Texas rep: Uvalde gunman allegedly arrested 4 years ago for threatening to shoot up school
Rep. Tony Gonzales told KSAT on Friday, May 27, the Uvalde gunman was allegedly arrested four years ago for threatening to shoot up a school. Gonzales, who said he heard the information Thursday night, told WOAI that the gunman said, “When I’m a senior in 2022, I’m going to shoot up a school.” He did not share a source for the information.
The new information has not been confirmed by authorities, and Gonzales has since tweeted that, “There are multiple agencies on the ground and I am getting updated information by the minute. We will continue to revise as we learn more.” Earlier this week, MySA asked the Texas Department of Public Safety and Uvalde Police Department about the possible connection to a 2018 incident, but a response was not received before this article’s publication.
In May 2018, two unidentified teenagers from Uvalde were arrested after authorities discovered their plan to commit a mass shooting at a junior high school in Uvalde that was originally planned to carry out on April 20, 2022, according to a report from MySA.com.
The teens were inspired by the Columbine, Colorado shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and often referred to each other using those names. Harris and Klebold killed 13 people and wounded 24 others in a mass murder at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.
Although originally planned for 2022, one of the suspects persuaded the other to commit the shooting in 2018 at Morales Junior High, which is in the same district as Robb Elementary School.
The teens allegedly created a list prioritizing which students they would kill and planned to steal their neighbors’ weapons. They planned to detonate explosive devices at the beginning of the attack, hunt down and kill the students on their list, and then indiscriminately kill as many students as they could before committing suicide.
A student at Morales Junior High learned of the plan and reported it to school officials, who then notified law enforcement authorities.
If the student arrested in 2018 was the gunman that attacked Uvalde, as Gonzales claims, it’s unclear why the previous arrest did not stop him from buying the weapons he used to kill 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday, May 24.
Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales tweeted about a 2018 school shooting plot in Uvalde, Texas, which has been alleged to have connections to the shooting on May 24, 2022.
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