Photo: Getty Images
The gunman in the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting shared his plans on Facebook about half an hour before arriving at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday (May 24), Governor Greg Abbott said in a press conference on Wednesday (May 25).
"I'm going to shoot my grandmother," the gunman said, according to Abbott. A later message said, "I shot my grandmother" and "I'm going to shoot an elementary school." The governor described these messages as Facebook posts, according to CNN.
Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Facebook's parent company Meta, tweeted, "The messages Gov. Abbott described were private one-to-one text messages that were discovered after the terrible tragedy occurred. We are closely cooperating with law enforcement in their ongoing investigation."
According to TMZ, the shooter also allegedly DM'ed a random girl about his plans to "air out." The private messages were sent to a female minor in Los Angeles on May 12 and were apparently sent "out of the blue." The girl said she has no idea who he was or why he messaged her. The suspect first tagged her in a photo he posted of his guns, which appear to be semi-automatic rifles that resemble AR-15s, and then DM'ed her. "I got a lil secret. I wanna tell u 🤭," he said in the messages.
The shooter died Tuesday. He was "believed" to have been killed by responding officers. Twenty-one victims — including 19 children and two teachers — were killed as a result on Tuesday. The suspect's grandmother is "in critical condition at this point but she's still alive," CNN reported.
A Snapchat account associated with the shooter has also been suspended. "We are investigating an account that may have been associated with the suspect and we are in active contact with law enforcement authorities to support their investigation," the spokesperson said in a statement.