Family of school shooter Salvador Ramos have criminal records
The family of the Texas school shooter Salvador Ramos has a history of criminal offences including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and writing a bad cheque.
The parents and grandma of the Texas school shooter Salvador Ramos had criminal records, including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and trying to pass off a fake cheque.
Ramos, 18, slaughtered 19 elementary school students and two teachers when he burst into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on May 24 in America’s deadliest school shooting since 2012, the New York Post reports.
His parents, Adriana Martinez and Salvador Ramos Sr., had their own brushes with the law more than a decade ago, according to Uvalde County Court records obtained by the Post.
His grandma Celia “Sally” Martinez Gonzales – who he shot in the face before carrying out the school shooting – was slapped with a misdemeanour in 1993, county records say.
Ten years later, his mother Martinez was charged with writing a bad cheque for $22.62 ($A31.50) to a general store in Uvalde on June 30, 2003, just around the time Ramos was born.
Records show she was struggling financially at the time, only taking in $500 ($A697) a month from her job at Golden Dragon restaurant in Uvalde.
She was also receiving $223 ($A310) in public assistance and $269 ($A375) in food stamps.
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Martinez was living in an apartment that housed six people when she committed fraud, records show.
She reported being single on the government documents, implying she likely had broken up with Ramos Sr. by then.
Martinez pleaded guilty to the charge on September 27, 2005 and had to pay a fine of $250 ($A348), court costs of $218 ($A303) and was sentenced to 180 days in jail.
However, since she pleaded guilty she was instead placed on probation with a required 25 hours of community service.
Two years later, an assault charge was filed against her, alleging Martinez caused bodily harm to a family member.
The charge seemed to be dismissed on September 26, 2007, and records show Martinez had to enrol in anger management counselling.
She also had to pay $1928 ($A2683) to the County Attorney’s Office and other court fees.
Salvador Ramos Sr. had a brief run in with the law in 2000, when he was charged with resisting arrest.
Ramos Sr. apparently struggled with officer Daniel Rodriguez and made a run for it. It’s unclear from court records how the struggle began.
He pleaded no contest, was sentenced to 180 days in county jail and had to apologise in writing to Uvalde PD.
Eleven years later, Ramos Sr. was slapped with a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for an April 9, 2011 incident.
According to the July 2, 2012 indictment, Ramos Sr. struck a man named Enrique Jesus Perez with a beer bottle. Ramos was ordered to stay away from the victim and had to submit to drug and alcohol testing.
He pleaded no contest to the charge, which was subsequently dropped to a class A misdemeanour.
He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, but the judge agreed that Ramos could do his time on weekends. He also had to undergo a substance abuse treatment program.
Gonzales, the grandma, was charged with an unspecified misdemeanour after a June 9, 1993 arrest.
She was convicted and sentenced to a maximum of two years of probation, and had to pay a court fine of $500 ($A696) and court fees of $157 ($A218). It’s unclear from court records what Gonzales did.
The Post was unable to reach the two parents and their family members on Tuesday.
Gonzales may never be able to talk again after being shot in the face by her grandson, a relative told the Post on Sunday, saying the bullet went into her jaw, and shattered all her teeth. Her husband previously said she was awake but in pain.
Both Ramos Sr. and Martinez have apologised for their son’s actions. The father said in an interview that Ramos Jr. should have just killed him instead.
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“I have no words to say, I don’t know what he was thinking,” Martinez told the Spanish-language station Televisa. “I only want the innocent children who died to forgive me.
“Forgive me, forgive my son. I know he had his reasons.”
This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission
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