The cousin of the Uvalde school shooter has been arrested after ‘threatening to do the same thing,’ say police officers.
Nathan James Cruz, 17, was reportedly arrested after his mother reported he was attempting to buy a gun. He was taken into custody on Monday morning and charged with making threats to a public place and a family member.
The New York Times reports Cruz’s mother contacted the authorities after learning her son had made statements that worried her. This allegedly included claims he would “shoot the school,” and that “school is starting soon,” says an affadavit filed with the arrest warrant.
Detectives later determined that the threats were serious enough to merit an arrest. The affadavit says Cruz’s mother contacted police after her daughter claimed he was going to “do the same thing” as his cousin Salvador Ramos.
Ramos, an 18-year-old Uvalde resident, fatally shot 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School with an AR-15-style weapon in 2022.
Sgt. Washington Moscoso of the San Antonio Police Department, said: “She called the police because she was concerned of what her son was going to do.
“God knows what could have happened,” he added. “Because she did the right thing, this individual has been arrested.”
Moscoso said investigators were able to confirm that Cruz is the cousin of Ramos, who was killed by law enforcement agents at Robb Elementary in the wake of the attack. According to the arrest warrant, Cruz’s mother told police she was concerned about the threats because he was “intoxicated” and they “live near an elementary school”.
The document also revealed the mother allegedly “overheard a phone conversation the suspect made this morning in which the suspect attempted to acquire an AR-15 through an illegal private sale”.
Police also say Cruz reportedly threatened his sister. However, when confronted with the arrest warrant, he denied making any threats.
Meanwhile investigations into the Uvalde shooting are ongoing, with inquiries focusing around the 73-minute delay before officers confronted and killed Ramos at the school.
