Texas gunman 'texted teenage girl' about plans minutes before mass shooting

'Don't forget the kids, do something about it I beg you', ITV News Reporter Robert Moore reports on the latest from Texas

The gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers in Texas reportedly texted a teenage girl he met online about his plans to “shoot up” a school.

Salvador Ramos, whose grandma is among the 17 he also injured in a mass shooting on Tuesday, sent the first of three online messages warning about his plans around half an hour before the attack.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Ramos wrote that he was going to shoot his grandmother, then that he had shot her.

In the last note, sent around 15 minutes before he reached Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde, he said he was going to shoot up a school, Mr Abbott added.

Ramos sent the private, one-to-one text messages via Facebook, said company spokesman Andy Stone.

According to CNN, Ramos had been messaging a teenage girl in Frankfurt, Germany, who he had started talking to on May 9.

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He had been complaining about his grandmother being “on the phone with AT&T [about] my phone", the reports adds.

"It's annoying," he texted. Six minutes later, he texted: "I just shot my grandma in her head."

Seconds later, he said "Ima go shoot up [an] elementary school rn (right now)."

She said Ramos told her on Monday that he received a package of ammunition and told her that the bullets would expand when they struck somebody.

He told her it was a surprise and to "just wait for it."

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On Tuesday, at 11.01am, Ramos called and told her he loved her, she said. Then, about 20 minutes later, he texted her that he had shot his grandmother.

Neighbour Gilbert Gallegos, 82, who lives across the street from Ramos’ house and has known the family for decades, said he was in his garden when he heard the shots.

Ramos ran out the front door and across the small garden to the truck parked in front of the house. He seemed panicked, Gallegos said, and had trouble getting the truck out of park.

Then he raced away: “He spun out, I mean fast,” spraying gravel in the air.

His grandmother emerged covered in blood: “She says, ‘Berto, this is what he did. He shot me.’” She was taken to hospital.

Mr Gallegos, whose wife called 911, said he had heard no arguments before or after the shots, and knew of no history of bullying or abuse of Ramos, who he rarely saw.

Investigators also shed no light on Ramos' motive for the attack.

Mr Abbott said Ramos, a resident of the small town about 85 miles (135 kilometres) west of San Antonio, had no known criminal or mental health history.

“We don’t see a motive or catalyst right now,” said Steve McCraw, director of the Department of Public Safety.

Ramos legally bought the rifle and a second one like it last week, just after his birthday, authorities said.

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