- In texts, the Texas gunman said he had shot his grandmother and planned to "shoot up" a school.
- He also claimed he had received ammunition that he had ordered online.
- The texts were sent to a German teenager he had met on the internet.
The 18-year-old suspect who killed at least 21 people at a Texas elementary school told a teenage girl he befriended online that he shot his grandmother and ordered ammunition from the internet, according to text messages obtained by The New York Times.
"I just shot my grandma in her head," the shooting suspect said in a text message to the friend, a 15-year-old in Germany that he met on the social networking app Yubo, the Times reported. "Ima go shoot up a elementary school rn," he added.
The suspect then killed at least 19 young children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
A spokesperson for Yubo told Insider in an emailed statement that the company was "deeply saddened," and cooperating with law enforcement.
"We are deeply saddened by this unspeakable loss and are fully cooperating with law enforcement on their investigation," the spokesperson for Yubo said. "At this stage, we are not legally able to release any specific user information outside of direct requests from law enforcement, but can confirm that we are investigating an account that has since been banned from the platform."
The text messages were shared with law enforcement after the mass shooting. According to The Times, the recipient, identified only by her nickname, "Cece," only understood the gravity of the messages after seeing the shooting on the news, at which point she asked a friend to contact US authorities.
The shooting suspect also told her that he had purchased an AR-15 on his birthday and had more recently bought ammunition that would expand on impact, purchased online and delivered the night before the shooting spree.