The Texas school shooter told a woman on Instagram ‘I got lil secret I wanna tell you’ hours before murdering two teachers and 19 children aged seven to 11.
Salvador Ramos, 18, tagged the girl in a photo of two automatic rifles, believed to be the same weapons he used at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a small town near the Mexican border.
‘Be grateful I tagged you,’ he wrote. She replied: ‘No it’s just scary.’
Not long after, Ramos used one of the AR-15-style rifles to unleash the worst school shooting in the US for nearly a decade.
The carnage began when Ramos, shot his own grandmother, who survived, before fleeing and crashing his car near the primary school.
He entered the school at 11.30am local time, carrying a rifle and wearing an all-black outfit and body armour. Ramos then launched a bloody rampage, opening fire on classrooms filled with children.
One of them was fourth-grade teacher Eva Mireles, who was the first named victim.
![HOLD FOR CONFIRMATION / EDITOR APPROVAL *** The Uvalde, Texas / Robb Elementary School shooter (Salvador Ramos) tagged @epnupues on Instagram in photos of his gun -- She then shared their DMs on her IG stories to explain their connection -- https://www.instagram.com/epnupues/](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SEI_106139033-e1653476785961.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=503%2C335)
![HOLD FOR CONFIRMATION / EDITOR APPROVAL *** The Uvalde, Texas / Robb Elementary School shooter (Salvador Ramos) tagged @epnupues on Instagram in photos of his gun -- She then shared their DMs on her IG stories to explain their connection -- https://www.instagram.com/epnupues/](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SEI_106139030-e1653476660362.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=540%2C318)
![HOLD FOR CONFIRMATION / EDITOR APPROVAL *** The Uvalde, Texas / Robb Elementary School shooter (Salvador Ramos) tagged @epnupues on Instagram in photos of his gun -- She then shared their DMs on her IG stories to explain their connection -- https://www.instagram.com/epnupues/](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SEI_106139027-e1653476307984.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=540%2C483)
![PICTURED: Eva Mireles has been identified as the teacher who was killed in the #Uvalde Texas school shooting this afternoon. She was a 4th Grade Teacher at Robb Elementary. Re: 10850557 - NEWS - Texas gunman, 18, shoots dead 14 elementary schoolkids, one teacher, and seriously injures 13 after barricading himself inside building during shoot-out with border patrol: Shooter also shot his grandmother before cops killed him](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SEI_106169471-1-e1653461685810.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=540%2C497)
![PICTURED: Uziyah Garcia - victim of Uvalde Texas Robb Elementary School shooting May 24 2022 / PICTURED: Fourth grade teacher killed and girl, 10, who is missing and feared dead following massacre at Texas elementary school that killed 18 students and three adults Annabelle Guadalupe Rodriguez's father said the 10-year-old is missing after the Robb Elementary School shooting The father told Fox News that he had provided her photo to the Texas Rangers for identification Eva Mireles, 44, a special education fourth grade teacher was also killed in the massacre Eighteen students and one teacher have been shot and killed](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SEI_106191937-e1653460858999.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=540%2C540)
![PICTURED: XAVIER LOPEZ, victim of Uvalde Texas Robb Elementary School shooting May 24 2022 / PICTURED: Fourth grade teacher killed and girl, 10, who is missing and feared dead following massacre at Texas elementary school that killed 18 students and three adults Annabelle Guadalupe Rodriguez's father said the 10-year-old is missing after the Robb Elementary School shooting The father told Fox News that he had provided her photo to the Texas Rangers for identification Eva Mireles, 44, a special education fourth grade teacher was also killed in the massacre Eighteen students and one teacher have been shot and killed](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SEI_106191545-e1653463323978.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=540%2C410)
![PICTURED: Makenna Elrod - victim of Uvalde Texas Robb Elementary School shooting May 24 2022 TEXT:Pilar Newberry/facebook Sweet Makenna Rest in Paradise!! My heart is shattered as my daughter Chloe loved her so much!! They were tumbling buddies I?ll never forget how excited she was to meet a new friend from a different school! Just a few weeks ago she got a friendship bracelet from her at the ballpark and she wears it everyday! When she wakes up tomorrow she?s going to be devastated Praying so hard for her sweet family!](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SEI_106192888.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=540%2C760)
![PICTURED: Nevaeh Bravo - MISSING in the aftermath of the shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde Texas that killed 18 children and three adults on May 24 2022](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SEI_106191572-e1653463125822.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=540%2C494)
![PICTURED:Eliahana Torres - KILLED in the aftermath of the shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde Texas that killed 18 children and three adults on May 24 2022 / Eliahana Torres aka Elijah Cruz Torres](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/SEI_106191612-e1653463107459.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=540%2C432)
An elite Border Patrol agent was nearby when the shooting began and rushed into the school without waiting for backup and shot Ramos dead as he hid behind a barricade.
He was injured but is expected to recover.
Children slowly began emerging from the school under police escort an hour after the shooting, as family members rushed to scene desperate for news.
The vast majority of Robb Elementary’s pupils are Hispanic and had just two days of school left before the summer holiday.
Little is currently known about Ramos and what motivated him to slaughter innocent children, but his Instagram account has given some clues.
He posted photos of guns, which he bought legally on his 18th birthday, according to state senator Roland Gutierrez.
‘It was the first thing he did when he turned 18,’ senator Gutierrez said.
In the early hours of Tuesday, Ramos messaged a woman he knew ‘I’m about to’.
She asked ‘about to what’ to which he answered: ‘I’ll tell you before 11.’
He said he would message her soon but he never told her his secret.
The Uvalde massacre was the deadliest primary school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012, when 20 children and six staff were killed in Connecticut.