US gunman allegedly wrote to a strange Instagram user: “I have a little secret”
A young woman opens Instagram – and realizes she is being drawn into a harrowing crime: before the Texas massacre, a person was apparently asked for help by the alleged perpetrator.
The 18-year-old, who allegedly murdered 19 children and two adults at a school in Uvalde, Texas, apparently wanted to use a complete stranger on Instagram as a mouthpiece. The girl went public on Tuesday after the crime with screenshots of the alleged exchange with the shooter herself. She herself was exposed to severe hostilities online. There is a lot to be said for the authenticity of the news, but the incident has not yet been confirmed by the authorities.
Shortly after the crime, the perpetrator’s alleged Instagram profile became public. He had posted a photo of himself with a gun magazine. However, his profile also featured a picture with two AR-15 rapid-fire rifles. It was this photo that connected the young woman to his crime. In the post he had linked her Instagram profile.
“He’s a Stranger”
How so? She wrote that she didn’t know. “He’s a stranger who decided to tag me.” According to research by the US portal “Daily Dot”, she is a minor. In an Instagram story, she gave insights into what contact she had with the 18-year-old. “You repost my weapon pictures,” he wrote to her on May 12. There was no question mark, but it was probably intended as a question. She reacted with astonishment: “What do your weapons have to do with me?” She replied in the chat.
Now 21 people are dead, including 19 children at the primary school in the small town of Uvalde. It is the worst shooting at a US school since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newton, Connecticut on December 14, 2012.
Chat log allegedly shows communication shortly before the crime
The chat she published with the perpetrator reveals little about his plans. According to the screenshots, however, he clearly indicated that he was planning something. “I’m about to,” he wrote on the morning of the fact. From what? she asked and wished him good morning. His answer: “I have a little secret.” He would tell her before eleven and she would have to answer then. She didn’t promise that: “I’m sick, I might sleep again, but when I’m awake.” She didn’t respond to his next short message until 1 p.m. There was no further answer from him.
Now the young woman publicly asks in her posting whether she should have done more. “I wish I had at least tried to stop him from committing his crime.”
He had previously written to her that he didn’t know why he chose her. “But you can be thankful”. In his logic, the woman should obviously be lucky to get direct information from a multiple child killer. According to initial findings, he himself was killed by police officers. The profile has disappeared from the platform, it had fewer than 600 subscribers before the act, hers has around 8,000.
“I don’t know him, I don’t even live in Texas”
She had been anything but grateful at the first messages from him: “It’s scary for me,” she had replied. In the meantime, she explained to the public: That was the only reason why she wrote to him.
In comments to her photos, she was insulted and threatened as an alleged accomplice. She was the perpetrator’s girlfriend, it was speculated, and was also at the school.
She answered clearly. “I don’t know him, I don’t even live in Texas.” But at least she used the sudden attention for a presumably good thing: in her profile she linked a call for donations. A family in Sun Valley, California is asking for help with the cost of their son’s funeral. He was a year older than the gunman when he died in a clinic on May 7, according to the obituary.
