The gunman responsible for a deadly school shooting in Texas posted on social media minutes before the attack, the state government has said.
Greg Abbott said gunman Salvador Ramos promised to shoot his grandmother and “shoot up a school”
The shooting, which left 19 children and two adults dead, has reignited a long-running US debate on gun control.
Many have called for stricter gun-buying laws, while others are sceptical that they would stop mass shootings.
Thirty minutes before he began his attack, Ramos posted in a private message on Facebook that he planned to kill his grandmother.
A later post declared he had done so, and in a final one sent 15 minutes before the shooting, he announced he would target an elementary school.
No detail was given by investigators as to the motive of the attack.
According to CNN, the private messages were sent to a 15-year-old girl in Germany who Ramos had met online.
In a statement, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said the “private one-to-one text messages” were “discovered after the terrible tragedy occurred”. It added that it was “closely cooperating” with investigators.
Others, however, were shocked that Ramos, 18, was able to carry out an attack with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle.
“This kid was just 18. You have to be 21 to drink. How?” asked Sandra Parra, who lives down the street from the school. “I hope there are changes,” she said, referring to gun laws in Texas. “I don’t have a gun myself, but if I did, it would be for protection,” she added.
It is legal to buy a gun at 18 in Texas, and according to US media, the attacker bought his soon after his birthday.
Described as a loner from a “fraught home life”, the gunman shot his grandmother before fleeing the scene in a battered truck carrying firearms and copious ammunition. He then drove erratically across town and crashed his car into a ditch near Robb Elementary School.
An officer engaged with him, but failed to stop him from entering the school. He then proceeded to shoot 19 children and two teachers dead, before officers converged on the classroom and a border patrol officer who had responded while nearby killed him
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