The mother of the despicable Uvalde school shooter admitted her son was a loner who “kept to himself and didn’t have many friends,” but claimed he was not a violent person. She also denied she had a toxic relationship with him.

Mother of Texas elementary school shooter claims her son, 18, was NOT a violent person | Daily Mail Online #salvadorramos #uvalde #texaselementaryschoolshooting https://t.co/ZWmdPuRwWJ

— DeL2000 (@DeL2000) May 25, 2022

Salvador Rolando Ramos shot dead 19 children and two teachers Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas yesterday in a horrific spree that has roiled the nation. The shooter’s mother, Adriana Reyes, spoke with DailyMail Wednesday from San Antonio, Texas, but declined to discuss rumors that she’s a drug addict. She was sitting at the bedside of her recovering mother, who was shot in the face by the murderer minutes before he proceeded to the school. Reyes said she was “surprised” that her son would do such a thing:

My son wasn’t a violent person. I’m surprised by what he did. I pray for those families. I’m praying for all of those innocent children, yes I am. They (the children) had no part in this.

She also claimed she had a “good relationship” with her son, and last saw him Monday.

Her accounts are in stark contrast to a Washington Post report Wednesday that claimed Reyes did indeed use drugs; and that her son, the shooter, showed plenty of signs of troubling behavior:

The gunman in Tuesday’s elementary school massacre 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.

Ramos reportedly cut his own face, shot ppl at night with a bb gun, and was known to police over fights with his mom.https://t.co/MaTVn1Nvkj

— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) May 25, 2022

In the Post story, the shooter’s former friend Santos Valdez Jr., 18, described the weird behavior that ended their friendship: “Then he told me the truth, that he’d cut up his face with knives over and over and over,” Valdez said. “I was like, ‘You’re crazy, bro, why would you do that?’” Ramos said he did it for fun, Valdez recalled.

As to the claims that the shooter was non-violent, Valdez’s memory is different: He claims that Ramos would drive around and shoot at strangers with a BB gun. He was also fond of egging other people’s cars.

Other friends remembered that the shooter was routinely bullied in middle school over a speech impediment, and began to change his look–growing his hair out, and wearing all black clothes and eyeliner. By high school, he was missing for long stretches and was not on track to graduate on time. There were reports of violent incidents at home, and police were called more than once.

He started posting pictures of guns about a year ago, and minutes before beginning his rampage (after he’d already shot his grandmother) he sent out disturbing posts which have since been taken down.

There were other signs of disturbing behavior, and I’m sure even more examples will come out in the days ahead. The question is, why do we even discuss this animal, why do we even utter his name, why do we see his picture all over the internet? The truth is, I shudder every time I have to type his name, but it’s almost impossible to write a comprehensible story without it. But we do it because hopefully, we can learn something that can be used to prevent future such atrocities.

What did we learn here? Unfortunately, the same thing we’ve learned in many previous events: The signs were there. His mother’s version of her son and their relationship is simply not credible. The shooter showed clear signs of danger, as did the Parkland shooter. We have to find a way to stop these guys before they put their twisted plans into action.