According to his deeply religious mother, Salvador Ramos — who, in May 2022, walked into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and murdered 19 children and two teachers in a shooting rampage that shocked the nation — is “in Heaven.”
There is no need to apologize to the families of the slaughtered victims, Adriana Reyes told DailyMail.com, because it wouldn’t do any good.
“What will it accomplish?” she asked. “It’s not going to bring back their kids and it won’t change their minds on what they think of me or my son.”
The still-grieving mother was speaking to the outlet while visiting her son’s grave at a cemetery outside San Antonio, some 75 miles from the scene of his unthinkable crime — including shooting his 66-year-old grandmother before heading to the school.
(Video: DailyMail.com)
Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a report blasted the police response to the shooting. The 18-year-old Ramos was able to kill so many, the DOJ said, due to “cascading failures of leadership, decision-making, tactics, policy and training.”
“My son’s spirit is in Heaven,” Reyes said from her son’s graveside. “I also feel his spirit is with me as well.”
“I believe God has forgiven him for what he did,” she said. “The only people who are in Hell are the ones who betray Jesus.”
Ramos came to his sister Marisabelle in a dream three days after the shooting, Reyes shared, and expressed remorse.
“A younger version of Salvador appeared in her dream, and he was crying to her, telling her he was sorry for what he had done,” the mother said.
It’s a heartbreaking sentiment from Reyes, who, just months after the tragic day, told the family of one of her son’s victims that Salvador was a “coward.”
As BizPac Review reported, Reyes ran into the devasted family in a Uvalde parking lot, and the heated exchange was caught on video and quickly went viral.
“I know my son was a coward. You don’t think I don’t know that?” a crying Reyes shouted. “I know. You don’t think I’m carrying all that with me? You don’t think I don’t know? I know. And I’m sorry.”
The victims’ families have “no right to judge my son,” she said at the time. “May God forgive y’all.”
Uvalde shooter’s mom confronted by victim’s family: ‘My son was a coward… I’m sorry – no right to judge!’ https://t.co/rbD8LCylna pic.twitter.com/BlpqV4o0xh
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) July 21, 2022
This was Reyes’ first visit to her son’s grave since a granite headstone was erected last month, DailyMail.com reports.
She again acknowledged her son’s cowardice.
“I know what my son did was a cowardly move,” she said. “‘I lost my son, and I miss my son and I love my son a lot. I don’t know what went wrong or what he thought.”
“I won’t apologize to the community or to the families, there is no need to,” Reyes said. “I didn’t do anything to them.”
Speaking at her Uvalde home, Reyes said, “I don’t know what went wrong with my son, I never raised my son to use guns. I never talked about killing or guns to my son.”
“It’s not like he was abused or mistreated. Both of my children got everything they needed or wanted,” she said. “I have no idea why he would do something outrageous like that, I guess built up anger.”
Salvador, she believes, “got involved into something he had no control over – signing up to commit a mass shooting via the dark web.”
According to Reyes, the government “red-flagged” her because of the things her son looked up on the internet.
“The red flag disseminated my whole life to everyone,” she said.
After moving to Oklahoma for eight months following death threats in Uvalde, Reyes and her boyfriend moved back to the community. They currently live rent-free at one of her mother’s properties. Reyes says no one will hire her. The couple lives on her boyfriend’s $900 disability check and the $600 per month the couple receives in food stamps.
She keeps her son’s room as it was before that awful day.
“I’ve tried cleaning it up and putting things in boxes,” she explained, “but then every time I try to go through his stuff I make a bigger mess out of it.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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