A woman who has been claiming to be the ex-girlfriend of the school shooter in Uvalde, Texas, faces federal charges after allegedly threatening to kill citizens, teachers and officials.
Police arrested Victoria Gabriela Rodriguez-Morales Wednesday in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico said in a news release. A grand jury indicted her on 13 counts of making interstate threats between May and Oct. 2023.
The Uvalde school shooting took place May 24, 2022, when Salvador Ramos, 18, opened fire at Robb Elementary School, according to NBC News. Law enforcement officials arrived at the scene within two minutes of him entering the school but waited over an hour to breach the classroom. He killed 19 children and two adults and injured many others, per NBC. Ramos was killed by an off-duty agent.
Rodriguez-Morales, 19, used Instagram, Facebook, Gmail, and Kick.com to threaten hospitals, law enforcement, and schools in Uvalde, the news release said. (RELATED: Uvalde Police Not Cooperating With Investigation Of Their Response To School Shooting)
A 19-year-old woman who claims to be the ex-girlfriend of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooter has been indicted on 13 federal counts after she allegedly made repeated threats against the community, the Justice Department says. https://t.co/gdcP0cxOAY
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 30, 2023
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office has no tolerance for illegal threats, especially threats that target people who are the victims of the horrific mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas,” U.S. Attorney Muldrow said in the press release. “We hope that this arrest brings a sense of peace to those who were targeted by the defendant.”
In her messages, she allegedly threatened more shootings would occur, “They will shoot uvalde high school and morales jr high whenever I tell ’em So yeah the persecution is gonna start today,” per the attorney’s office.
“Each and every single one of y’all will die in the name of Salvador,” she allegedly wrote in another threat, per the news release. She was referring to Salvador Ramos, the gunman.
Rodriguez-Morales allegedly threatened Kimberly Mata-Rubio, the mother of one of the victims in the shooting, who ran to become the mayor of Uvalde, according to the release. She further threatened the Uvalde Memorial Hospital in another message.
She used Instagram to threaten and taunt Peter Arrendondo, the former police commissioner of Uvalde, per Law and Crime. In a message, she claimed she told him the shooting was imminent, but he reportedly ignored her.
An affidavit reveals Rodriguez-Morales had been previously investigated for the same type of threats. In 2018, she sent emails threatening to shoot schools and kill students, teachers, and public officials, while being held in a juvenile detention center in Uvalde. She was released two years later and moved to Puerto Rico. She continued these threats over the course of three years.