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A 19-year-old woman who claims to be the ex-girlfriend of the Uvalde, Texas, school shooter was indicted on 13 federal counts after she allegedly made repeated threats against the community, the Justice Department said Thursday.
Federal prosecutors say Victoria Gabriela Rodríguez-Morales, who lives in Puerto Rico, used social media sites and email to threaten schools, law enforcement, hospitals and victims of the May 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary School, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico said in a news release.
Rodríguez-Morales referenced Uvalde shooter Salvador Ramos — who was fatally wounded by law enforcement officers after he gunned down 19 students and two teachers – in her threats and said they planned the shooting together.
“Me and Salvador wanted to do this together but he don’t wait for me to come,” she allegedly wrote in Instagram messages in June, according to a criminal complaint. “Anyways more kids will die and teens so don’t cry about this one cause there’s worse coming.”
U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow condemned the threats.
“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,” he said in a statement.
A grand jury indicted her Wednesday on charges of making 13 interstate threats, the U.S. attorney’s office said. The charges relate to threats made between May and October 2023.
“We hope that this arrest brings a sense of peace to those who were targeted by the defendant,” Muldrow said.
Authorities said that Rodríguez-Morales began making threats years before the school shooting. The criminal complaint stated that she was previously investigated in 2018 for making threats toward Uvalde citizens, officials and facilities. She faced juvenile delinquency proceedings in Texas, where she and her family lived, and was placed in the custody of a juvenile center.
Following her release in May 2020, she and her family relocated to Puerto Rico where the threats continued, the complaint stated.
In one alleged threat four months after her release, Rodríguez-Morales repeatedly called and sent threatening emails to Uvalde police, Uvalde High School and law enforcement, according to the complaint.
Many of the alleged threats after the shooting named Ramos and referenced her plans for further violence.
In a May 21 post on social media, she allegedly wrote: “I will haunt everyone from class 2022 to 2023 Each and every single one of y’all will die in the name of Salvador.” In that same post, she allegedly said the Robb Elementary victims “deserved those bullets.”
Another post that same day threatened a Texas hospital, the complaint stated.
“Your childrens hospital may blow in pieces If yall dont do as i say,” she wrote, according to the criminal complaint.
On June 5, she allegedly wrote that she and Ramos had planned the shooting and called the victims “little loser souls.”
In an Oct. 25 email, authorities said she referenced Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose daughter was killed.
“If Mata Rubio wins the elections I will kill her,” Rodríguez-Morales allegedly wrote. At the time, Mata-Rubio was running for mayor of Uvalde.
Joseph González, special agent in charge for the FBI’s San Juan Field Office, said Rodríguez-Morales tried to terrorize the community even though she was hundreds of miles away.
“School shootings are one of the most heinous of violent acts, and those impacted by this tragedy, such as the family, friends and co-workers of the victims of the Uvalde school shooting, deserve to grieve and process their experiences in peace,” he said in a statement.
Each of the 13 counts carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. It’s not clear if Rodríguez-Morales has obtained an attorney.
In August, the 17-year-old cousin of Ramos was arrested after he threatened to “do the same thing” at a local school, police said. The teen’s mother called San Antonio police and said her son was threatening to commit a school shooting, according to authorities.
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