Los Angeles (USA).– A cousin of the author of the Uvalde massacre that left 21 dead in 2022 was arrested this Monday for threatening to shoot at a school in San Antonio (Texas), local media reported.
Nathan Cruz, 17, was arrested after allegedly saying he planned to “do the same thing” as his cousin, Salvador Ramos, according to the KSAT channel.
Ramos shot and killed 19 children and 2 teachers on May 24, 2022 at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Cruz was investigated after San Antonio Police responded to a call from a relative seeking mental health help for the minor.
The relative told police that they live across the street from an elementary school and that Cruz had indicated that “school will start soon,” according to court documents cited by the television station.
In addition to the threat against the school, Cruz reportedly tried to buy an AR-15 type rifle and also threatened a family member, the indictment states.
The juvenile was arrested for making a terroristic threat to the public, considered a felony, and was booked into the Bexar County Jail.
The Uvalde massacre sparked a series of protests over the authorities’ lack of reaction to arrest Ramos, an 18-year-old who had legally purchased two assault rifles a few days before the shooting.
An AR-15, the most popular in the country, was the one Ramos used after entering through an unlocked back door and barricading himself for 77 minutes in two classrooms at Robb Elementary.
The Uvalde shooting is the second deadliest at a school in the last decade, after the 2012 shooting at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 26 people lost their lives.
Uvalde is located 135 kilometers west of San Antonio.
