Mother of Uvalde Shooter Caught in Screaming Match With Family of Victim Amerie Jo Garza

Adriana Martínez Reyes, the mother of Robb Elementary shooter Salvador Ramos, found herself in the midst of a confrontation with the family of Amerie Jo Garza, one of the 19 children murdered on May 24, according to Telemundo.

The Uvalde, Texas, locals were caught on camera by a crew from Telemundo, where Martínez can initially be seen walking down a road in the small Texas town with what appears to be a pair of grocery bags. Moments later, a truck pulls up to the side of the road and Garza’s family gets out to confront Martínez face-to-face.

As reported by the New York Post, the family starts hurling insults at Martínez, who, at first, seems to be trying to avoid conflict. Telemundo anchor Edgar Muñoz walks with Martínez for a while, before the video cuts to Martínez calling 911 as she responds to the Garza family’s accusations that she bears some responsibility for her son’s actions.

Martínez says, “You have no right to judge my son! No you don’t! No you don’t. May God forgive y’all,” before trying to, once again, distance herself from the Garza family. “You’re the last person to judge me,” she added.

Garza’s grandmother, Dana Mendiola, maintained that Martínez was responsible for her son’s actions. “She’s not innocent. She raised him like that. She knew how he was. She knew he had guns. She’s not innocent,” she said.

At this point in the video, Garza’s family begins interrogating Martínez on why she didn’t call 911 or take any kind of preventative measures to stop her son from carrying out the shooting. Martínez maintains, as she has since the shooting took place on May 24, that she was unaware of what her son was planning to do.

Finally, after a string of insults and accusations from the Garza family, Martínez breaks down and says, “I know my son was a coward! You don’t think I don’t know that? I know! You don’t think I’m carrying all that with me? You don’t think I don’t know. I know.” Soon after, Martínez was escorted away from the scene by local law enforcement.

A comprehensive thread on Twitter has tracked Salvador’s relationship with his mother through childhood to his 18th birthday, the day he bought the guns he would later use to kill 19 students and 2 teachers at Robb Elementary.

This isn’t the first time Martínez has gestured towards defending her son. Just three days after the shooting, Martínez spoke to Televisa, saying, “I have no words, I have no words to say because I don’t know what he was thinking,” before adding, “He had his reasons for doing what he did and please don’t judge him.”

Martínez, in the same interview, insisted that her son had never hurt anybody in the past, despite reports that Ramos had regularly been throwing dead cats on his grandparents’ property, where he had been living for three months before the shooting.

His father, Salvador Ramos Sr., shared much of the same sentiments, saying, “I never expected my son to do something like that,” and, “He should’ve just killed me, you know, instead of doing something like that to someone.” Apparently, the 18-year-old gunman had earned the nickname “school shooter” at his high school before dropping out in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.