Deranged Texas mass shooter Salvador Ramos may have hinted at his plan to gun down schoolchildren in a verbal rant after losing a violent video game, a report said.
Threats from a male player that he would “shoot up a school” using an AR-15 disturbed one fellow gamer so much that she reported it to the FBI, the US Sun reported Wednesday.
The threats reportedly came after the player lost the video game Dead by Daylight just hours before the carnage at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday, the Sun reported.
Another source told the Sun that Ramos threatened to shoot up schools when playing Call of Duty.
The worried Dead by Daylight gamer, who was not identified by the Sun, wrote on Reddit: “So I have no idea if they were joking or what but they were super angry about losing and started saying they were going to shoot up a school and they mentioned they had some type of gun and kept saying it was going to be all of our fault.”
She added that she recorded the entire postchat and everyone kind of brushed if off, “but I just am in disbelief because I’ve never seen someone say that before.”
Dead by Daylight is a multiplayer survival horror and action game, according to its website.
The gamer said she reported him to the game’s creators and also the FBI, according to the Sun.
“However I’m a little stressed because when I went back to watch exactly what they said the person said ‘What if I shoot up a school tomorrow :)” she said on Reddit, the Sun reported.
When she was asked if the gamer behind the threats might’ve been Ramos, she replied, “The gun he mentioned was an AR15 with I think an extended clip or something but I don’t know. I feel horrible for those children and families.”
Ramos shot and killed 21 people, including 19 young students, Tuesday in one of America’s most horrific shootings.
“It’s most likely a horrible coincidence but still, I just don’t understand why someone would even say that,” the gamer wrote.
It’s not known if Ramos and the gamer who made the sick threat are the same person.
When the Sun contacted the FBI to ask if the agency received the report and were investigating, federal authorities said, “The FBI continues to support victims, family members, our local, state and federal law enforcement partners and the community of Uvalde after this horrific crime.”
“We are bringing all the resources of the FBI to this community and will continue to do so to help the citizens of Uvalde heal from this tragedy.”
Behaviour Interactive, a Canadian-based company that owns Dead by Daylight, said all reports filed by players are acted on in a “timely manner” and that it couldn’t “share specific details publicly.”
The company told the Sun that creating a “safe space” is a “core value” for the game. There is a team dedicated to offering players support and monitoring activities communicated to them, the company added.
“In the case of potential real-life threats, we have strict reporting processes involving cybercrime units to ensure that they act situation is addressed by competent authorities,” Behaviour Interactive stated, according to the Sun.
The Sun also reported that a female Instagram friend of Ramos told the outlet, “I do know someone that used to play Call of Duty with him online and he would talk about school shootings all the time but everyone on the game always thought he was joking.”
Call of Duty is a popular shooting game.
She said Ramos made contact with her in April and weirdly requested a voice message from her, according to the Sun. She turned him down, but he kept pressuring her, according to screenshots shared with the Sun.
The Instagram user said she had no idea he was capable of a massacre, according to the Sun.
“I mean he was pretty insistent on hearing my voice but at the time I just thought it was annoying,” she reportedly said.
