused to speak to him. Covid-19 and his work outside Uvalde also kept him from seeing his son recently, he said.