The mother of the gunman who opened fire at an elementary school in Texas is speaking out, saying he “had his reasons.”
“I have no words. I have no words to say. I don’t know what he was thinking,” Adriana Reyes told CNN affiliate Televisa.
She added, “He had his reasons for doing what he did and please don’t judge him. I only want the innocent children who died to forgive me.”
When asked what her message was to the families of the victims, she replied, “Forgive me. Forgive my son. I know he had his reasons.”
According to Adriana Reyes, her son’s reasons were “to get closer to those children instead of paying attention to the other bad things, I have no words. I don’t know.”
Watch her comments below:
https://twitter.com/kwtx/status/1530148742237769728
Her son, Salvador Ramos, shot and killed 19 students and two adults at the school.
The Washington Post reported the shooter “was a lonely 18-year-old who was bullied over a childhood speech impediment, suffered from a fraught home life and lashed out violently against peers and strangers recently and over the years, friends and relatives said.”
In the days following his May 16 birthday, he legally bought the weapons and ammunition he used during the shooting, as the Post reported.
After shooting and critically wounding his 66-year-old grandmother, he proceeded to Robb Elementary School located near his home.
Nadia Reyes, a high school classmate who is not related to the family, commented on Instagram videos posted by Salvador Ramos where “the cops were there and he’d call his mom a b—- and say she wanted to kick him out,” per the Post.
She added, “He’d be screaming and talking to his mom really aggressively.”
Additionally, Nadia Reyes recalled the times the shooter had fistfights with classmates.
“I don’t think he was necessarily bullied. He would take things too far, say something that shouldn’t be said, and then he would go into defense mode about it,” she explained.
NBC News noted the investigation into the shooting is ongoing and there are questions surrounding law enforcement’s response to the tragedy.
Salvador Ramos was killed at the scene of the shooting.