The grandmother of Uvalde school shooter Salvador Ramos was an employee at the school, according to a friend of the family.
Speaking to the New York Post, the source — who wished to remain unnamed — said that the grandmother, 66-year-old Cecilia “Sally” Martinez Gonzales, had been a teacher’s aide at the school, a fact confirmed by public records of employees in the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District. Though the type and duration of her employment is unclear, she was on the school’s payroll at the time of the incident.
The source also claimed that Gonzales was known to both adult victims, teachers Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles, who had taught at the school for several years, as well as many students who were killed. “She knows a lot of the kids who died and was close to them,” the source said.
The admission establishes, for the first time, a direct link between Ramos and Robb Elementary School, where he killed 19 children and two teachers while engaged in an 80-minute standoff with police on May 24. According to a timeline of events announced by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Ramos had shot his grandmother at their home in Uvalde before proceeding to the school.
It comes as investigators search for a motive behind the shooting. Ramos’s grandfather, Rolando Reyes, had previously claimed that Gonzales and Ramos were arguing over her refusal to pay Ramos’ phone bill before the shooting happened. Ramos had been living at his grandparents’ home for between two and three months prior to the shooting.
Gonzales, the key witness who police have been looking to interview, is presently recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, which mutilated part of her face, at University Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. Contrary to earlier reports that Ramos killed her, she is alive and in stable condition.