Uvalde is a small South Texas town of about 16,000 people located about 60 miles from the border. The population is mostly Hispanic and poor (around 90 percent of the students at Robb Elementary are Hispanic and the school reports that right at 81 percent are "economically disadvantaged").

The shooter, Salvador Rolando Ramos, was an 18-year-old student at nearby Uvalde High School. He was born in North Dakota. It is not known how long he lived in Uvalde, but he had worked at a local Wendy's fast food restaurant for a year before quitting his job a month before the shooting. Consistent reports show that Ramos was bullied as a result of a strong lisp and stutter as well as wearing eye liner. He had just turned 18 on May 16 and celebrated his birthday by purchasing two semi-automatic rifles on May 17 and May 20 and purchasing 375 rounds of ammunition on May 18.

It is apparent that Ramos — a troubled young man who often got into fights at school and had missed so much school that he was not on track to graduate with his classmates — planned the attack and purchased the guns and ammunition as part of that plan.